How many languages do you speak fluently ?

[scragend]

My experience of this in French is that I usually get responses of "thanks, but please stop. You're ruining our language".

I'm sure speakers of other languages do this too, but the French do often seem to claim not to understand French spoken badly. I once asked a friend of mine, who is French, "Do the French really not understand bad French or do they just pretend not to?" The other people we were with reacted with horror - "You can't ask that!" I said I'm not being anti-French, I'm honestly interested to know.

I mean, if a French person walked up to you on the street in the UK and said something like "Excuse, I am wanting train to go", you would understand that they meant they were looking for the station. But in a similar situation the other way round you would likely be met with a blank look and a Gallic shrug.

Her response was "I've never really thought about it". That was the end of that, but then a year or two later she messaged me out of the blue with a screenshot of a book she'd been reading which was saying exactly the same thing - "the French do not like to hear their language spoken badly". She said "It seems you were right"!

 

[StuAff]

English. French I can get by OK, a little German (though I have a Teach Yourself course I've never actually gone through it), a few words of Czech and Polish, and one Cantonese obscenity.

 

[Drago]

English, obviously.

Not perfect but fairly decent conversational German.

Fluent Shetlandic, which is somewhere between a language and a dialect.

Halting French and a few phrases of Greek (Mrs D mk1 was a Bubble).

Im fortunate to have picked up languages along the way through having lived or worked in different places, but do greatly regret not trying harder with languages at school.

And just to confuse matters I can switch between a Northern Isles, fairly neutral English, or public school English accents at will, the choice of the moment depending upon who I am wanting to annoy, confound or embarrass.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm sure speakers of other languages do this too, but the French do often seem to claim not to understand French spoken badly. I once asked a friend of mine, who is French, "Do the French really not understand bad French or do they just pretend not to?" The other people we were with reacted with horror - "You can't ask that!" I said I'm not being anti-French, I'm honestly interested to know.

The only time anything at all like that has happened to me was in a restaurant in the Paris suburbs. The waitress literally ran away. She came back with le Patron who was obviously made of sterner stuff and could withstand me murdering his language.

But outside of that one possible incident in Paris, nothing remotely like it has happened to me. People have been very patient.

I think it may be a myth. Like the one about Welsh people switching from English to Welsh when you enter a shop.

 

[scragend]

The only time anything at all like that has happened to me was in a restaurant in the Paris suburbs. The waitress literally ran away. She came back with le Patron who was obviously made of sterner stuff and could withstand me murdering his language.

But outside of that one possible incident in Paris, nothing remotely like it has happened to me. People have been very patient.

I think it may be a myth. Like the one about Welsh people switching from English to Welsh when you enter a shop.

I remember being in a police station in Paris after my friend had his pockets picked and his camera and wallet stolen on the Métro. We were taken into a back room to give a statement and the police officer started with "Je ne parle anglais pas du tout"*, with the last three words spoken very deliberately and with a hint of satisfaction. When I replied with "Pas de problème, je parle français" she looked crestfallen.

The reality is probably somewhere in the middle (like most things).

I think what is true is that the French have more pride in their language than speakers of English, something which the book I referred to was saying. Take the Académie Française for example; English doesn't really have an equivalent. French is historically more of a top-down, prescriptive language whereas English is more bottom-up and driven by usage.

* I would have said grammatically it should be "je ne parle pas du tout anglais" but that's not what she said, and she was French so who am I to argue? Maybe it was just for the dramatic effect.

 

[cyberknight]

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