I am not fond of the inferiority complex of the slavs that this map postulates
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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Depends what part of Italy. In many places the reaction will be to speak faster in a more regional accent so you give up
Also, this map assumes that English is the local language across Great Britain and Ireland, which is a contentious claim. If a foreigner showed up in, say, Swansea and tried their best to speak Welsh, or visited the gaeltacht and attempted to order a pint of Guinness in poorly accented Irish, would the locals’ reaction be quite so blasé?
Do most Irish people actually understand spoken Irish?
Tha. Tha am mapa seo gòrach.
Tap for spoiler
Scottish Gaelic for "Yes. This map is stupid."
@D_a_X (me: German) Danish train, I: struggling with Danish.
"We can both save so much time if we just stick to English."
😶
And you appreciated the fuck out of that efficiency, right?
@Lumidaub Whilst feeling deeply intimidated, when her eyes turned inward with that "just another tourist trying their Germish on me" expression on her face.
So ... considering that most French people don't speak good English, either, they just don't want to talk to people who aren't native French speakers?
This image is a meme. Don't assume it's true, leg alone for all regions and situations. The only region and context where this is true, in my experience is professional interactions with Parisians. They will hate on how people from other departments speak even.
Even in professional interactions with people from other departments I've never really had issues being understood with my non-perfect French when it was only at a level where I clearly only had school-French.
In non professional context most people will just be happy they can talk to you and be impressed you can while often they can't speak another language very well, most of the time.
It's complicated. I think they would love to, but many don't understand french unless it's perfect, and they can get upset about faux pas made by foreigners without realizing it's tied to a high degree of mastering the language—address them without saying bonjour first and they might get offended. On the other side they often seem self aware about speaking English so many try to avoid it. But none of these things should be interpreted as a lack of interest—my impression is that many of the people it's hard to get through to would genuinely love to talk to people from all over the world. They just struggle to get to that point.
What I want to know is, why do the French seem to struggle with this so much more than native speakers of other languages? And I bet that on average, tourists in France speak way better French than tourists in, say, Germany speak German, not because it's easier but because French is a very common second/third language, especially for the kinds of people who go travelling/sightseeing in Europe.
French pronounciation is pretty tricky, and French is a very standardized language. So most places you go to in France, at least of bigger cities, people speak French very similarly to in Paris. People are not used to hearing variations.
German is a germanic language of course, which is the same as English. So if you speak English you already know one language in the same language family, and your guess of pronouncing it will be better than when you attempt French coming from the same skill level. Germans are also used to amny strange dialects - while many struggle with the Swiss and certain Austrians, most have heard it enough to make it work. So that might help them.
That said, there's individual variation, and English speakers are unusually good at understanding variations of English as everybody hears all kinds of English all the time. Many europeans struggle a lot more to understand foreigners doing their best to pronounce their language—it's not just the French.
That's my theories on the matter, anyway!
This is totally not my experience at all. Parisian French as a "standard" is literally reviled by many people. And it's usually not the exact same in the other departments. Let alone what is spoken colloquially. In Dijon in the Bourgogne-Comté department French pronunciation is extremely different from that of the Parisian accent. For a non-native French speaker from Belgium it literally even feels like how French is spoken in Wallonie. Same thing in Lyon or Rennes.
And if we include the overseas departments it's even more so of course. That difference is bigger than Flemish Dutch and Holland's Dutch.
The French kinda want you to speak French when you’re there. However, there are a lot of English speakers in Paris and Marseille who are delighted to practice their English and hear you try French. Good luck in the countryside though.
Brave of you to assume I as an American could identify those countries without labels.
Germany: You overestimate the general population's ability to speak English.
The German level of most short term visitors (as opposed to people who want to stay long term) is low enough that most Germans' English ability is still better.
Tschermanie: Ju ova-estimeit ze tscheneral abil-ete toh speek Englisch.
Romania can flip between why bother and instant friendship.
It also flips for Belgium: "hey, I tolerated you speaking french for 18 minutes, not bad"
England : Shout at them slowly with pronounced pauses between words.
In France, younger people are as happy to speak English as the Dutch and Scandinavians are, but over a certain age (somewhere over 60, possibly varying by region), they would express umbrage at you coming to their country without being able to bloody well parle français. Some of them drive taxis for a living.
I had very bad experiences with younger french people too. Like they are appalled by foreigners trying to speak french. I will just speak English to them in the future. I am German I learned it, they can learn it too.
there needs to be linguistic borders not political ones.
try to speak Spanish in Catalunya and there will be no reaction, speak Catalan and you unlock life long best friends
Belgium and Switzerland false
Switzerland depends on french/italian/german part and additionally on the canton.
Pretty much fits the tribes mentality + climate. Plus UK & french colonial empire' past.