• Cheesus@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    2 days ago

    Ugh, so annoying, especially considering that they probably make mistakes they don’t realize as well, because ‘standard French’ is at its core a Parisian dialect that is frozen in the 17th century. Also, unless they were born in and around l’île de France and surrounding areas, they’re great grandparents probably didn’t even speak French, but the local patois that French unceremoniously wiped off the face of the earth.

    • whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      great grandparents

      Dont need to go that far for me: one of my grand father was born in 1906, so in the German Empire, he never learned French and was actually quite lost when he was send to Paris after WW1 for the military conscription without any French word in his lexical

      My two other grand-parents were born before WW2 and went to German school during the annexation of Alsace-Moselle so their French were not as good as their german or alsatian

  • drre@feddit.orgEnglish
    41·
    2 days ago

    tbh this is not my experience at all. i started learning French during the pandemic and have cultivated a certain degree of francophily ever since. my impression is that young people in the cities are eager to switch to English (or even German, my accent shows apparently) but the older folks are happy to take whatever garbage i throw at them. so, No, they are as kind and welcoming as one might one want them to be.

    • wieson@feddit.orgEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Totally agree. It happened to me multiple times that when my french was stuck, they switched to a bad English or whatever was possible. Never have I had a bad experience.

      Additionally, correcting someone can be seen as a helpful act by some cultures. Who knows.

    • jtrek@startrek.websiteEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      I’ve only been to Montreal, but no one there was unkind about it. I’m really bad at French and the worst response I got was a, like, “it sounds weird when you stop and start so much, but you’ll get there”. Granted, i mostly stuck to English.

  • python@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    Idk, the french seem pretty nice to Nigel Richards (the world champion for french scrabble, he does not speak any french at all)

    • Noite_Etion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Thank you for sending me down that rabbit hole, dude also won the spanish championship and speaks neither language.

      What a legend.