i once politely asked some middle-aged lady in Paris a question in English. She understood me perfectly fine and proceeded to give me detailed directions in french.
I’m still not sure what that was about.
(I’m very obviously not British or US-American, so that wasn’t it.)
Maybe she could understand English but wasn’t good at speaking it? English pronunciation is kind of tricky. It doesn’t explain why she thought you would understand French, though.
I thought French people hated it when you talked English to them without even saying Bon jour first.
i once politely asked some middle-aged lady in Paris a question in English. She understood me perfectly fine and proceeded to give me detailed directions in french.
I’m still not sure what that was about.
(I’m very obviously not British or US-American, so that wasn’t it.)
Maybe she could understand English but wasn’t good at speaking it? English pronunciation is kind of tricky. It doesn’t explain why she thought you would understand French, though.
Its only the Parisians. If you start in English they rightly see that as rude.
But if you start in French they also hate it and are at pains to let you know how much your French sucks and how they couldn’t understand it.
Which, would be fair enough, but seems suspicious when the rest of France can.