I speak reasonably good French...even better in 1987 when I went to France and was still using it more frequently than I do now...but most of the time, the people I tried to speak it to ignored me until I gave up and tried in English. Then they glared at me for being an arrogant 'merican who doesn't speak the language.
Pretty much every other European country we visited (Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Italy) treated us nicely, even though we didn't know the languages there.
It was sad, really, that the only time I actually got to use French on our European vacation was on the train from Paris to Nice, where we chatted with a French couple who sat with us. They, at least, were very nice.
As a general rule, if I was in a foreign country where I didn't know the language (like the aforementioned ones), I would not be terribly offended if a shopkeeper expected me to speak the local language and wouldn't serve me for not understanding. I'd just go somewhere else. If I *lived* in the country, I'd learn the language. |
