Not Knowing the Language

There are a lot of ideas out there about how rude the French are. And, certainly, there must be rude French out there, because, well, that just seems like a outgrowth of the law of large numbers or something. But in our week in Paris, I have to say that we didn't encounter anyone who was rude, at least by my standards. Now, those standards are based on living in D.C. and commuting by Metro every day during rush hour, so they are generous standards. But I have to say, I didn't observe any behavior that was even that close to the line. Instead, we encountered a lot of friendly folks.

We did make an effort, however, to use some French. Always start with a bonjour, ask, politely, if your interlocutor speaks English, if you don't want to muddle through with phrasebook French . . . and so on. There were few situations in which the French we encountered really didn't speak English. Remember that the French are much more formal in speech than Americans. You simply must say "please," and "thank you," but in French, of course. I think that these are important, if you want to be treated politely yourself. It is, after all, their country, and they speak a different language there.

I suspect that many Americans try to skip some of these steps, and that you might get a different treatment if you started out in English. Just speaking English as though everyone does, of course . . . that probably strikes people as arrogant, eh?

But I think that there is also a fair amount of projection at work, here, too. Because if the French are rude to those who don't speak English, well, I have to believe that that is equally true of visitors to the United States who don't speak (much) English. My guess that the overwhelming majority of foreign tourists to the U.S. speak a great deal more English than I speak French. But I've seen the folks who have phrasebook English, at best, around D.C. I see more than my fair share of tourists. If a foreign tourist was trying to get something to eat at Union Station, without speaking (much) English, I doubt that that person would come away with a good impression of Americans--either the Americans behind the counter or in line behind them. My guess is that ordinary Americans, the salt of the earth, would have a rather "rude" and impatient reaction to foreigners who can't speak the language.

And it seems that Americans have a view of English that we often attribute to the French about French. Like, not understanding why anyone would speak any other language. There's that whole "taking things for granted" aspect of human nature at work here.