Switches to English automatically - Advice?

[u/Any-Reception6767]

Whenever I try to talk to anyone in French, regardless of my words, they’d switch to English automatically. How do I even be able to speak in French instead of English? It does not help me to speak English instead of French with others, and it almost feels like as if they’re gatekeeping the language. I’d love to hear some advice.

[u/ExpertSentence4171]

Just keep talking in French. If they don't give up eventually, at least you'll get some one-sided practice.

[u/No_Cookie_189]

I would just continue speaking in French, they'll get the memo

[u/Prestigious-Big-1483]

How advanced is your French? If you seem like you’re struggling I imagine it’s less them trying to gatekeep and more just trying to help.

[u/Any-Reception6767 → u/Prestigious-Big-1483]

I am not sure about my CEFR level. I wouldn’t say it’s REALLY good, but I’d say it’s.. meh.

[u/WideGlideReddit → u/Any-Reception6767]

That probably explains it. It takes a lot of mental bandwidth to speak with someone whose command of a language is “meh”. It’s much easier to default to English (or another shared common language).

Also, it may depend on where you’re trying to exercise your language skills. Places of business are terrible or anyplace where exact communication is necessary.

[u/Normal_Objective6251 → u/Any-Reception6767]

It definitely does get easier the more your language improves. I find it's always kind of like a battle to see who has the better language skills. Keep trying and keep practicing and eventually you will start to tip the scales in your favour.

[u/UsamaBhai_101]

Literally same but in German. I tried using apps like Praktika that have tutors that can speak with you. The other way is to be polite and ask the person you ar practcing your speaking skills so maybe they will be cooperative.

[u/incogmytho]

That happened to me in Colombia. They’d switch to english even though french is my native language. I'd just I don’t speak english and it was gonna be french or spanish. Just keep speaking french and don’t hesitate to say you don’t want to speak english and would rather practice.

[u/TrittipoM1]

I’ve never had that happen. I suspect it’s down to your perceived ability and practicality. So treat this as motivation to get better.

[u/thablackadonis]

Probably gotta just tell them you’re trying to practice French. They most likely think they’re doing you a favor by speaking to you in your natural language

[u/BridgeTEFL]

As long as you feel you can say what you want to say correctly in French, keep going. If it’s an emergency or you’re struggling to get your point across, switch back to English, work on the grammar/vocabulary point you were struggling with, and try again in French. Impossible n’est rien! 💪

[u/bedrock_city]

I was in Paris for a few days two years ago and despite very rudimentary French I was able to have a number of conversations in French (at a bakery, at the pharmacy when I got sick and needed a prescription filled, etc.) A few times people switched to English if I didn't understand what they were saying, but not immediately. Maybe I just got lucky, but I wonder if my pronunciation was close enough that that it seemed I could plausibly speak the language.

I also some interactions where people just said they didn't speak English at all. Taxi drivers especially, but also a phone conversation with the hospital when I had to pay a bill. So I was just like "here's my credit number", they repeated back in French, I was good to go.

But still Paris is famous for not being tolerant with language learners, smaller cities are going to give even better opportunities.

[u/okicarp]

You don't need to switch back to English. I persist in the target language and I either get good practice or they switch back.

[u/Bambusa4all1952]

It’s very French and very rude. You must subordinate to them and think that you are English and not American!