An associate and I went to France recently for business, and when we walked into a cafe we went over to the counter and asked, "Do you speak English?" in our very American accents, just to see if they were so contemptuous of Americans as everyone says they are. The people behind the counter looked at each other and smiled, then started jabbering away at us in French. People in the cafe also started talking and some people even got up and came over to us to shake our hands, smile at us, and jabber. I guess they were doing that because they ARE contemptuous of Americans, and they thought we couldn't speak French. Then after we'd taken it for a while, my associate looked around at them all and smiled back, and started to jabber back at THEM in French, and they all looked really shocked, and everyone stopped talking except for him.
Why do the French act that way toward us?
2006-12-01
17:15:36
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11 answers
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asked by
Kaylie
2
in
Other - Cultures & Groups