why the French people despise the English language?

Answer 1

Hello!
I don't think French people hate English, they just can't speak it. As a French person who lived in the US. French people love the English language and they are having hard time speaking it; so some of them they don't admit this fact and they act like they hate English. In the metro station for example, I always help British/Americans or whoever speak the languages I know and I show them the directions. Some French people don't and walk away, not because they are racists; but because they don't understand what the others are saying. There are always exceptions. i am not going to lie; I won't stereotype French people but racists exist everywhere.

Answer 2

Absolute rubbish! The French do not despise the English language and it is the first foreign language you learn at school in France. I would say that on balance many more French people speak English than the reverse and modern generations speak it very fluently. English resistance to learning Foreign languages is a well documented fact. I have even heard children refusing to learn French because "It is useless crap"(sic).
The French Academy is simply trying to avoid English/ American expressions progressively supplanting perfectly adequate French equivalents. If there is no French equivalent they are quite happy to adopt the English forms.
All this talk of "ingratitude" and "we saved their bacon in the wars" etc...is just unfounded prejudice.The French were extremely grateful. I should know, I lived in France for several years after the war.
You just have to look at some of the answers in Yahoo to see that the boot is often on the other foot, and there are frequent disparaging or insulting comments about the French, especially from people who have never set foot in France.
If people saw what went on in the Channel towns and the behaviour of some day trippers that go over, get plastered and then wreck the bars where they have been drinking and create affrays all over the place, the English would be ashamed. As for some of the Americans who go to France, they often treat the natives like dirt, speak to them as if they were inferiors and expect them to be servile and lick the dirt off their shoes. No wonder the French keep their distance.Yes, the Americans have helped Europe, but at a price. Has Britain not just finished paying the masive interest on the money they so generously lent in 1946?
I just cannot believe the silly prejudices I see in Yahoo Answers.It is very simple, the English do not know who their friends are!

Answer 3

As far as I know, the French people in general don't despise the English language but they are very concerned that the widespread use of English could make all other languages obsolete and "ruins" their own language by mixing English words and phrases in it, which is seen by many people as a loss of culture. As a consequence, many refuse to speak English, which of course may be seen as despising the English language.

Answer 4

In general, only those French people that have a zero or poor command of English are likely to despise it. You may have this impression because of the French Academy, which tries to "rule" on which foreign words or phrases are accepted. This is an attempt to keep French as free as possible from foreign influence and usually means avoiding anglicisms, but they are fighting a losing battle.

Answer 5

They don't despise it, the French very sensibly protect their own language and culture against the American influence that has spread throughout the world. Either by commerce or force.

Because English is spoken in America, the French are particularly sensitive about it emerging in their own language, as in,'Le Weekend'.

If America had adopted German as their language, the French would have no more issue with English than they would with Spanish.

Answer 6

They do not despise the English language, they just want to keep France, French.

Answer 7

Some of the answers I've just read are really stupid. It would be interesting to compare the number of French people speaking English an the number of English speaking people knowing French. I guess the result would be quite amazing.

Answer 8

The reason that some french people despise the english language is they think we are to sloppy and don't come up to there standards.

Answer 9

People say that English is one of the most complex languages to learn with the words spelt the same but different meanings, different regions have their own words and strong accents AND most European countries have Masculine and Feminine words, England is the exception.
IE) It's une regle in France(1 ruler but is feminine)
England is just a ruler, no gender in the words

It seems simple to 60 million people in the UK and the hundreds of millions in the USA

Answer 10

The French despise any THING that is not "French". Period. Stuck ups. Pride. That's all. Theirs is a dying language, not that it will die, just that it is not used in economic circles(banking and finance). After all at one time way back when, they were a world power to reckon with with a large army(Napoleonic days)
Why do you think that French is the language of some nations in the Pacific. French conquered them. Same goes for Portuguese...and spanish. These are the guys that checked out the unknown world for the first time Read some history.