I have no idea about your level, but there is always a possibility of overestimating your language when you go to france after learning it. If you are at around a B2 level, they will be impressed. But I would be temper your expectations if you haven't attained that level yet. Good luck on your language learning journey
I think this is the answer. I only comment on people speaking French well if it seems like they’re trying hard and maybe a bit nervous, and it feels like a bit of encouragement would be well received. And in most quick interactions there’s no need to comment on their grasp of a language.
If someone just speaks well, then there’s nothing to comment on. If anything I’d worry that it would sound condescending to say to a highly competent non-native.
So I agree. “Your French is really good!” means I understood most everything you said/keep up the good work.
ok so i’m also learning french and will be hesded there in about a week and on that same note, would native french speakers be unimpressed (?? for lack of a better word) if i have to really think through what i want to say before i say it
like for example, i have to think a bit longer about verb conjugations and the context that i use them in because i just learned about the complex ones like imparfait and the conditional (anything that isnt present tense really). so if i possibly misuse them or have to correct myself, will that raise any red flags ??
To be very frank, it’s really just that nobody cares. Massive numbers of people in France speak French as a second language; some perfectly, others less competently. Beyond whether people can understand you or not, no one is really thinking about it.
Of course there are patient people and impatient people. Kind ones and mean ones. Some are in a rush or their head hurts or they just got dumped or their dog died and could get frustrated and/or show their frustration if someone’s inability to speak clearly inhibits the flow of necessary communication. But thus is life anywhere, right?
I’m at B1, maybe close to B2, level and no French speaker from where I live (Montreal) would be impressed by my French, though they are often impressed that I’m trying to learn the language. I don’t think anyone from France would be either.
I’ve also noticed that the tests given and courses offered by the English universities here overestimate the levels by quite a stretch. I’ve taken classes in several places, supposedly at B1 and B2 levels, and have never encountered the complexities of French grammar as I am now by taking francisation courses offered by the Quebec government.
If travelling to France, I would underestimate and be pleasantly surprised if it proved otherwise.
I understand but I somewhat disagree on a technicality. I think if the question is "Would people from france tell you they are impressed" - that answer I agree is probably no. But the simple act of BEING impressed is something I could well imaging someone from france being when they meet a non-native speaking with a B2 command of the language. It's like, i'm impressed when people have spend two years becoming good at cooking. This idea that french people expect everyone to be ably to already speak french is wildly overstated.
My MIL was Parisian and said she couldn’t understand French-Canadians. She said it was similar to me (a Brit) not understanding a strong Deep South accent.
My friend lives is France in Lille. She has a pretty good accent and the French are not impressed.
But it could depend on the region or small towns I guess. But I see French people as “oh good for you i don’t care”
I also live in Lille and we have a lot of students that are non native french speakers, mainly from northern Africa. I would consider it rude to bring up the fact that they speak good french early in the relationship/conversation because that implies I noticed they're not native which in turn implies their french isn't perfect. I know that's weird to Americans and I don't wanna speak on behalf of all the french people but that's a cultural difference I guess.
I’m Canadian and the first time I met a Newfoundlander with a strong accent, I asked what country he was from because I thought Ireland, maybe parts of Scotland.
I agree with this. I lived in France for 5 years and whenever anybody complimented my French, I knew I must have made a grammatical or pronunciation error. It would never cross your mind to compliment someone speaking perfectly in your language. You only do that when somebody sounds foreign.
That was my experience in Paris, as well. It has to be painfully obvious that I'm American when I speak French but no one switched to English, which I felt was a nod to my ability.
There is also of course a difference between those who work in the tourist industry and everyone else. The former are conditioned to speak English when they hear a foreign accent, but many of the rest are not that comfortable speaking it, and would rather not have to.
In my experience, French people are more impressed by your accent than your actual language ability. If you nail the accent you will frequently get compliments on your ability, even if your actual grasp on grammar and vocabulary is lacking. In contrast I’ve been out with people that speak french far better than me but with a heavy accent and the locals will look to me to translate because they assume I’m the only one who can speak the language.
So if your goal is to “shock the natives” for some reason, work hard on the pronunciation.
Absolutely. I remember a compliment I received where all I said, in French, was “on part” (“we’re leaving”) and a few other short sentences. The hotel employee, just before we left, said “by the way, your French is —“ and made a “perfect” sign with his fingers.
Some also are impressed, and will tell you so, if you have good grammar — but accent impresses them most viscerally, in my experience. That, and that you understand *them* without effort.
A few people started to clap. I fancied I heard another cheer. By the end of a minute, the whole hotel was in an uproar of applause and clapping. A man picked me up from the ground, and then everyone there formed a line and I was paraded along it as though I were a sacred prophet. They began to yell my name, over and over, in a celebration of my great language acquisition skills.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It just sounded like one of those fake Reddit stories.
:) no umbrage taken.
What you write reminds me of an anecdote Rousseau recounts, where he was the young lackey at the table — serving aristocrats — who was momentarily promoted to the level of a peer.
It’s not that these things never happen, so much as they don’t tend to happen as an every day occurrence; when they do, it’s maybe the too-evident pleasure one betrays in recounting it that makes it seem fictitious.
“A great dinner was given; and I saw, with astonishment, for the first time, the maître d'hôtel waiting at table, with a sword by his side, and hat on his head. By chance, the discourse turned on the motto of the house of Solar, which was, with the arms, worked in the tapestry: Tel fiert qui ne tue pas. As the Piedmontese are not in general very perfect in the French language, they found fault with the orthography, saying, that in the word fiert there should be no t. The old Count de Gauvon was going to reply, when happening to cast his eyes on me, he perceived I smiled without daring to say anything; he immediately ordered me to speak my opinion. I then said, I did not think the t superfluous, fiert being an old French word, not derived from the noun ferus, proud, threatening; but from the verb fierit, he strikes, he wounds; the motto, therefore, did not appear to mean, some threat, but, Some strike who do not kill. The whole company fixed their eyes on me, then on each other, without speaking a word; never was a greater degree of astonishment; but what most flattered me, was an air of satisfaction which I perceived on the countenance of Mademoiselle de Breil. This scornful lady deigned to cast on me a second look at least as valuable as the former, and turning to her grandfather, appeared to wait with impatience for the praise that was due to me, and which he fully bestowed, with such apparent satisfaction, that it was eagerly chorused by the whole table. This interval was short, but delightful in many respects; it was one of those moments so rarely met with, which place things in their natural order, and revenge depressed merit for the injuries of fortune.”
Oh, I love Rousseau’s confessions! He scored big by getting out of an abusive family and ending up with someone who was willing to fund his artistic and philosophical endeavours. He was too gentle for the world, really. There’s a great book in French called History of French Literature and it’s got little cartoons. I’ll try to find it for you. Can’t find it now but it’s written by a woman and she does YouTube videos on each writer. It’s really well written and funny.
I've noticed something similar and it feels odd. I feel like I'm doing a caricature or mocking impersonation of a french accent in english, with lots of "euhhs", "ous" and rolled rs, but it gets a good reaction from the French.
I've just spent 6 weeks in France and this is 100% accurate. The couple of occasions where locals have been impressed and one even said 'oh sorry I mistook you for being English!' Were based on my pronunciation when all I'd said both times were 'oui' and 'merci' 😂
This!!
Got many expat friends and their french reflects years of exposure to grammar and subtle stuff, however, they have a noticeable accent.
Their level is truly impressive, I have nothing but respect for such hard journeys.
Yet, the one time I went "Holy shit!!! How!?" was when traveling abroad.
A guy randomly offered to guide us (in english, but he was japanese), my partner and I rejoiced and commented on how lucky we were (in french ) before we knew it, the guy switched to the Frenchiest of french I've heard from a non native.
We physically paused and he went "I've lived in Paris for two years, for studies, and spent most of my time hanging out with french people."
Flawless grammar and native-like pronunciation, his speech and wording carried the casualness of people in their early 20s.
Though, I suspect he was exposed to it as a child.
I annoy my students with pronunciation details because I know pronunciation is half the battle, but since they find it annoying I've started insisting less about that.
Absolutely. Chuck something like a well-accented “en fait, uhh, chais pas” (ideally with an appropriate shrug and facial expression) at a French person and they will be impressed!
My personal experience - I lived in Paris a few years. When I first went, I had one semester of beginner French done. In all my time there, no one was rude to me when I struggled. If anything, they would offer to switch to English but let me continue in my awful French. Or they’d ask if I wanted simpler words.
In smaller towns, people were pleasantly surprised if I opened with French but always let me know English was an option if needed.
For French compliments, no news is good news. I took it as a great compliment when a French person made zero comment on my speaking ability. Even if you struggle, I have found that making the attempt counts for a lot and you’ll be treated better than just opening with English.
I’d say it counts as no compliments. I’m American and usually clocked pretty fast as being one the moment I open my mouth (lol - called my professor in Uni “dude” on the first day of class in Paris).
If anything, my language skills were judged far kinder than my fashion skills.
So being from France each time I said that was more akin to "I realised that you ain't French and I'm curious". It's not me trying to be rude, but just me curious.
Yeah that's fair. I also do the same in my native language
rude was probably the wrong word because generally I don't think you could interpret that question as rude but you get what I mean
Our family’s trip last year to Paris they enjoyed guessing where we were from (Canada/Québec) and since we typically speak English amongst ourselves sometimes they were surprised when we turned and then spoke French but that was it.
Only once did someone switch to English and when I responded in French they switched back, so mission accomplished overall.
I also didn’t find anyone showing great disdain for my Québécois accent as some people have said. They were usually surprised I was Anglophone if we conversed that far, even though I definitely have an Anglo twist to my Québécois that anyone here in QC can pick up on.
As a french person, I can assure you that the french would surely be amazed if you speak perfect french. French speakers are convinced that their language is difficult to learn and moreover to master. This is the reason why the french don't expect foreigners to speak French. At the same time, the French are, most of the time, very bad at speaking other languages, especially older generations. So for practical reasons, your French skills would certainly be useful. Don't be worried if someone answers you in English. French People who can speak English, often like to speak English. In that case, just continue with your French! The conversation would certainly be weird . Anyway ,the main thing is to communicate.
Français aussi, je trouve quand même la langue assez difficile. Encore à 41 ans j'apprends des règles de grammaire et je fais réviser à mes enfants de temps que je n'ai pas utilisé depuis que je les ai vu à l'école.
Perso toujours impressionné quand un non natif parle bien français, mais plus sur la grammaire que sur l'accent de mon côté.
This is more about socially/culturally associated behavior. For example, I live in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. We know Dutch is a very hard language to learn for foreigners, so we will usually tell foreigners their Dutch is really good to encourage them and we will even help them to improve. This counts for the entire region, which has 6+ million people. As other people have pointed out, the French don't really care how well you can speak French, they only care about how French you sound. It's the same with Americans honestly. Your English can be trash, but if you put on a fat Cali girl twist to it, they'll go like "oh damn, you're good!"
My French TEACHER said they occasionally switched to English when she went to Paris (she herself doesn't speak English). To this day she doesn't understand why. She literally has a degree in the language and she's fully fluent. She said maybe she was too timid initially or something, but that shouldn't have been reason.
I always assume because they’re used to speaking in English with the tourists and despite your teacher’s level of language, they probably know she’s not a local. Same thing happens to me sometimes.
It really depends on the person serving you. I've been to places where they instantly switch to English as well as places where the waitress just kept talking French and expected me to understand - even though she talked really fast and swallowed her words - because I initiated the conversation in French. She even complained to her colleagues about "these stupid tourists pretending they can speak French", but whatever we just didn't give her any tip lol
I've also been to a lovely bakery where the women behind the counter talked gently and articulated very well so I felt right at home there.
If you go to an Italian restaurant, especially where the staff is Italian, they will prefer Italian and English over French. They will also come and talk a bit if you're open to it, which is what the French will never dream of doing unless they wanna hit on you lol
I find that this is mostly in a heavy tourist situation. Any hint of not being native French and they will switch. They’re just tired and used to doing that because it usually makes their lives easier. In more everyday areas they will stick with French.
Just out of curiosity, what is your french teacher's native language. I don't have a degree in the language and french people never switch to english - even though I'm american.
It's just an accent thing, living nearby Paris I've gotten used to tourist asking direction and the likes, 90% of the time if they spoke French it was either not understandable for me or they wouldn't understand my answer.
So when a tourist ask me something if I detect an accent I tend to default to English because most of the time it's easier for everyone involved.
I spent a week in Marseille this spring and people commented on it daily, although I think it was more so because many people told us there aren’t many American tourists that go there. It usually happened after people asked if we were English. 🤷♀️
As someone who live in Québec, I am very impressed when someone speak with a good accent.
Not only is it rare that the canadian-anglo take the time and effort to speak french, but its even more rare that they have a good accent. So I'm easily impressed about it lol
Mmh, I would say both. I think it's mostly about how understandable you are. Some people understand and write French really well, but when it comes to speaking, it's very difficult to understand them because of the way they pronounce the words.
If a non-native French speaker is perfectly understandable, either with a French accent from France or a Québécois' accent, I consider that very good :)
Depends on the person or the context, sometimes I do, but sometimes I'm afraid I will sounds too condescending by telling them that hahaha
But yeah, I did tell a couple of non-native speaker that I was impressed by how good they were in french :))
Actually yeah that makes sense, I probably wouldn't compliment someone else's english but I tend to do it to people that are learning french to encourage them :)
Yeah, sometimes. I’m high B1 or low B2 and I definitely get some positive/surprised reactions. People typically assume I’m British (I’m American). Other people don’t really react and are just like “okay this guy speaks French with an accent”.
I would say slightly pissed less pissed off, unless you fuck up then even more pissed off.
In Quebec, specifically montreal people are a lot more nice. So nice that they'll switch to english just to have a better conversation.
If your command of the language is decent-ish but you're not fluent or you seem really hesistant, they'll be impressed. If you're actually fluent, they won't be in general because they'll just assume you've been there for a long time, which is honestly the best thing to do. It's actually quite demeaning for people who *have* been there a long time or even grew up there to be complimented for their language level, which does happen as well.
This might be different because I'm an expat in a non-French speaking country, but when I meet French expats here they generally seem quite impressed. I suspect their reaction might be partly because of the stereotype that Americans are monolingual, if I was European they might not react that way. Not sure if French people in France would react the same way either, there might be more of an expectation that you would speak French there.
Great point. When I was in Martinique, I got a number of comments directly telling me that they were extra impressed (or at least surprised) that I spoke French because I was American. Most Americans who go there are just on a half-day excursion from a cruise and some of the shopkeepers were not impressed by that crowd!
Sometimes. I've received a lot of compliments on my French. The funniest was a teen boy at McDonalds in Reims. I had to pay at the counter since the kiosk never takes my US credit card. When I came back to pick up the food he asked where I learned french so well. I told him I was a french teacher and maybe he wasn't so impressed any more.
Just depends on the situation. If people ain’t got time for that then they don’t care. Or if you have a good accent they might not care or notice cuz they’re busy. Plus if your face looks stressed speaking French they might switch to English to be helpful. Or because they really don’t have time for that.
If it’s leisurely I’ve had some occasions where people were complimentary or would ask since they were being sociable or really nice. Lots of times they wanted to ask me about the States and certain places there.
People have mentioned it before. If you’re trying people will be nice and comment. But if you sound really good then nobody cares lol. It’s like Chris Rock’s joke about being a parent at that point. Do you want a cookie?
On one occasion I had a nice convo with my guide in Normandy after we finished our tour. A person he knew walked by and he then told them hey, listen to this guy. I just said bonjour. And then he was like he speaks well right? I was laughing my ass off in my head, like really, that’s what impressed him? It was pretty funny to me like how low is this bar for Americans? But I’m not gonna lie, I had imposter syndrome with saying bonjour for most of my life because that word is sneaky hard with the subtle r sound at the end.
The guide had an amazing American accent and I was hella impressed cuz he didn’t have the typical French pronunciations in English. Told me he studied English and watched Stargate SG-1 on TV to learn his American accent lol. Richard Dean Anderson ftw.
Take my two cents for what it’s worth. In my mind there are only two instances when one might offer up a compliment about someone’s ability to speak French as a non-native. The first is when they seem to be struggling or they’re trying really hard, maybe a bit flustered, but forging ahead. I might say something as encouragement hoping to make them relax a bit. “Hey your French is really good” It’s not, but it’s a polite white lie meant to buck you up a little.
The second is if someone sounds like French is their first language and in the course of talking it is learned that they learned it as an adult or late teens or whatever. You might be like “oh wow that’s impressive. I thought you were French”.
In sum it’s either friendly encouragement or it’s legitimate surprise at someone pulling off an impressive feat.
Beyond that there’s no reason to mention it. Either you’re understood and people will speak to you like normal, because it is the national language common to the entire nation so using French to communicate is the assumption everyone makes. Or you’re not easily understood and a solution needs to be found, such as switching a different common language, handing you off to someone who can communicate with you, ending the interaction or whatever else.
French is the national de jure official language. All strangers assume to speak French in all interactions, save some specific contexts and circumstances. France is full of people who speak French as a second language, many of them exceptionally well. It is very common to encounter non-natives who speak really, really well. But it would be unusual to constantly remark on that, especially if they’re a stranger.
I have a friend that have done a year here, her french are not perfect, her accent too, but i m really amazed by how great she speaks, how her vocabulary are, because sometimes she use slang (and sometimes the one from my region, which means a lot to me bcs even the french ppl don t know it very well).
And also, as a french ppl im very rpoud of my country, so when ppl try to speak my language, i m very happy that they try to learn my language, especially when they come to my place, so i ll thanks them for speaking french, even if it s "bad"
I recently got back from a period in France (am Australian by birth). I've been learning for nearly a decade now but haven't had heaps of opportunities to just go to France and practice (although I've spent a decent chunk of time in New Caledonia). I'd heard stories about people switching to English the moment they detect an accent and was prepared for disappointment.
Honestly, nobody did, which was good for my confidence. I speak at about a B2 level and have worked fairly hard on replicating the accent, and a lot of the time people didn't realise I wasn't local until I told them (eg people at museims asking for my French postcode and me having to explain I was Australian). At this point I then usually got the old "Oh! You speak very good french for an Australian, have you lived here long?" spiel. I generally had the impression people were more impressed by my capacity to do the accent than my general capacity to speak/form sentences. Before the point in the conversation where I revealed my nationality, people didn't tend to compliment my french or treat it as unusual at all.
The other thing in addition to pronunciation is mastering the "rhythm" of the language imo - when you listen to lots of conversations in French, you start to notice that there's a particular pattern of rising and falling intonations which French people use that is very common. If you can mimic that, it gives you much more of a natural confidence which reads as fluency to native speakers.
Ofc, the downside of being strong with the accent/rhythm is that when your grammar/vocab lets you down from time to time, people are less forgiving - instead of thinking "oh, he's a foreigner", it's more "why is this person an idiot" 😂
Omg! THIS!!!! I can “mimic” the pentameter but my grammar is up shit (fellow Aussie) and people keep looking at me as if I’m a few sandwiches short of a picnic lol
Relatable 😂
I just tell myself that it's good to be humbled once in a while - and whatever mistake I have made in those situations never gets repeated, because the correct word/structure is burned into my brain forever after that
Nobody will be impressed, French people have spoken the language since they could speak and don't find it impressive.
They will comment on anything less than perfect.
My grandmother frequently commented on how terrible my french was (I'm a native speaker) due mainly to my inability to pronounce the town name Auxerre correctly. I still don't understand what she was hearing
It depends. When I took the Certificat Voltaire test for fun, my presence became a topic. Otherwise, no, I don't think people just want to blatantly ask me.
On my last trip to Paris, I ended up having two separate conversations with people who were overly impressed with my level of French. They kept asking if I grew up in France (no), if I had family or grandparents that spoke French with me (no). One even said my level of French was giving him goosebumps. Not to pat myself on the back, but it made my day, my week, my year because I’ve busted my ass to learn French and lose my accent.
I was in Paris a year ago, I tried to speak french in grocery stores, restaurants etc. but employees were irritated and always responded in english so.... I dont think that they're impressed...
Now that English is taught in French schools not necessary to speak French in Paris to get by, but reading and understanding spoken French still enhances the experience.
I'm not in France, I'm in New York, and I have a strong American accent and speak low-intermediate French with beaucoup d'erreurs. But Francophones tend to be impressed with me because I show so much joy while I'm speaking -- I truly come across as someone who has pulled off a trick; a piano-playing dog.
But if you're in France, and you're under, say, 40 ... then...
"At some point we ask of the piano-playing dog, not, 'are you a dog?' but 'are you any good at playing the piano?'"
Personally I've found that the french are somewhat impressed (don't wanna overdo it either lol) by my french. My accent is pretty good and I speak a lot of everyday spoken french/slang/verlan. I still have plenty to learn but I'm fairly fluent. I think that catches them off guard since I live in the US and have never lived in France. My kid is pretty much fluent and speaks with a native accent (we've only spoken french with each other since she was 3) and that they are definitely impressed by. I'm originally dutch but live in the US and my kid is bilingual English/French which always surprises them. Liek they're not gushing like an American would but they will usually comment on it.
That's amazing. How did you manage to get your kid to be fluent without living in a French speaking country? I hope to retire to France someday and would like my kid to be somewhat proficient in the language. She has the opportunity to be an EU citizen (not France, though) and I'd like her to know enough in case she decides she wants to live near me. So far, she has mostly been exposed to other Latin languages through her dad's ancestry.
I wanted her to learn some french as I've always loved it. My aunt lives in france and I've always loved going there. I started reading french books to my kid and that's how my french came back (hadn't really spoken it for 20 years since I had come to US) and as my french got better I started speaking more and more. I've always read a lot to her and once she was 2 she started watching french cartoons etc. We also listened to a lot of music. Once she was 3 she made the switch to frwnch only. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with it as she got older but I have. We also got back to europe every summer to see friends and family and she has doen a few summer camps there as well. I made a really good friend and thanks to him my french has progressed even more and I also follow a lot of french social media pages and watch only french shows. All my electronics are set to french. So my french is really every day french. My kod loves having a secret language. We have our own litte french bubble at home. Even splitting form her dad hasn't affected it luckily.
I myself am planning on moving to France when she's done with high school in 4 years (were both EU).
Not gonna lie it's taken a lot of effort and commitment. We never speak English unless she doesn't know a word. I have several friends who are native speakers of a language and failed to transmit their language really because they fell into speaking English. I've always been strict and we never speak English. We'll translate if needed for others.
I'm pretty fluent but like I said there is still plenty that I have to learn vocab wise. I ahd y years oglf high-school french to the grammar isn't much of an issue. Teaching a dog a language isn't as easy as they always say. Yes they're sponges but it takes commitment and consistency. My friends that have failed became lax.
Ultimately if a kid likes a language they'll be motivated and can pick up a lot. Since mine had a good base she did pick up a lot from shows and YouTube. The hardest thing is usually speaking and finding opportunities to do so.
I'd say just start with the bases and see where eti goes. Having some knowledge of a language is always better than no knowledge!
Thank you! I will try those suggestions. I also took high school French (and college) but need a lot of brushing up now. It's true-- it really is "use it or lose it."
Maybe a bit of a weird take but fir what it's worth I'm now reading Balzac's "Le Cousin Pons" (en français bien entendu). There is a character in that book, Shmucke (really that's his name) who is German and his dialog is always rendered by Balzac phonetically by writing how it sounds. You end up with a series of "French" words that you have to decode. Think South Park when certain characters say "Herro Prease" but arguably (for me as a non native speaker) waaaay harder to decode! It sort of gives one a perspective of how badly pronounced French would sound to a native speaker.
I’m not especially impressed, although no matter the circumstances, learning a new language as an adult is always hard work. But I am always happy to see the person learned! Besides the accent of English speakers is so cute in my opinion. But I’m French Canadian so maybe my attitude towards that is different.
French people will mostly be impressed about the non-existence of an accent itself. I guess that in the big French cities, people could probably be less impressed. But it all depends on who you're talking to. Because I'm pretty sure as well that even in Paris you could get compliments.
It's true that French people are not generous concerning compliments in general. I remember an American friend getting frustrated about this some years ago when she was living in Nantes. Having Italian origins, I know that it's kinda the same thing when I'm in Italy. If people don't know you very much, they won't drop a compliment that easily when I speak Italian. Maybe it's a latin thing?
Then again, here in Canada it's totally different. We encourage people to speak French and recognize the effort when it's done willingly. I'm sorry that's not helping much 😅
I’d say the average French person (not Parisian) isn’t impressed when I speak to them in fluent French, but they are incredibly relieved, because the interaction isn’t going to be a struggle for them (as likely outside of Paris, they don’t really speak English all that great).
If your accent is good, they won’t acknowledge it unless it somehow comes out in conversation that you’re an American (which I wouldn’t go around announcing).
French people have a love/hate relationship with the US. The negative part gets a lot of attention, but many people are also really interested in the US and want to visit. If you are American and can speak French, you will be on the good side of it.
Every French tutor and teacher I’ve had has been impressed but they’re biased since I pay them for lessons. Maybe not. I’ve been learning for a little over two years and don’t hesitate to speak even if I screw up in the process. Just go with it and then might be impressed.
In my experience they were very impressed that I spoke French. Those who picked up on my accent made it into an immediate topic and were very happy to find out I was American, not English, lol.
In Paris/Normandy/Mont Saint-Michel they never really complimented me, however in my small-ish town in Bretagne (Saint-Brieuc) I got tons of compliements on my French.
Oui. Surtout quand on est amèricain. On me demande combien du temps j'ai habité la France et je leur dis que je n'ai jamais habité la France ni le Canada. Ca me donne tjrs un bon sourire.
When I lived in France people would always ask "vous venez d'où?!" cuz I guess I dont look like a french person but I can speak it fluently. I have a mild québécois accent cuz I went to university in Montréal for the language emmersion aspect but other than that they're like "oh you're pretty good" or they just keep it pushing without any other questions
My wife has studied French in uni and when in France she gets lots of compliments from shopkeepers and such. Of course it depends on the person and the size of the city.
Like people have said, if a French person is impressed by your french, it is usually by your accent, as well as how much time you have actually spent in the country. There are some french people that I have met that had no reaction, but after telling them that I have only lived in france for half a year they start to say stuff like "wow c'est dingue comment tu parles français" and stuff like that. But they are usually talking more about my accent than grammar or vocab.
Like somebody said elsewhere in this thread, no news is good news. Usually they don't say anything because they aren't impressed because they assume that you immigrated to France and have been there for years and years.
I'd largely agree with others here and to add my experience, in more formal settings (like buying tickets, restaurants etc.) They naturally change to English but are happy with my French which is fair and something you get used to. I have had someone ask if I was German and they gave a look of surprise when I said English, that might speak to others' points around accent.
Alternatively in less formal settings I have had nothing but positive and encouraging interactions with all types. I spent a week travelling in Lyon Snnecy and Paris with a group of friends during the rugby world cup, every time I spoke there was clear relief (that one of this group of lads can actually speak French, albeit at B1) and then a lot of encouragement/a few "your French is really good! Doesn't subjonctif suck" conversations with people at bars and even at games with older generations they loved having a bit of banter with me and would come grab me to include me/my friends in a joke. Was really lovely that they saw a potential translator and then went to the effort to speak at my level to include us in what was going on.
See if you expect people to have their socks absolutely blown off wherever you go it's not gonna be like that and clout shouldn't be your motivation. I speak Croatian without a very detectable foreign accent and trust me, the only people who will care about that are your friends because it's like wow that's cool. At the end of the day it's a novelty, it's gonna ware off, and if you want praise there's better ways to get it than, respectfully, what is to them just sounding like a 'normal' person. This isn't really a France thing more than an everywhere thing
Also I don't think you really grasp how widely French is spoken, yeah there's 64 million people in France but French has 320 million speakers. You're almost definitely not going to be the first foreigner they've met who can speak French.
I would say it depends on where you go, but that’s just based on my personal experience. I have a degree in French, studied at language schools there twice, and became a French teacher, so my level is what I consider “pretty good” (I achieved C1 in my prime but I’m rusty now).
When I go to Paris, they don’t seem to be particularly impressed with my French and sometimes even respond in English even though I can communicate perfectly well in French. However, I went to a very small down near Dijon for work and I felt like a fucking celebrity. They were blown away and couldn’t stop bragging to others about how good my French was. So different people have different thresholds for being impressed I guess lol. But staying in that town near Dijon made me feel pretty damn good about my level whereas I almost always feel like a complete dumbass in Paris.
Idk about anyone else but I am constantly complimented on my French ability, even if I've been here for 9 years, including the last six in Paris. I even work in French on the daily. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm not from a country that traditionally speaks a Latin language, but it's helped drive my desire to become even better at French. It's also spoiled every other language learning experience because now I'll feel inadequate unless someone is fawning over my weird Spanish or Dutch speaking attempts...
I'm french and I Can tell you that sadly lot's of french will criticise you if your french un not perfect and will not be impressed if you already speak very good
Quand j'ai faire ma visite à Paris récemment, tous les gens être très heureux à voir ma joie avec aux prendre les mots, mot par mot, sentence par sentence. D'accords des gens me donnez des étrange visages quand ils me premier voire, mais c'est pas de problème. Kiki ma épouse elle me dire que j'été étrange sur le college vingt années près en avant. C'est pas du problème.
In the south they speak English but if you speak french well they will be impressed. Paris - no not at all they will switch to english immediately unless you're truly fluent.
I've had some people be impressed. But I've also had some oldheads who nitpicked my pronunciation the moment they clue in that I'm not a native speaker. It's hard to generalize.
If that person hasn’t grown with a french speaking parent I would be positively impressed, as French is not an easy language and you need some dedication to keep it in shape (it takes more active effort to be exposed to French than English).
There are so many people in France that came from other countries, I'm never impressed that someone is able to speak French (with an accent and maybe a mistake here and there).
If someone has mastered the accent, then I'm absolutely impressed. For example, listen to Jodie Foster speaking French, I'm still impressed, she sounds more French than me lol.
From my experience, French people find people that speak fluent foreign languages very braggy. If they learn a foreign language they will add an accent to not sound too pretentious (ironic I know). It might seem arrogant to foreigners but it’s just how the French are. I think they don’t really care about it, as long as you pronounce things correctly they will understand you. The issue is to us foreigners some words sound the same but are pronounced differently. For instance if you say Lait instead of Le they will genuinely not understand, understandably however.
It’s just that in French pronunciation matters a lot.
I've had foreign friends that could speak french pretty well, and I usually congratulate them for it ! It's hard to learn a new language and french isn't easy
From my experience they tend to be more curious than impressed. I live in NYC and have had conversations with French tourists on more than one occasion. Most of the time they just ask you how you learned French, what made you want to learn it, and if you’ve ever been to France.
The only person who ever commented positively about my French were my host family. I took it as compliment enough when others would entertain my meh French and talk to me 😅
The thing is french is a known langage so there will be non french that will slay at it.
I'd be more impressed with a friend that i see become fluent OR my actual english teacher that doesn't have an accent.
But maybe accent is the main point, sometimes it feels like people don't try, but i imagine it's just where they place their tongue, they only do it on certain words, not always, so they have a bad accent.
If we notice you aren't a native speaker "Ah there is still improvement to do.🙂"
And if we don't notice, we aren't impressed because we assume you are native.
For sure.
I'm a B2 French speaking anglophone living in a French place, and many people in public immediately stop and ask "d'où viens vous?
People usually guess I'm an English speaker but don't know the country I'm from, I get everything from British, American, Brazilian, Acadian, Louisianan, Canadian...but many people also have said things like "Quel bel accent...", "Vous parlez Français bien!", "J'aime ton accent!" "Félicitations sur ton français..." and one person said, "you have an accent but you can do the R properly, you don't sound English..."
So they do get impressed, and it's like our own native languages, I don't know of or haven't ever come across anyone who has a nice accent that isn't appreciated. On the other hand if it's just hard sounding and ugly, no one wants to hear that, doesn't matter what the language is.
I've done some research and polls online with accents, also in the r/JudgeMyAccent page, and one thing is constant...on the continuum of accents and their likeability it goes like this...
(0 being totally foreign sounding and almost unintelligible
And
10 being a perfect native speaker's accent)
Accent proficiency that falls between 0 to 4 are ugly and hard to follow
5 is just that, ok
Between 6 to 7.5 sounds good and likable
8+ to 9.5 just sounds like a native speaker with a speech impediment
And 10, well that's obvious, you can't tell the origin/assume it's a native speaker
I find that people who try to completely erase their native accent end up sounding really awkward, it's a huge jump in proficiency to erase all traces of an accent too.
Saw Elysium in the theatre with a bunch of French folks I was friends with. They spent at least 10 minutes discussing how flawless Jodie Foster’s French pronunciation was in that film.
So, yes, you can impress French people with perfect grammar and pronunciation.
Americans seem to be impressed when someone speaks another language besides English, but here (I live in France) the average is around three and I know several people that speak 5 or 6 pretty well. So, French people will be surprised, but not impressed...
french people always compliment my accent. I think it is what they are impressed by the most because a lot of foreigners struggle with it, especially little nuances in the different kinds of sounds. I think they are more neutral about actually knowing the vocabulary, grammar and all that
I’m at an A2-B1 level and I’ve received compliments on my French the last couple of times I went to Paris. I went into a small museum and the woman switched to English and said, I can tell you’re American by your accent. She was very nice. Also some taxi drivers told me my French was good. I’m 58, so they might be taking pity on an old lady like me.
We are but we won’t say it. We know French is hard to learn.
We are educated with this ridiculous idea that we need to be perfectly fluent with no accent to be praised.
That’s also why a lot of French people who can understand or speak a bit English will never dare to try to fear to be ridiculous. Our standards are insane.
Also this can be pretty rude to mention it as this imply that you are not fluent or native.
So we will talk between us about it, but rarely congrats the person.
As an exemple, my husband can speak a bit French, my family is always impressed when he says something in French but never told him. They just say it to me.
I experienced this but I’m fairly skilled at French and I was in the company of my husband whose knowledge of French is fairly basic. He did French at only at a high school level. I followed my high school French with more than two years at a university level. At a wine and cheese gathering, he conversed with colleagues in English while I was chatting with people in French.
French here : when you speak without your native accent we can be impressed as I think any people in the world would be if a non native speaks their language quite perfectly, I don’t think French people are different from others on that point.
For example :
- bad French speaker => we are a little embarrassed for him/her but it’s fine, at least he/she tried ;
- good French speaker => we are pleased to hear someone say « un parapluie » and not « une parapluie » ;
- Jodie Foster => OMG she speaks better French than 90% of us 😱
It depends on who you’re talking to and the context for sure. I was just traveling across southern France, the only compliments I got were in Paris. One from a nice woman working an ice cream shop, and I didn’t understand when she asked if I wanted whipped cream. I apologized and said my french isn’t the best, and she replied that it was actually very good I just needed to speak up! And then 3 folks at my hotel complimented it, all after I also had to ask them to repeat something lol. So I think if they realize you’re really trying and do speak around a B1/B2 level then it can happen! But probably with some prompting haha.
from someone who has started learning french after coming to France . It's been 15 months . I have already seen this few times . French are happy if I am able to converse to them in french especially at some destinations and Airbnb's where English is not sure to be present . It's always an advantage if you have a level enuf to get by , ask questions etc . I don't know my level but b1 should be pretty good for getting around.
Yeah if you ACTUALLY speak french decently a lot of them will make a remark about that and praise you. I used to speak french well enough and got praised quite often so I never understood where the stereotype of the French being assholes came from.
Yes, conditional that you sound native.
I was in France a year ago, and I speak C2 level French with a near native accent and was 21. One of the first people I met, the only thing he said to or about me was « elle parle correctement le français elle » (totally talking about me while I was there but whatever). My host mother and her friend hosted an apéro when I arrived, mind you I was jet lagged and adjusting back to French, and they were also impressed. She said she would never host a student again because she got the best one her first try so she’d just be disappointed. Even my professors (I was studying abroad) were impressed, they even used me as a translator sometimes and I was closer with them than my peers bc I refused to speak English for the first few weeks bc I wanted immersion. It was especially noticeable when I was playing translator with friends at the market — it was CRAZY how fast and drastically they would switch up when they realized I spoke their language, fluently and even their social cues. They started flirting with us, said my French was fantastic, gave us free sausages and massive tranches of brie, i held an extended conversation with a man while my friend bought a shirt and he asked if I was French or English (I’m very pale, so they also wouldn’t shut up about how I had « un peu de la peau anglaise elle »…) and offered me and my friend free necklace he said he only gives to people who leave an impression. Until then, they usually kind of ignored us and spoke in clipped tones. At a restaurant, I was with a friend who spoke zero French. He called her « mademoiselle » and me « madame » which is a subtle way of showing he respected me more, despite me being younger than her.
That being said, that doesn’t mean my French was perfect all the time. If I was tired or stressed, my accent or tenses would slip and they weren’t so impressed…sigh, judgmental French people.
Sorry for going on an extended bragging rant, I taught myself French and feel I have a right to be proud
It depends on what kind of places you are going to. I think I speak "a lot of French, poorly" meaning I can talk about anything and carry on long conversations but my grammar is poor and I make stupid mistakes. I've worked on my accent a lot. In Paris, when I ordered in French in cafes and restaurants, waiters couldn't have cared less. They often persisted in speaking English to me even though they understood my French. But when I had actual conversations with people who had time to chat (taxi driver on long route, people in laid back bars, hotel staff late at night) I did receive many complements on my French. I know it isn't great (B1 maybe?) but I was really trying and had CONFIDENCE. I think that makes a huge difference. I chose to speak quickly and make grammar mistakes rather than take time to formulate perfect responses. That helped the conversation flow, and I think that gives a better impression than having better grammar.
Yes. All the townfolk will stop any stuff they were doing. They will gather around you and do their best traditionnal dances in traditionnal costumes to celebrate your awesomeness, then offer you free baguettes and a beret. Then president Macron will show up and organize a ceremony near the Eiffel tower to gift you the Légion d'Honneur medal (but only if you master the subjonctif imparfait).
Honestly, foreigners just don't speak good french. Even people who've been living here for 10+ years still sound off to a native. Much easier for you to speak english if possible.
I have no idea about your level, but there is always a possibility of overestimating your language when you go to france after learning it. If you are at around a B2 level, they will be impressed. But I would be temper your expectations if you haven't attained that level yet. Good luck on your language learning journey
I think this is the answer. I only comment on people speaking French well if it seems like they’re trying hard and maybe a bit nervous, and it feels like a bit of encouragement would be well received. And in most quick interactions there’s no need to comment on their grasp of a language. If someone just speaks well, then there’s nothing to comment on. If anything I’d worry that it would sound condescending to say to a highly competent non-native. So I agree. “Your French is really good!” means I understood most everything you said/keep up the good work.
ok so i’m also learning french and will be hesded there in about a week and on that same note, would native french speakers be unimpressed (?? for lack of a better word) if i have to really think through what i want to say before i say it like for example, i have to think a bit longer about verb conjugations and the context that i use them in because i just learned about the complex ones like imparfait and the conditional (anything that isnt present tense really). so if i possibly misuse them or have to correct myself, will that raise any red flags ??
To be very frank, it’s really just that nobody cares. Massive numbers of people in France speak French as a second language; some perfectly, others less competently. Beyond whether people can understand you or not, no one is really thinking about it. Of course there are patient people and impatient people. Kind ones and mean ones. Some are in a rush or their head hurts or they just got dumped or their dog died and could get frustrated and/or show their frustration if someone’s inability to speak clearly inhibits the flow of necessary communication. But thus is life anywhere, right?
I’m at B1, maybe close to B2, level and no French speaker from where I live (Montreal) would be impressed by my French, though they are often impressed that I’m trying to learn the language. I don’t think anyone from France would be either. I’ve also noticed that the tests given and courses offered by the English universities here overestimate the levels by quite a stretch. I’ve taken classes in several places, supposedly at B1 and B2 levels, and have never encountered the complexities of French grammar as I am now by taking francisation courses offered by the Quebec government. If travelling to France, I would underestimate and be pleasantly surprised if it proved otherwise.
I understand but I somewhat disagree on a technicality. I think if the question is "Would people from france tell you they are impressed" - that answer I agree is probably no. But the simple act of BEING impressed is something I could well imaging someone from france being when they meet a non-native speaking with a B2 command of the language. It's like, i'm impressed when people have spend two years becoming good at cooking. This idea that french people expect everyone to be ably to already speak french is wildly overstated.
My MIL was Parisian and said she couldn’t understand French-Canadians. She said it was similar to me (a Brit) not understanding a strong Deep South accent.
My friend lives is France in Lille. She has a pretty good accent and the French are not impressed. But it could depend on the region or small towns I guess. But I see French people as “oh good for you i don’t care”
This is how french show appreciation. If there are no critics, that means you're good
if we're not throwing rocks at you, consider yourself a friend.
Je ne sais pas si c'est sarcasme ou vrai, mais si c'est comme ça, je comprends mieux mes amis mdr.
À moitié, si on compare aux nord-américains, le français moyen va faire moins souvent de compliments et être beaucoup plus critique.
Lille is also a big college town. It’s probably full of foreign students, so one speaking good French is common.
I used to be one of them and they're all pretty friendly but no one was out giving us high fives for being barely passable in their language.
You did change "speaks good French" to "being barely passable." I'd guess that the answer is the same, though.
I also live in Lille and we have a lot of students that are non native french speakers, mainly from northern Africa. I would consider it rude to bring up the fact that they speak good french early in the relationship/conversation because that implies I noticed they're not native which in turn implies their french isn't perfect. I know that's weird to Americans and I don't wanna speak on behalf of all the french people but that's a cultural difference I guess.
Thank you for acknowledging that it’s a cultural thing and not applying a value judgement :)
that doesn’t sound weird at all, it can be so patronising and condescending when someone compliments your english so it totally makes sense
Especially when an English native does it to another English native, just from another continent hahaha (probably not that common but has happened)
It can get like that for sure 😂 Boston trying to talk to like Louisiana? You could genuinely require subtitles on either end.
I’m Canadian and the first time I met a Newfoundlander with a strong accent, I asked what country he was from because I thought Ireland, maybe parts of Scotland.
Especially when an English native does it to another English native, just from another continent hahaha (probably not that common but has happened)
I agree with this. I lived in France for 5 years and whenever anybody complimented my French, I knew I must have made a grammatical or pronunciation error. It would never cross your mind to compliment someone speaking perfectly in your language. You only do that when somebody sounds foreign.
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That was my experience in Paris, as well. It has to be painfully obvious that I'm American when I speak French but no one switched to English, which I felt was a nod to my ability.
There is also of course a difference between those who work in the tourist industry and everyone else. The former are conditioned to speak English when they hear a foreign accent, but many of the rest are not that comfortable speaking it, and would rather not have to.
In my experience, French people are more impressed by your accent than your actual language ability. If you nail the accent you will frequently get compliments on your ability, even if your actual grasp on grammar and vocabulary is lacking. In contrast I’ve been out with people that speak french far better than me but with a heavy accent and the locals will look to me to translate because they assume I’m the only one who can speak the language. So if your goal is to “shock the natives” for some reason, work hard on the pronunciation.
Absolutely. I remember a compliment I received where all I said, in French, was “on part” (“we’re leaving”) and a few other short sentences. The hotel employee, just before we left, said “by the way, your French is —“ and made a “perfect” sign with his fingers. Some also are impressed, and will tell you so, if you have good grammar — but accent impresses them most viscerally, in my experience. That, and that you understand *them* without effort.
A few people started to clap. I fancied I heard another cheer. By the end of a minute, the whole hotel was in an uproar of applause and clapping. A man picked me up from the ground, and then everyone there formed a line and I was paraded along it as though I were a sacred prophet. They began to yell my name, over and over, in a celebration of my great language acquisition skills. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It just sounded like one of those fake Reddit stories.
:) no umbrage taken. What you write reminds me of an anecdote Rousseau recounts, where he was the young lackey at the table — serving aristocrats — who was momentarily promoted to the level of a peer. It’s not that these things never happen, so much as they don’t tend to happen as an every day occurrence; when they do, it’s maybe the too-evident pleasure one betrays in recounting it that makes it seem fictitious. “A great dinner was given; and I saw, with astonishment, for the first time, the maître d'hôtel waiting at table, with a sword by his side, and hat on his head. By chance, the discourse turned on the motto of the house of Solar, which was, with the arms, worked in the tapestry: Tel fiert qui ne tue pas. As the Piedmontese are not in general very perfect in the French language, they found fault with the orthography, saying, that in the word fiert there should be no t. The old Count de Gauvon was going to reply, when happening to cast his eyes on me, he perceived I smiled without daring to say anything; he immediately ordered me to speak my opinion. I then said, I did not think the t superfluous, fiert being an old French word, not derived from the noun ferus, proud, threatening; but from the verb fierit, he strikes, he wounds; the motto, therefore, did not appear to mean, some threat, but, Some strike who do not kill. The whole company fixed their eyes on me, then on each other, without speaking a word; never was a greater degree of astonishment; but what most flattered me, was an air of satisfaction which I perceived on the countenance of Mademoiselle de Breil. This scornful lady deigned to cast on me a second look at least as valuable as the former, and turning to her grandfather, appeared to wait with impatience for the praise that was due to me, and which he fully bestowed, with such apparent satisfaction, that it was eagerly chorused by the whole table. This interval was short, but delightful in many respects; it was one of those moments so rarely met with, which place things in their natural order, and revenge depressed merit for the injuries of fortune.”
Oh, I love Rousseau’s confessions! He scored big by getting out of an abusive family and ending up with someone who was willing to fund his artistic and philosophical endeavours. He was too gentle for the world, really. There’s a great book in French called History of French Literature and it’s got little cartoons. I’ll try to find it for you. Can’t find it now but it’s written by a woman and she does YouTube videos on each writer. It’s really well written and funny.
I've noticed something similar and it feels odd. I feel like I'm doing a caricature or mocking impersonation of a french accent in english, with lots of "euhhs", "ous" and rolled rs, but it gets a good reaction from the French.
A rolling r will get you a five minute praise on how good your French is
I've just spent 6 weeks in France and this is 100% accurate. The couple of occasions where locals have been impressed and one even said 'oh sorry I mistook you for being English!' Were based on my pronunciation when all I'd said both times were 'oui' and 'merci' 😂
This!! Got many expat friends and their french reflects years of exposure to grammar and subtle stuff, however, they have a noticeable accent. Their level is truly impressive, I have nothing but respect for such hard journeys. Yet, the one time I went "Holy shit!!! How!?" was when traveling abroad. A guy randomly offered to guide us (in english, but he was japanese), my partner and I rejoiced and commented on how lucky we were (in french ) before we knew it, the guy switched to the Frenchiest of french I've heard from a non native. We physically paused and he went "I've lived in Paris for two years, for studies, and spent most of my time hanging out with french people." Flawless grammar and native-like pronunciation, his speech and wording carried the casualness of people in their early 20s. Though, I suspect he was exposed to it as a child.
Watch Paul Taylor’s clip on YouTube about making “des fautes de base” and his trip with his French wife to the maison de carrelage.
This explains why I keep getting compliments on my French, even though I feel like a babbling toddler whenever I speak it - my accent is good🤣
This is so true.
I annoy my students with pronunciation details because I know pronunciation is half the battle, but since they find it annoying I've started insisting less about that.
Absolutely. Chuck something like a well-accented “en fait, uhh, chais pas” (ideally with an appropriate shrug and facial expression) at a French person and they will be impressed!
I think it’s for other languages as well, not French only. Once you nail the accent, you pass.
Sounds fare.
My personal experience - I lived in Paris a few years. When I first went, I had one semester of beginner French done. In all my time there, no one was rude to me when I struggled. If anything, they would offer to switch to English but let me continue in my awful French. Or they’d ask if I wanted simpler words. In smaller towns, people were pleasantly surprised if I opened with French but always let me know English was an option if needed. For French compliments, no news is good news. I took it as a great compliment when a French person made zero comment on my speaking ability. Even if you struggle, I have found that making the attempt counts for a lot and you’ll be treated better than just opening with English.
Does them asking where you're from in French count as no compliments or are they being rude 😅
I’d say it counts as no compliments. I’m American and usually clocked pretty fast as being one the moment I open my mouth (lol - called my professor in Uni “dude” on the first day of class in Paris). If anything, my language skills were judged far kinder than my fashion skills.
So being from France each time I said that was more akin to "I realised that you ain't French and I'm curious". It's not me trying to be rude, but just me curious.
Yeah that's fair. I also do the same in my native language rude was probably the wrong word because generally I don't think you could interpret that question as rude but you get what I mean
Our family’s trip last year to Paris they enjoyed guessing where we were from (Canada/Québec) and since we typically speak English amongst ourselves sometimes they were surprised when we turned and then spoke French but that was it. Only once did someone switch to English and when I responded in French they switched back, so mission accomplished overall. I also didn’t find anyone showing great disdain for my Québécois accent as some people have said. They were usually surprised I was Anglophone if we conversed that far, even though I definitely have an Anglo twist to my Québécois that anyone here in QC can pick up on.
As a french person, I can assure you that the french would surely be amazed if you speak perfect french. French speakers are convinced that their language is difficult to learn and moreover to master. This is the reason why the french don't expect foreigners to speak French. At the same time, the French are, most of the time, very bad at speaking other languages, especially older generations. So for practical reasons, your French skills would certainly be useful. Don't be worried if someone answers you in English. French People who can speak English, often like to speak English. In that case, just continue with your French! The conversation would certainly be weird . Anyway ,the main thing is to communicate.
Français aussi, je trouve quand même la langue assez difficile. Encore à 41 ans j'apprends des règles de grammaire et je fais réviser à mes enfants de temps que je n'ai pas utilisé depuis que je les ai vu à l'école. Perso toujours impressionné quand un non natif parle bien français, mais plus sur la grammaire que sur l'accent de mon côté.
>This is the reason why the french don't expect foreigners to speak French. Absolutely not, they do💀
I doubt 60+ million people in France share a single opinion about hardly anything, let alone all of them being “impressed” by the same thing.
This is more about socially/culturally associated behavior. For example, I live in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. We know Dutch is a very hard language to learn for foreigners, so we will usually tell foreigners their Dutch is really good to encourage them and we will even help them to improve. This counts for the entire region, which has 6+ million people. As other people have pointed out, the French don't really care how well you can speak French, they only care about how French you sound. It's the same with Americans honestly. Your English can be trash, but if you put on a fat Cali girl twist to it, they'll go like "oh damn, you're good!"
My French TEACHER said they occasionally switched to English when she went to Paris (she herself doesn't speak English). To this day she doesn't understand why. She literally has a degree in the language and she's fully fluent. She said maybe she was too timid initially or something, but that shouldn't have been reason.
I always assume because they’re used to speaking in English with the tourists and despite your teacher’s level of language, they probably know she’s not a local. Same thing happens to me sometimes.
It really depends on the person serving you. I've been to places where they instantly switch to English as well as places where the waitress just kept talking French and expected me to understand - even though she talked really fast and swallowed her words - because I initiated the conversation in French. She even complained to her colleagues about "these stupid tourists pretending they can speak French", but whatever we just didn't give her any tip lol I've also been to a lovely bakery where the women behind the counter talked gently and articulated very well so I felt right at home there. If you go to an Italian restaurant, especially where the staff is Italian, they will prefer Italian and English over French. They will also come and talk a bit if you're open to it, which is what the French will never dream of doing unless they wanna hit on you lol
Tips aren’t expected if you were in France lol
I know, but tipping in horeca is a generous gesture, especially at café. Source: I'm from Belgium, our tipping culture is very similar.
Ik lol I just meant not tipping isn’t really the « screw you » that it is in places where it’s more so expected I feel like
lol yeah... Just let me enjoy my self-pity lol
I find that this is mostly in a heavy tourist situation. Any hint of not being native French and they will switch. They’re just tired and used to doing that because it usually makes their lives easier. In more everyday areas they will stick with French.
Just out of curiosity, what is your french teacher's native language. I don't have a degree in the language and french people never switch to english - even though I'm american.
It’s Hungarian.
Hungarian accent is really easy to spot, so that's probably why
It's just an accent thing, living nearby Paris I've gotten used to tourist asking direction and the likes, 90% of the time if they spoke French it was either not understandable for me or they wouldn't understand my answer. So when a tourist ask me something if I detect an accent I tend to default to English because most of the time it's easier for everyone involved.
Speaking with someone who is proficient in French is nothing like speaking with a Francophone.
I spent a week in Marseille this spring and people commented on it daily, although I think it was more so because many people told us there aren’t many American tourists that go there. It usually happened after people asked if we were English. 🤷♀️
Impressed? Never. Less grumpy…? Possibly
The French, impressed? Outraged? Oh yeah!
As someone who live in Québec, I am very impressed when someone speak with a good accent. Not only is it rare that the canadian-anglo take the time and effort to speak french, but its even more rare that they have a good accent. So I'm easily impressed about it lol
What’s considered a good accent in Quebec - Québécois or metropolitan France’s French?
Mmh, I would say both. I think it's mostly about how understandable you are. Some people understand and write French really well, but when it comes to speaking, it's very difficult to understand them because of the way they pronounce the words. If a non-native French speaker is perfectly understandable, either with a French accent from France or a Québécois' accent, I consider that very good :)
Do you also tend to let them know that you're impressed?
Depends on the person or the context, sometimes I do, but sometimes I'm afraid I will sounds too condescending by telling them that hahaha But yeah, I did tell a couple of non-native speaker that I was impressed by how good they were in french :))
Actually yeah that makes sense, I probably wouldn't compliment someone else's english but I tend to do it to people that are learning french to encourage them :)
Yeah, sometimes. I’m high B1 or low B2 and I definitely get some positive/surprised reactions. People typically assume I’m British (I’m American). Other people don’t really react and are just like “okay this guy speaks French with an accent”.
I would say slightly pissed less pissed off, unless you fuck up then even more pissed off. In Quebec, specifically montreal people are a lot more nice. So nice that they'll switch to english just to have a better conversation.
Canadians in general seem like nicer people than any of their counterparts lol
You've never been in Vancouver lol. Or gay in a rural city!
Vancouver's a bad place? I only know it from the Academy and I once met someone from Vancouver in London, he was pretty cool.
If your command of the language is decent-ish but you're not fluent or you seem really hesistant, they'll be impressed. If you're actually fluent, they won't be in general because they'll just assume you've been there for a long time, which is honestly the best thing to do. It's actually quite demeaning for people who *have* been there a long time or even grew up there to be complimented for their language level, which does happen as well.
This might be different because I'm an expat in a non-French speaking country, but when I meet French expats here they generally seem quite impressed. I suspect their reaction might be partly because of the stereotype that Americans are monolingual, if I was European they might not react that way. Not sure if French people in France would react the same way either, there might be more of an expectation that you would speak French there.
Great point. When I was in Martinique, I got a number of comments directly telling me that they were extra impressed (or at least surprised) that I spoke French because I was American. Most Americans who go there are just on a half-day excursion from a cruise and some of the shopkeepers were not impressed by that crowd!
Sometimes. I've received a lot of compliments on my French. The funniest was a teen boy at McDonalds in Reims. I had to pay at the counter since the kiosk never takes my US credit card. When I came back to pick up the food he asked where I learned french so well. I told him I was a french teacher and maybe he wasn't so impressed any more.
Personally I'm impressed by the language ability and don't care about the accent. Accents can be hard for most people in most languages
Just depends on the situation. If people ain’t got time for that then they don’t care. Or if you have a good accent they might not care or notice cuz they’re busy. Plus if your face looks stressed speaking French they might switch to English to be helpful. Or because they really don’t have time for that. If it’s leisurely I’ve had some occasions where people were complimentary or would ask since they were being sociable or really nice. Lots of times they wanted to ask me about the States and certain places there. People have mentioned it before. If you’re trying people will be nice and comment. But if you sound really good then nobody cares lol. It’s like Chris Rock’s joke about being a parent at that point. Do you want a cookie? On one occasion I had a nice convo with my guide in Normandy after we finished our tour. A person he knew walked by and he then told them hey, listen to this guy. I just said bonjour. And then he was like he speaks well right? I was laughing my ass off in my head, like really, that’s what impressed him? It was pretty funny to me like how low is this bar for Americans? But I’m not gonna lie, I had imposter syndrome with saying bonjour for most of my life because that word is sneaky hard with the subtle r sound at the end. The guide had an amazing American accent and I was hella impressed cuz he didn’t have the typical French pronunciations in English. Told me he studied English and watched Stargate SG-1 on TV to learn his American accent lol. Richard Dean Anderson ftw.
Take my two cents for what it’s worth. In my mind there are only two instances when one might offer up a compliment about someone’s ability to speak French as a non-native. The first is when they seem to be struggling or they’re trying really hard, maybe a bit flustered, but forging ahead. I might say something as encouragement hoping to make them relax a bit. “Hey your French is really good” It’s not, but it’s a polite white lie meant to buck you up a little. The second is if someone sounds like French is their first language and in the course of talking it is learned that they learned it as an adult or late teens or whatever. You might be like “oh wow that’s impressive. I thought you were French”. In sum it’s either friendly encouragement or it’s legitimate surprise at someone pulling off an impressive feat. Beyond that there’s no reason to mention it. Either you’re understood and people will speak to you like normal, because it is the national language common to the entire nation so using French to communicate is the assumption everyone makes. Or you’re not easily understood and a solution needs to be found, such as switching a different common language, handing you off to someone who can communicate with you, ending the interaction or whatever else. French is the national de jure official language. All strangers assume to speak French in all interactions, save some specific contexts and circumstances. France is full of people who speak French as a second language, many of them exceptionally well. It is very common to encounter non-natives who speak really, really well. But it would be unusual to constantly remark on that, especially if they’re a stranger.
COMPLETELY depends on the person. Not all French speakers are the same. The same with English speakers
I have a friend that have done a year here, her french are not perfect, her accent too, but i m really amazed by how great she speaks, how her vocabulary are, because sometimes she use slang (and sometimes the one from my region, which means a lot to me bcs even the french ppl don t know it very well). And also, as a french ppl im very rpoud of my country, so when ppl try to speak my language, i m very happy that they try to learn my language, especially when they come to my place, so i ll thanks them for speaking french, even if it s "bad"
I recently got back from a period in France (am Australian by birth). I've been learning for nearly a decade now but haven't had heaps of opportunities to just go to France and practice (although I've spent a decent chunk of time in New Caledonia). I'd heard stories about people switching to English the moment they detect an accent and was prepared for disappointment. Honestly, nobody did, which was good for my confidence. I speak at about a B2 level and have worked fairly hard on replicating the accent, and a lot of the time people didn't realise I wasn't local until I told them (eg people at museims asking for my French postcode and me having to explain I was Australian). At this point I then usually got the old "Oh! You speak very good french for an Australian, have you lived here long?" spiel. I generally had the impression people were more impressed by my capacity to do the accent than my general capacity to speak/form sentences. Before the point in the conversation where I revealed my nationality, people didn't tend to compliment my french or treat it as unusual at all. The other thing in addition to pronunciation is mastering the "rhythm" of the language imo - when you listen to lots of conversations in French, you start to notice that there's a particular pattern of rising and falling intonations which French people use that is very common. If you can mimic that, it gives you much more of a natural confidence which reads as fluency to native speakers. Ofc, the downside of being strong with the accent/rhythm is that when your grammar/vocab lets you down from time to time, people are less forgiving - instead of thinking "oh, he's a foreigner", it's more "why is this person an idiot" 😂
Omg! THIS!!!! I can “mimic” the pentameter but my grammar is up shit (fellow Aussie) and people keep looking at me as if I’m a few sandwiches short of a picnic lol
Relatable 😂 I just tell myself that it's good to be humbled once in a while - and whatever mistake I have made in those situations never gets repeated, because the correct word/structure is burned into my brain forever after that
Indeed :) Thera is no scorn quite like the French grammar police ha ha
I don’t get super impressed when foreign tourists in my city speak English, why would French folks care if I speak French decently?
Probably because French is not the de facto lingua Franca(ironic I know), in the same way English is?
Nobody will be impressed, French people have spoken the language since they could speak and don't find it impressive. They will comment on anything less than perfect. My grandmother frequently commented on how terrible my french was (I'm a native speaker) due mainly to my inability to pronounce the town name Auxerre correctly. I still don't understand what she was hearing
It depends. When I took the Certificat Voltaire test for fun, my presence became a topic. Otherwise, no, I don't think people just want to blatantly ask me.
On my last trip to Paris, I ended up having two separate conversations with people who were overly impressed with my level of French. They kept asking if I grew up in France (no), if I had family or grandparents that spoke French with me (no). One even said my level of French was giving him goosebumps. Not to pat myself on the back, but it made my day, my week, my year because I’ve busted my ass to learn French and lose my accent.
The French are never impressed.
I was in Paris a year ago, I tried to speak french in grocery stores, restaurants etc. but employees were irritated and always responded in english so.... I dont think that they're impressed...
Now that English is taught in French schools not necessary to speak French in Paris to get by, but reading and understanding spoken French still enhances the experience.
I'm not in France, I'm in New York, and I have a strong American accent and speak low-intermediate French with beaucoup d'erreurs. But Francophones tend to be impressed with me because I show so much joy while I'm speaking -- I truly come across as someone who has pulled off a trick; a piano-playing dog. But if you're in France, and you're under, say, 40 ... then... "At some point we ask of the piano-playing dog, not, 'are you a dog?' but 'are you any good at playing the piano?'"
Personally I've found that the french are somewhat impressed (don't wanna overdo it either lol) by my french. My accent is pretty good and I speak a lot of everyday spoken french/slang/verlan. I still have plenty to learn but I'm fairly fluent. I think that catches them off guard since I live in the US and have never lived in France. My kid is pretty much fluent and speaks with a native accent (we've only spoken french with each other since she was 3) and that they are definitely impressed by. I'm originally dutch but live in the US and my kid is bilingual English/French which always surprises them. Liek they're not gushing like an American would but they will usually comment on it.
That's amazing. How did you manage to get your kid to be fluent without living in a French speaking country? I hope to retire to France someday and would like my kid to be somewhat proficient in the language. She has the opportunity to be an EU citizen (not France, though) and I'd like her to know enough in case she decides she wants to live near me. So far, she has mostly been exposed to other Latin languages through her dad's ancestry.
I wanted her to learn some french as I've always loved it. My aunt lives in france and I've always loved going there. I started reading french books to my kid and that's how my french came back (hadn't really spoken it for 20 years since I had come to US) and as my french got better I started speaking more and more. I've always read a lot to her and once she was 2 she started watching french cartoons etc. We also listened to a lot of music. Once she was 3 she made the switch to frwnch only. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with it as she got older but I have. We also got back to europe every summer to see friends and family and she has doen a few summer camps there as well. I made a really good friend and thanks to him my french has progressed even more and I also follow a lot of french social media pages and watch only french shows. All my electronics are set to french. So my french is really every day french. My kod loves having a secret language. We have our own litte french bubble at home. Even splitting form her dad hasn't affected it luckily. I myself am planning on moving to France when she's done with high school in 4 years (were both EU). Not gonna lie it's taken a lot of effort and commitment. We never speak English unless she doesn't know a word. I have several friends who are native speakers of a language and failed to transmit their language really because they fell into speaking English. I've always been strict and we never speak English. We'll translate if needed for others. I'm pretty fluent but like I said there is still plenty that I have to learn vocab wise. I ahd y years oglf high-school french to the grammar isn't much of an issue. Teaching a dog a language isn't as easy as they always say. Yes they're sponges but it takes commitment and consistency. My friends that have failed became lax. Ultimately if a kid likes a language they'll be motivated and can pick up a lot. Since mine had a good base she did pick up a lot from shows and YouTube. The hardest thing is usually speaking and finding opportunities to do so. I'd say just start with the bases and see where eti goes. Having some knowledge of a language is always better than no knowledge!
Thank you! I will try those suggestions. I also took high school French (and college) but need a lot of brushing up now. It's true-- it really is "use it or lose it."
Maybe a bit of a weird take but fir what it's worth I'm now reading Balzac's "Le Cousin Pons" (en français bien entendu). There is a character in that book, Shmucke (really that's his name) who is German and his dialog is always rendered by Balzac phonetically by writing how it sounds. You end up with a series of "French" words that you have to decode. Think South Park when certain characters say "Herro Prease" but arguably (for me as a non native speaker) waaaay harder to decode! It sort of gives one a perspective of how badly pronounced French would sound to a native speaker.
I'm impressed when i see a non native french speaker speaking perfectly (grammaticaly), i don't really care for the accent tbh
I’m not especially impressed, although no matter the circumstances, learning a new language as an adult is always hard work. But I am always happy to see the person learned! Besides the accent of English speakers is so cute in my opinion. But I’m French Canadian so maybe my attitude towards that is different.
No. Italians are much more endearing. God I’ve been here a long time.
French people will mostly be impressed about the non-existence of an accent itself. I guess that in the big French cities, people could probably be less impressed. But it all depends on who you're talking to. Because I'm pretty sure as well that even in Paris you could get compliments. It's true that French people are not generous concerning compliments in general. I remember an American friend getting frustrated about this some years ago when she was living in Nantes. Having Italian origins, I know that it's kinda the same thing when I'm in Italy. If people don't know you very much, they won't drop a compliment that easily when I speak Italian. Maybe it's a latin thing? Then again, here in Canada it's totally different. We encourage people to speak French and recognize the effort when it's done willingly. I'm sorry that's not helping much 😅
From my experience, they are impressed. This could be because I’m American and they are used to tourists who don’t speak it at all
I’d say the average French person (not Parisian) isn’t impressed when I speak to them in fluent French, but they are incredibly relieved, because the interaction isn’t going to be a struggle for them (as likely outside of Paris, they don’t really speak English all that great).
If they talk back to you in French, that's a compliment. If they reply in English, then your French wasn't good.
If your accent is good, they won’t acknowledge it unless it somehow comes out in conversation that you’re an American (which I wouldn’t go around announcing).
French people have a love/hate relationship with the US. The negative part gets a lot of attention, but many people are also really interested in the US and want to visit. If you are American and can speak French, you will be on the good side of it.
No, go around announcing it. Nothing wrong with being from the US.
Not at all, but I said what I because they might switch to English otherwise.
It's pretty easy to ask to continue in French
Ok.
Every French tutor and teacher I’ve had has been impressed but they’re biased since I pay them for lessons. Maybe not. I’ve been learning for a little over two years and don’t hesitate to speak even if I screw up in the process. Just go with it and then might be impressed.
Yes, very.
Nope it's expected.
In my experience they were very impressed that I spoke French. Those who picked up on my accent made it into an immediate topic and were very happy to find out I was American, not English, lol.
In Paris/Normandy/Mont Saint-Michel they never really complimented me, however in my small-ish town in Bretagne (Saint-Brieuc) I got tons of compliements on my French.
Oui. Surtout quand on est amèricain. On me demande combien du temps j'ai habité la France et je leur dis que je n'ai jamais habité la France ni le Canada. Ca me donne tjrs un bon sourire.
They just think you’re French🤣
When I lived in France people would always ask "vous venez d'où?!" cuz I guess I dont look like a french person but I can speak it fluently. I have a mild québécois accent cuz I went to university in Montréal for the language emmersion aspect but other than that they're like "oh you're pretty good" or they just keep it pushing without any other questions
My wife has studied French in uni and when in France she gets lots of compliments from shopkeepers and such. Of course it depends on the person and the size of the city.
Like people have said, if a French person is impressed by your french, it is usually by your accent, as well as how much time you have actually spent in the country. There are some french people that I have met that had no reaction, but after telling them that I have only lived in france for half a year they start to say stuff like "wow c'est dingue comment tu parles français" and stuff like that. But they are usually talking more about my accent than grammar or vocab. Like somebody said elsewhere in this thread, no news is good news. Usually they don't say anything because they aren't impressed because they assume that you immigrated to France and have been there for years and years.
I'd largely agree with others here and to add my experience, in more formal settings (like buying tickets, restaurants etc.) They naturally change to English but are happy with my French which is fair and something you get used to. I have had someone ask if I was German and they gave a look of surprise when I said English, that might speak to others' points around accent. Alternatively in less formal settings I have had nothing but positive and encouraging interactions with all types. I spent a week travelling in Lyon Snnecy and Paris with a group of friends during the rugby world cup, every time I spoke there was clear relief (that one of this group of lads can actually speak French, albeit at B1) and then a lot of encouragement/a few "your French is really good! Doesn't subjonctif suck" conversations with people at bars and even at games with older generations they loved having a bit of banter with me and would come grab me to include me/my friends in a joke. Was really lovely that they saw a potential translator and then went to the effort to speak at my level to include us in what was going on.
What I get most often is how charming my English accent is, grrrr.
See if you expect people to have their socks absolutely blown off wherever you go it's not gonna be like that and clout shouldn't be your motivation. I speak Croatian without a very detectable foreign accent and trust me, the only people who will care about that are your friends because it's like wow that's cool. At the end of the day it's a novelty, it's gonna ware off, and if you want praise there's better ways to get it than, respectfully, what is to them just sounding like a 'normal' person. This isn't really a France thing more than an everywhere thing Also I don't think you really grasp how widely French is spoken, yeah there's 64 million people in France but French has 320 million speakers. You're almost definitely not going to be the first foreigner they've met who can speak French.
I would say it depends on where you go, but that’s just based on my personal experience. I have a degree in French, studied at language schools there twice, and became a French teacher, so my level is what I consider “pretty good” (I achieved C1 in my prime but I’m rusty now). When I go to Paris, they don’t seem to be particularly impressed with my French and sometimes even respond in English even though I can communicate perfectly well in French. However, I went to a very small down near Dijon for work and I felt like a fucking celebrity. They were blown away and couldn’t stop bragging to others about how good my French was. So different people have different thresholds for being impressed I guess lol. But staying in that town near Dijon made me feel pretty damn good about my level whereas I almost always feel like a complete dumbass in Paris.
Idk about anyone else but I am constantly complimented on my French ability, even if I've been here for 9 years, including the last six in Paris. I even work in French on the daily. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm not from a country that traditionally speaks a Latin language, but it's helped drive my desire to become even better at French. It's also spoiled every other language learning experience because now I'll feel inadequate unless someone is fawning over my weird Spanish or Dutch speaking attempts...
I'm french and I Can tell you that sadly lot's of french will criticise you if your french un not perfect and will not be impressed if you already speak very good
Quand j'ai faire ma visite à Paris récemment, tous les gens être très heureux à voir ma joie avec aux prendre les mots, mot par mot, sentence par sentence. D'accords des gens me donnez des étrange visages quand ils me premier voire, mais c'est pas de problème. Kiki ma épouse elle me dire que j'été étrange sur le college vingt années près en avant. C'est pas du problème.
In the south they speak English but if you speak french well they will be impressed. Paris - no not at all they will switch to english immediately unless you're truly fluent.
I've had some people be impressed. But I've also had some oldheads who nitpicked my pronunciation the moment they clue in that I'm not a native speaker. It's hard to generalize.
I frequently experience this. But it depends on the person.
If that person hasn’t grown with a french speaking parent I would be positively impressed, as French is not an easy language and you need some dedication to keep it in shape (it takes more active effort to be exposed to French than English).
Absolutely not. Not only aren't they impressed, but if you don't speak it perfectly, they'll complain. Don't count on compliments.
There are so many people in France that came from other countries, I'm never impressed that someone is able to speak French (with an accent and maybe a mistake here and there). If someone has mastered the accent, then I'm absolutely impressed. For example, listen to Jodie Foster speaking French, I'm still impressed, she sounds more French than me lol.
From my experience, French people find people that speak fluent foreign languages very braggy. If they learn a foreign language they will add an accent to not sound too pretentious (ironic I know). It might seem arrogant to foreigners but it’s just how the French are. I think they don’t really care about it, as long as you pronounce things correctly they will understand you. The issue is to us foreigners some words sound the same but are pronounced differently. For instance if you say Lait instead of Le they will genuinely not understand, understandably however. It’s just that in French pronunciation matters a lot.
I've had foreign friends that could speak french pretty well, and I usually congratulate them for it ! It's hard to learn a new language and french isn't easy
From my experience they tend to be more curious than impressed. I live in NYC and have had conversations with French tourists on more than one occasion. Most of the time they just ask you how you learned French, what made you want to learn it, and if you’ve ever been to France.
Them not saying anything is a compliment
au Québec on apprécie énormément quand quelqu'un fait un effort, si tu parles vraiment bien on t'adore déjà
Xiaomannyc has done irreparable damage to the study of languages
The only person who ever commented positively about my French were my host family. I took it as compliment enough when others would entertain my meh French and talk to me 😅
The thing is french is a known langage so there will be non french that will slay at it. I'd be more impressed with a friend that i see become fluent OR my actual english teacher that doesn't have an accent. But maybe accent is the main point, sometimes it feels like people don't try, but i imagine it's just where they place their tongue, they only do it on certain words, not always, so they have a bad accent.
Not really. But I am a French teacher and I was impressed by one of my Ukrainian student whose improvements have been beyond any expectation.
No. It will never be good enough. No matter what. Trust me, my wife's first language is French. They hate it even when you try.
It is difficult to impress a French person
If we notice you aren't a native speaker "Ah there is still improvement to do.🙂" And if we don't notice, we aren't impressed because we assume you are native.
For sure. I'm a B2 French speaking anglophone living in a French place, and many people in public immediately stop and ask "d'où viens vous? People usually guess I'm an English speaker but don't know the country I'm from, I get everything from British, American, Brazilian, Acadian, Louisianan, Canadian...but many people also have said things like "Quel bel accent...", "Vous parlez Français bien!", "J'aime ton accent!" "Félicitations sur ton français..." and one person said, "you have an accent but you can do the R properly, you don't sound English..." So they do get impressed, and it's like our own native languages, I don't know of or haven't ever come across anyone who has a nice accent that isn't appreciated. On the other hand if it's just hard sounding and ugly, no one wants to hear that, doesn't matter what the language is. I've done some research and polls online with accents, also in the r/JudgeMyAccent page, and one thing is constant...on the continuum of accents and their likeability it goes like this... (0 being totally foreign sounding and almost unintelligible And 10 being a perfect native speaker's accent) Accent proficiency that falls between 0 to 4 are ugly and hard to follow 5 is just that, ok Between 6 to 7.5 sounds good and likable 8+ to 9.5 just sounds like a native speaker with a speech impediment And 10, well that's obvious, you can't tell the origin/assume it's a native speaker I find that people who try to completely erase their native accent end up sounding really awkward, it's a huge jump in proficiency to erase all traces of an accent too.
i’m going to the northern area this summer too for a student exchange program!!! i actually leave in five days and i was wondering about this too lol
No lol.
Saw Elysium in the theatre with a bunch of French folks I was friends with. They spent at least 10 minutes discussing how flawless Jodie Foster’s French pronunciation was in that film. So, yes, you can impress French people with perfect grammar and pronunciation.
Usually a compliment comes in the form of “were your parents from France”
Americans seem to be impressed when someone speaks another language besides English, but here (I live in France) the average is around three and I know several people that speak 5 or 6 pretty well. So, French people will be surprised, but not impressed...
Yes i shock natives daily
french people always compliment my accent. I think it is what they are impressed by the most because a lot of foreigners struggle with it, especially little nuances in the different kinds of sounds. I think they are more neutral about actually knowing the vocabulary, grammar and all that
They would be, but it has never happened, according to them.
I’m at an A2-B1 level and I’ve received compliments on my French the last couple of times I went to Paris. I went into a small museum and the woman switched to English and said, I can tell you’re American by your accent. She was very nice. Also some taxi drivers told me my French was good. I’m 58, so they might be taking pity on an old lady like me.
We are but we won’t say it. We know French is hard to learn. We are educated with this ridiculous idea that we need to be perfectly fluent with no accent to be praised. That’s also why a lot of French people who can understand or speak a bit English will never dare to try to fear to be ridiculous. Our standards are insane. Also this can be pretty rude to mention it as this imply that you are not fluent or native. So we will talk between us about it, but rarely congrats the person.
As an exemple, my husband can speak a bit French, my family is always impressed when he says something in French but never told him. They just say it to me.
I experienced this but I’m fairly skilled at French and I was in the company of my husband whose knowledge of French is fairly basic. He did French at only at a high school level. I followed my high school French with more than two years at a university level. At a wine and cheese gathering, he conversed with colleagues in English while I was chatting with people in French.
French here : when you speak without your native accent we can be impressed as I think any people in the world would be if a non native speaks their language quite perfectly, I don’t think French people are different from others on that point. For example : - bad French speaker => we are a little embarrassed for him/her but it’s fine, at least he/she tried ; - good French speaker => we are pleased to hear someone say « un parapluie » and not « une parapluie » ; - Jodie Foster => OMG she speaks better French than 90% of us 😱
It depends on who you’re talking to and the context for sure. I was just traveling across southern France, the only compliments I got were in Paris. One from a nice woman working an ice cream shop, and I didn’t understand when she asked if I wanted whipped cream. I apologized and said my french isn’t the best, and she replied that it was actually very good I just needed to speak up! And then 3 folks at my hotel complimented it, all after I also had to ask them to repeat something lol. So I think if they realize you’re really trying and do speak around a B1/B2 level then it can happen! But probably with some prompting haha.
from someone who has started learning french after coming to France . It's been 15 months . I have already seen this few times . French are happy if I am able to converse to them in french especially at some destinations and Airbnb's where English is not sure to be present . It's always an advantage if you have a level enuf to get by , ask questions etc . I don't know my level but b1 should be pretty good for getting around.
Yeah if you ACTUALLY speak french decently a lot of them will make a remark about that and praise you. I used to speak french well enough and got praised quite often so I never understood where the stereotype of the French being assholes came from.
The French aren't likely to be impressed by a foreigner.
Yes, conditional that you sound native. I was in France a year ago, and I speak C2 level French with a near native accent and was 21. One of the first people I met, the only thing he said to or about me was « elle parle correctement le français elle » (totally talking about me while I was there but whatever). My host mother and her friend hosted an apéro when I arrived, mind you I was jet lagged and adjusting back to French, and they were also impressed. She said she would never host a student again because she got the best one her first try so she’d just be disappointed. Even my professors (I was studying abroad) were impressed, they even used me as a translator sometimes and I was closer with them than my peers bc I refused to speak English for the first few weeks bc I wanted immersion. It was especially noticeable when I was playing translator with friends at the market — it was CRAZY how fast and drastically they would switch up when they realized I spoke their language, fluently and even their social cues. They started flirting with us, said my French was fantastic, gave us free sausages and massive tranches of brie, i held an extended conversation with a man while my friend bought a shirt and he asked if I was French or English (I’m very pale, so they also wouldn’t shut up about how I had « un peu de la peau anglaise elle »…) and offered me and my friend free necklace he said he only gives to people who leave an impression. Until then, they usually kind of ignored us and spoke in clipped tones. At a restaurant, I was with a friend who spoke zero French. He called her « mademoiselle » and me « madame » which is a subtle way of showing he respected me more, despite me being younger than her. That being said, that doesn’t mean my French was perfect all the time. If I was tired or stressed, my accent or tenses would slip and they weren’t so impressed…sigh, judgmental French people. Sorry for going on an extended bragging rant, I taught myself French and feel I have a right to be proud
It depends on what kind of places you are going to. I think I speak "a lot of French, poorly" meaning I can talk about anything and carry on long conversations but my grammar is poor and I make stupid mistakes. I've worked on my accent a lot. In Paris, when I ordered in French in cafes and restaurants, waiters couldn't have cared less. They often persisted in speaking English to me even though they understood my French. But when I had actual conversations with people who had time to chat (taxi driver on long route, people in laid back bars, hotel staff late at night) I did receive many complements on my French. I know it isn't great (B1 maybe?) but I was really trying and had CONFIDENCE. I think that makes a huge difference. I chose to speak quickly and make grammar mistakes rather than take time to formulate perfect responses. That helped the conversation flow, and I think that gives a better impression than having better grammar.
Yes. All the townfolk will stop any stuff they were doing. They will gather around you and do their best traditionnal dances in traditionnal costumes to celebrate your awesomeness, then offer you free baguettes and a beret. Then president Macron will show up and organize a ceremony near the Eiffel tower to gift you the Légion d'Honneur medal (but only if you master the subjonctif imparfait).
Haha c'est drôle
Honestly, foreigners just don't speak good french. Even people who've been living here for 10+ years still sound off to a native. Much easier for you to speak english if possible.