The French - is it personal?

And nobody has mentioned Brexit.

This thread sounds ridiculously anti-French.

What are ordinary people?
We have had many French holidays, some are friendly and some quite the opposite, but the OP was speaking more of a general ‘feeling’ deep in the national psyche I think, not of somebody being polite or friendly in a French hotel or shop.
At least I thinks so, but she will no doubt say if that was the question.

By ordinary people I mean the general population rather than the EU politicians. And I haven't met an unpleasant one yet. And I don't just mean on this holiday.

I am tentatively dipping my toe in this thread......we have been skiing in France for years and the people are friendly, help us with our French and ask for help with their English.

Parisians are unhelpful, Cannes and St.Tropez have the attitude “that they are better than us”........then they see what wine you have ordered and immediately salivate and want to become your best friend.

Spent some time in France this year, first time in long while.
We were joining my sister who had been over there for a couple of months.

I was a initially a bit concerned as my sister was travelling alone for the first time, (apart from 2 mad Springers)

She speaks a little French picked up on previous trips.

Well I need not have had any concerns, the locals had by the time we arrived adopted my sister!

We had a lovely holiday we were also welcomed by the locals, I can't remember Brexit being mentioned once.

The only friendly rivalry was with my DH, re who had the best Rugby team ?.

I enjoyed visiting the local shops (especially the patisserie) and markets, everyone was friendly and jovial.

We tried out our limited French and used a bit of sign language.
To our shame most of the locals spoke English.

So as far as our visit was concerned,
I can only speak as I found and say that we encountered No anti British feeling, quite the reverse.

We were not in a typical tourist spot where locals may have felt the need to be polite and welcoming.

People are people no matter where they live.
We all belong to the same planet.

Political Spin is not reality.
A photograph on-line or in a newspaper can portray any number meanings.
Tricks and mirrors.

Didn't notice any difference in Cannes or St.Tropez tbh, but we only did day trips there from Nice.

It's not personal. You can't blame them for being mind-boggled about our Brexit. We are too.

I can't say that we've ever had any different reception in foreign countries whether we say we're from Britain, England or Scotland. I do know that when living in Indonesia their Immigration department didn't know of Scotland so wherever you were from in the U.K., you were 'Ingriss'.

When my dd started school in Nigeria we said we were from Scotland. The response was 'Ah, Scotland! I know Of Scotland - it is place in Wales!'

Regarding the French, my dil2 is French. She finds Britain more congenial, friendlier, politer and less racist. In fact, she says she's never encountered any racism in the U.K. in more than fifteen years here, unlike in her native Paris. She only goes back to France to see her mum. Her brother moved to Canada, where he also enjoys life more.

I have English relations who live in France and French relatives who live in England. I seem to remember reading there were more French people living in London than in any French city apart from Paris. (I’m not sure if that’s still true but I know there are many.) I think that really shows us as a global, international country and I’m angry and ashamed that the little Englanders want to turn the clock back to 1950.

To our shame most of the locals spoke English.

Not quite sure anymore why we still put ourselves down about this.

It’s a universal language, spoken in many countries besides the U.K. - the RoI, Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand to name a few.

Imagine if you were European. Which one language would you choose to learn? Of course!! So expedient.

Much more difficult for us! Spanish? Italian? French? Dutch? A very tiny smattering of each when on holiday for most I expect.

Why do we feel so guilty about it all the time?

I don’t know why it should be considered “ more difficult for us” to learn French, German , Spanish etc. Other than being lazy, entitled, can’t be *rsed etc. My brother speaks at least 6 languages and has lived in 4 countries. It can be done folks, but just leave it to everyone else and shout a bit - why not.

That’s true Urmston. I speak fluent Dutch but it is not exactly useful.

My point crystaltipps is that most of us just go on a holiday. To different countries. Maybe for a 5 day city break, or a whole fortnight now and again.

The expectation to learn several languages for a limited stay and feel guilty is plain silly.

Your brother actually lived in 4 of the countries where he learned some of his languages. That’s a different ball game.

In my opinion.

Thank you for validating my point dragonfly
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Well if you believe learning a language is only “useful” for holidays then that’s a lazy attitude.

English is the universal language of the world and business.

I've been to nearly all the countries in Europe and mostly all speak English to some degree.

We wanted to carry out some work on a property we owned in Spain - speaking to the assistant at the suppliers I carefully explained, in Spanish, what we wanted. He replied in perfect English. I found that no matter how much I wanted to practice my Spanish, they wanted to practice their English even more!

I have found this to be the case in most countries we visited. The only time we had any difficulty was when we went to Corsica. Even when speaking in French many times I would be met with a shrug and a shake of the head. I spoke to a Swiss national who lived there and despite being fluent in French, as a foreigner she often received the same response.

Nail on head then crystaltipps
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Gosh, you are so virtuous. Are you so strident in real life?

I studied languages - French, German, Spanish and Russian. Lived and worked in Germany, and had jobs in export when we returned, so used everything but Russian professionally.

Even in that situation it was often difficult to have a conversation in anything but English, as that is, quite simply, what everyone wants to speak.

We have a huge natural advantage here. Yes, it’s courteous to have enough of the language of any country we’re visiting to get by (ime that’s a very short list). But there are plenty of other useful and interesting subjects to study and things to learn and we have the privilege of having more time to do it. Why on earth should we feel guilty?

A nice measured comment Maggiemaybe especially so as you are fluent in many languages too.
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crystaltipps you don’t say how many languages you speak.

I found even living in Holland everyone wanted to practice their English. I finally knew I had made it when I bought a suitcase entirely in Dutch in Amsterdam. It took 5 years!

Are you going to start giving us marks out of 10 for our comments, Ug?

dragonfly 'I found even living in Holland everyone wanted to practice their English.'

there is a simple solution to this- it takes a bit of determination but it works (the above is only used by anglo-saxons on both sides of the pond as a lazy excuse, I'm afraid- sorry).

You just learn on sentence to start with 'can you please help me, I really really want to learn Dutch and need your support' ...simple enough.

I had to do this constantly when I went to Berlin (where they considered me an English speaker and were not aware my MT is French). You have to persist and insist- it works and you get a lot of kudos and respect for it too.

So Jura you are saying that when I was in Spain and a local wanted to speak to me in English I should have refused to let them? That I would have considered rude and self indulgent.

Many of the people I met made their living in the tourist industry or dealing with ex-pats, they found being able to speak English was a great benefit for them in obtaining employment and doing their job. Yes they appreciated the effort I made to speak to them in Spanish but they almost always replied in English.

We did venture into parts of Spain where very little English was spoken but even then we found the locals wanted to practice their English.