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I once accidentally spoke french to a waitress in Greece then apologised and said I wasn't actually french. She went on a ten minute diatribe about how french people are the bane of her life because they refuse to speak English with her and just get louder and louder in french 😂
As a Belgian, I noticed that people usually get warmer when they learn I'm not French.
Hopefully the cliche will change over time.
It's like the Canadians when they don't want people to think they're Americans. Some Americans even pretend they're Canadian for the same reason. I'm French and I knew about these for a long time but never thought of the parallel with France/Belgium. Damn I might start using this and just say I'm Belgian haha.
Ca marche aussi avec les Suisses, mais alors ils vont penser que tu es riche ha ha
Lol spanish and italians speak shit english.
So do the English.
American English is the only correct English.
The average swede speaks better english than the average american
Americans have worse English than the French.
It's not our fault that the Latin-Germanic barrier is so difficult to overcome
If at all. At least in Italy, outside of tourist areas or quite often even in tourist areas, you'd have to point and wave to talk or use a translation app. Even 20 somethings barely understood any english.
I lived in spain for 4 months in a tourist spot(out of season) and they couldnt understand our english. They had shops with signs like "we speak english" but they didnt. At least italian is easier to understand with english than spanish. And then theres the french who speak perfect english but refuse to.
Indeed. This meme is funny because quite disconnected from reality
Seems strange to have Italy and Spain here, the English proficiency is usually at the same levels than France.
It's not that they can't speak English, the cliché (at least in the past) is that they refuse to speak it. Spanish people are probably worse when it comes to English proficiency these days.
Can’t agree on Spanish people here. Even the younger ones refuses or just really suck at speaking English. I talked to elderly people in Portugal in English and was not a problem. The younger people in Portugal are at least at a basic level. I am learning Spanish at the moment and I would say both languages share a lot of words. So knowing English helps me a lot understanding Spanish words.
I live in Montreal, my experience is that French people speak great English while most Quebecers can't ask for the bathroom in English. Of course, the French people coming here are generally open minded compared to Jean-Guy from Brossard who not only shoots you a "yes-no-toaster" when you ask him if he speaks English but also thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever said.
My experience with the French is that they're happy to speak English if you say something like "Excusez-moi, perlez vous anglais?" but may pretent to not understand you if you just start in English.
Which is actually pretty fair when I think about it.
Very true. English speakers are sometimes taken aback, but it's usually a way to show respect to the local language, and acknowledge that you are asking them a favor to speak a second language.