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**Tchiowa**

Phoenix wrote:
In article , says...
qu'est-ce que c'est wrote:
[snip]

Overall, I've found the French helpful if you will just take the
trouble to learn a few hundred words of French and use them. OTOH, if
you think that they ought to speak English because that is the right
and proper language, you are likely to get what you deserve. (The
bare _attempt_ to stumble through a sentence in French was enough to
get me smiling help -- in English.)

That's true in any foreign country, as far as I've noticed. Learn to
string together a few sentences and people suddenly start to smile and
warmly help you out. I have no idea why France catches hell for it when
the same is true everywhere.

Because that's not what the French do. I have found (advised originally
by friends and it turned out to be true) that if you are in France and
speak to someone in any language other than French or English they will
happily switch to English (if they can) and help you. But if you
approach them in English you get treated like dirt.

If I use English in France I get nowhere. But if I use Portuguese they
switch to English and are very helpful.

It has to do with more than a little bit of jealousy because England
and the US are now more highly "ranked" in the world than France (while
the French think they are the most important country in the world) and
outright anger that English has become the international language
instead of French.