Ok, then brittish that knows french being a twat vs entilted english. Better?
Westminster Politics
- Thread starter altodevil
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Ok, then brittish that knows french being a twat vs entilted english. Better?
Used to see them when I was kid. Selling onions is probably not an economical way of making a living these days. When you said about the British keeping the economy alive it was exactly what the woman said in the story.
Don't know what you're trying to say.
Bad drivers driving a vehicle they can't drive -- possibly because it's too big for them and with RHD on narrow roads.
For speaking french they could at least make an effort.
The British who make no effort are not liked by other British here who do make the effort.
Life is not that complicated mate. I always try to speak the language of my interlocutor wherever I am as deference to make lives easier. Because I don't know beforehand if that person is entitled or nothing about them. The "you speak and you do what I want in my country" sounds very UKIPY also.
Next time I'm in Tesco's the UK I'll talk to the cashier in French and if they don't understand I'll shout at them in French to see if they understand better.
Do what you want and be a twat at either side of the conversation if you want. I didn't defend the english I blamed both. You are the one defending one. Did you occur to you that in an interaction both can be wrong?
I'm not following your line of thought.
Are you talking about the Tweet where there's two English people talking to each other, one pretending to be French or the real situation I am talking about where the English person interacts with a French person who really doesn't speak English but the English person makes no effort to speak to the French person in French despite being in France.
If I went to the UK I would not expect the cashier in Tesco's to be able to speak French or any other language other than English.
Hope that makes it clearer.
When I was working, I used to go to Germany fairly often. And so I spent some time trying to learn a little German. Not the easiest language I have to say. And so while I was travelling I used to listen to those language tapes (showing my age again).
So when I next went to Munich, I prepared myself to try a few words in a restaurant.
So I said these few words and the waiter immediately spoke to me in pretty much perfect English and told me that he wanted to practice his English, not that he needed to practice.
This happened a few times.
After a few pathetic attempts, I just stuck to ordering beers in German.
I am talking about the tweet. be kind and you will never face this consequences. I had been lost in a small time in france without knowing french back in the day, I tried, I failed and I was treated with respect and funny faces. Not a problem
I had been spoken in languages in my country that I shouldn't know but I knew, english, french, portuguese. And I answered back in that language, people were appreciative of my effort and no problem
Expecting a person to speak your language not in your country and act up, is being and entitled twat
Knowing the language that they speak to you knowing that they don't know it and not answering in that language is being an uneducated twat
Or at least in my list of my personal values. You have others. No problem, everybody is different
You made the effort which is good. In large cities the chances are you will come across people in the hospitality sector and other business sectors who do speak English and possibly other languages. Nowadays it's probably a requirement for the job.
To expect a local person in a very small town to speak English is highly unlikely. There are definitely very few French people around here who can speak English.
Last year my daughter and her family went to Germany, renting Gites. She can't speak much German. In the large cities it was Ok to communicate but the owners of the Gites in the countryside could not speak English or French.
You do realise I wasn't the person in the Tweet. He was an English person pretending to be French.
Any effort is highly appreciated by local people. They can make each other understood somehow.
What I don't like is the aggressive attitude. I've seen it on numerous occasions. I'm agreeing with you but you seem to think I'm not.
I don't know mate, you were the one quoting me sort of disagreeing with my reassessment of "brittish guy that knows french being a twat vs english entitlement" and then you brought us to the rabbit whole of hypoteticals of you shouting at tesco
I must admit I do tend to take people down rabbit holes.
The Tweet was a fictitious story, probably.
Real life is people shouting at other people because they are unable to understand them speaking in their own language in a different country.
I must admit I do tend to take people down rabbit holes.
The Tweet was a fictitious story, probably.
Real life is people shouting at other people because they are unable to understand them speaking in their own language in a different country.
I don't think so. Most of the people makes sort of an effort, that is what I experienced extensively in both sides and if not they think both internally that they are twats and continue with their life. Happened to me also
I worked in retail in a tourist City (UK) for 5 years and this is exactly what happened. French, Spanish, Chinese etc.
I understand that sometimes it’s done in a patronising way (shouting), but to expect someone not from that country to say more than hello, goodbye etc, is a bit over the top.
I understand that sometimes it’s done in a patronising way (shouting), but to expect someone not from that country to say more than hello, goodbye etc, is a bit over the top.
Mate, he didn’t do any of that though.
He’s not anti immigration. He’s against the practise of bringing in people from overseas, paying them 20% less than market rate, depriving British people of jobs and surpressing wages for entire industries.
That’s not anti immigration. It’s common sense. Why should companies be able to control the labour market? These people are pro free market when it suits, when all they really want is closed monopoly.
I'm a fervent remainer and I speak (fairly) fluent French, although a little rusty now.
So, basically, go feck yourself with a baseball bat.
I can't believe you people argued so much over a clearly fake story someone told on Twitter.
Might be a lie but these people exist, both.
He’s absolutely making it up, that account is semi-famous for posting elaborate Remainer fantasies, disappearing for ages and then turning up again 6 months later with another one. He’s notorious for it. His stock photo profile is a giveaway, as is the fact he used to describe himself as the author of a book series that didn’t exist.
Weird thing to do, pandering to people who want to feel smugly superior to imaginary Brexiters (when there’s plenty of real ones they can do that if they so wish)
You don't say.
The sad thing is you can actually see that happening.
It's just an obvious parody account isn't it? Like Michael Take.
Maybe but it’s not unreasonable to expect English spoken in a tourist area. Take away the British focus and most other non-French Europeans would speak English as their second language rather than French. Anyway, it’s probably made up, almost in order to discredit “smug” remainers.
I dunno - somewhere with a high influx of tourists in the summer?
Everywhere then and the only French born person I know around here who speaks good English (she's fluent) is my wife.
Anecdotally, my (non-native English speaker) wife does not like going to France because of the lack of English outside the cities, although, in my experience, it has changed hugely in the last 20 years in that respect. Anyway, is it reasonable to expect tourists to speak French? Do French people learn Greek when they go to Greece?
Bloody remoaner
If they are in the tourist industry they'd probably speak English. Where we are and within a 200km radius there are few large towns, it's mainly an area of natural beauty, hundreds of medieval villages, lakes, hills and so on. Most people would have Spanish as a second language or occitane, the local patois dialect as we're closer to Spain. On the eastern side ,the Alps, where my wife originates, the second language would be more likely to be Italian. Those actually directly involved in the tourist industry would speak English. My wife spent 32 years in England which is why she is fluent.
I doubt very many French people speak Greek. Question is would they start shouting at the Greeks in French to try to make them understand.
Yes it’s reasonable. And also really damn easy. Learning bits and pieces of other languages is an awesome part of travel.
Super basic phrases like ‘Beer’, ‘Toilet’, ‘Right/Left’, ‘Bill’, ‘Please and thank you’ are learnable on the plane.
And yes, French people do learn Greek when in Greece.
It’s a gift and a curse to be English speaking. Far easier to get by, almost everywhere. But it makes us all quite precious and closeted.
The shouting at locals is a fair point…. anyway, it sounds like a nice spot where you live. Is it the Pyrenees?
With respect, I think that’s bollocks. French people are only marginally less useless at speaking foreign languages than Brits and would be just as bad were it not for the fact that English is now the global language. They might know “kalimera” but I doubt they can ask for directions and understand the reply (as per the seemingly troll tweet that started this discussion).
No, it's the Limousin between Brive and Limoges , about 180km west of Clermont-Ferrand and 200 km east of Bordeaux. Toulouse is about 240km due South
I’ve literally said ‘bits and pieces’ and then actually quoted some absolute basics. And also pointed out speaking English makes us all lazy.
Clouds exist, go shout at one.
Thank you for the cloud reference (nuage?)….The original tweet was not about asking for “une bière“ but for directions. As for lazy, yes and no. It is hard to practice foreign languages as an English speaker as people, wanting to be helpful and practice their English, tend to respond to you in English even when you speak the local lingo.
I had a bad experience when I was working as a waiter in Spain and they were expecting us to know french. I knew a bit so I could interact but I could hear them criticize the others openly. In a somewhat touristy spot in a definitely non touristy area
Being a twat is not exclusivity of one nationality. On the generalization nationality game, I don't think that french will come very well on the twatish department
As a generalisation I don't believe the French are very good at other languages and for sure there will be twats of all nationalities. It makes me cringe probably more when there's a British person being obnoxious because someone they are talking to agressively doesn't speak their language because being originally British I want to say, "that person is nothing to do with me!"
I went on a business trip to Greece some years ago (before satnav). I don't speak a word of Greek, hired a car at the airport and drove to the company I was visiting about 150km from Athens. To my horror the roadsigns were only in Greek with the Greek alphabet but somehow managed to find my way to the right area. I went to a petrol station and asked politely whether the man spoke English. He said he did (sigh of relief) and he directed me to where the company was located a few miles away. Had I gone storming in there and said, "Where is this Company?!" I doubt he would have been quite so helpful.
This is a real article?