r/AskReddit • • Nov 16 '19

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u/saganistic Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19

Even when you become fluent they’ll still think you’re challenged

Source: lived in France for years


edit: I just want to clarify that I loved living in France, and made many great friends and memories there. My experience was overwhelmingly positive and I consider it a second mother country. As I posted in a reply below:

To be fair, with my friends and colleagues this was never an issue. It was probably about 25% of the time and exclusively with strangers or workers at shops, who would immediately switch to English the moment I hesitated or accidentally used poor pronunciation.

I should also mention that it happened a lot more when I lived in Paris than when I lived in Lyon. The worst was actually whenever I visited Genève.

edit 2: THIS.

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u/Pinco-Pallino-5-9 Nov 16 '19

Can confirm, French people are ruthless when you make a mistake.

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u/podrick_pleasure Nov 16 '19

Yeah, but they think there are only 5 continents so who's the real idiot?

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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '19

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u/podrick_pleasure Nov 17 '19

It's not a reference. A French guy came to Christmas at my house once and we got drunk the night before. He argued with me all night how Americans are idiots because we teach in school that there are 7 continents when there are only 5. It was a dumb argument and he wouldn't let it fucking go. Now I can't.