say the restaurant owner is a Parisian woman, a native French who prefers to speak French more than English. after you ask her a few questions in French about the items on the menu, she suddenly changes topic and makes the comment %26quot;oh, you must be Canadian%26quot;. what would your reaction be to that? would you get embarrassed about your French, offended by her remark or shrug it off as harmless small talk?
Canadian french speakers, do you get this a lot: when you go to a French restaurant owned by a French person?
Don't be offended; I don't know if you are Canadian/French Canadian at all but, in France, North Americans (and we Brits as well, if it comes to that) are notorious for not attempting to speak foreign languages. If a French person hears French spoken with what appears to be a North American accent, they often jump to the conclusion that the person must be Canadian.
Canadian french speakers, do you get this a lot: when you go to a French restaurant owned by a French person?
haha, i'd personally get offended.
but that's me.
Don't get offended....
I'm english and speak pretty good french, I have no problem speaking french, however my accent is obviously english. I get alot of people making comments about me being english, yet I've made the effort to talk to them in their language.
If it's just that, it's harmless small talk, the same a person from Marseille would get if he talked French in a Canadian restaurant; the accent is just noticeable and is part of the identity of the person.
The one time I got offended is in Paris.
I am married to a French guy and my accent and his have become mingled, so people in Canada mistake me for a French person and people in France mistake him for a Canadian. So it's obvious I have a pretty mild accent.
But some Parisians have a snobbish attitude when it comes to accents. So one time I had to go at the Air France counter to retrieve a ticket I had bought online. So I nicely ask for it from the girl there, with my most neutral accent possible and slowly, because I know how Parisians are.
And the girl goes %26quot;Pardon ??%26quot;, looking at me as if I've just started speaking martian. So I repeat, more slowly yet, as if I was talking to a mentally challenged person. Same result.
Starting to fume, I ask exactly the same question... in English! There she starts to babble, then go around the counter to fetch someone who could speak English. It took 4 of them to be able to serve me in English, all the while their counters were left unmanned and people waiting.
When I finally got my ticket, I leaned over to the first girl and told her %26quot;Merci infiniment de l'excellent service.%26quot;
Then enjoyed the startled expressions from her colleagues before I left.
My hubby, a guy from the south of France with no love lost for the Parisians, found it hilarious that someone would be so stuck-up about accents she'd end up serving her French-speaking customer in English.
French Canadian accents are lovely I'd rather have the Canadian accent than a Parisian one ; Shrug it off as harmless small talk, I'm British and live in France , it's just one of those French Things they always pick up on any accent (anything that's just the slightest bit different) and feel they have to comment on it, I've gotten used to it by now, at least now more and more people ask what part of the country I'm from and don't automatically think I'm foreign , so my French must be getting better LOL.
I've came across this attitude before In France when in conversations with French people about holidays in Canada, they complain ( tongue in cheek style) about the difficulties they had in understanding the accent. I don't think it's anything nasty , it's just the way they are.
France seems to be divided into 2 parts sometimes , those who are Parisian and those who are not , Parisians are well known for their big headed stubbornness. I know ..... I'm married to one. LOL.
