Originally Posted by gilpin
I'm glad to hear you had a good experience at CDG, pgalore. What you encountered was exactly the opposite of what I endured in the exact same situation there several years ago. Perhaps things have improved, though I doubt it..
I think you missed my first point which was, if you assume that someone will be unwilling to help you, that negative outlook may on a subconscious level effect your interaction with them, and basically be self-fullfilling. I'm sure that you would agree that it is better to have a postive outlook, and hope for the best.
Originally Posted by gilpin
First, the phrase "est-ce qu'il n y a pas quel que chose qu'on pourrait faire" consitutes more than "a few words of the local lingo" for the non-French speaker, particularly in a time-critical situation. Surely you didn't look this up in a dictionary while standing there...
Well, yes my French is pretty good actually, and this is something I'm quite proud of. But what I really meant was the same as what others had said: know and
use "merci", "pardonnez-moi", etc. It really makes a much more positive impression, and people are more willing to help in general.
Yes, I've also received the snide looks before also. My grammer and accent could be improved, sans doute. My experience is that in Paris, the snide looks tend to be given out much more readily than in other parts of France or Europe. "Fier" is a word I would use to describe how many French feel about their language. And rightly so, for (at least to me) it is a very beautiful sounding language. However, I do also think that it is also just
common courtesy to
try to speak the local language, or "when in Rome, do as the Romans do".
One of the places I visited over the past two weeks was in the South of France, and some of the people I was working with did not speak very much English
at all. So I asked them, (en francais) "would you rather speak in English or French" Of course, they said that they would rather speak in French. For most people, it is much easier and natural for them to converse in their native tongue, no matter how much English they've learned.
Originally Posted by gilpin
Secondly it is not "presumptious" <sic> to assume that "everyone is willing and able to speak in English" at Delta Air Lines. Delta is an American company.
Excuse me, but I did not say specifically "Delta Airlines". I was referring to Europe as a whole, not specifying American companies in Europe. I actually do agree with you that American chains in Europe should have more English speaking employees, and from my experience, they do.
The point is (which seems to have been largely missed) that people enjoy speaking in their native tongue, and it shows courtesy to try to speak the language rather than not even make the attempt.
As far as being taken advantage of, while I did not witness this recently, I only suggested it because it seems like it could very easily happen. In Germany, going to the airport with two other non-Deutsch speaking Americans I met in the hotel, the taxi driver told us it was a flat funf und dreizig.. He did not speak very much English and the Americans spoke no German. He could have very well charged them funf und achtzig, and they would have been none the wiser -
because they had no clue as to what he was saying!
I really have not encountered this, the majority of people that I met were sehr nett und gentile, I only put it out there to demonstrate how easy it is to take advantage of someone who has no clue as to what is being said.
If you don't want to be courteous, if you don't want to receive special treatment, and if you want to run the risk of being taken advantage of, by all means, speak and understand only English when travelling abroad - and don't bring a dictionary with you either!
