Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundae Girl
So they are incredibly protective of their language, and don't like anyone to mangle it. They also like to show off their education (this is in fact justified - I spent a month in France aged 16 and was impressed with the school I attended). ...... In Paris, the same will speak English to you with a weary air, and continue to address you in English even when you struggle on in French.
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Bingo. Couldn't have put it better myself. The Parisiens particularly like to show how sophisticated their English is, and also have little patience for the stumbling French of foreigners. An interesting thing I learned was that French people who go abroad to teach French are often from the South, and Foreigners who want to be French teachers tend to spend most of their "in-country" time in south, so many foreigners speak French with an "inferior' Southern accent! my French certainly has a southern accent. When I was 11, the Parisiens refused to speak French to me. When I was 16, a newspaper vendor asked me what I thought about the rail crash that had occurred near the southern French town my teacher was from
