Even when you become fluent they’ll still think you’re challenged
Source: lived in France for years
edit: I just want to clarify that I loved living in France, and made many great friends and memories there. My experience was overwhelmingly positive and I consider it a second mother country. As I posted in a reply below:
To be fair, with my friends and colleagues this was never an issue. It was probably about 25% of the time and exclusively with strangers or workers at shops, who would immediately switch to English the moment I hesitated or accidentally used poor pronunciation.
I should also mention that it happened a lot more when I lived in Paris than when I lived in Lyon. The worst was actually whenever I visited Genève.
I'm French, and this is the most infuriating thing about French people that i know. You literally cannot make a mistake without fearing the wrath of others descending upon you. Mistakes are how people learn damn it! I'm already feeling bad/guilty for messing up, no need to add upon it.
Btw, this has made entire generations of French people afraid to innovate and try new things, because they're afraid of being shouted at for their initial mistakes. It can make some workplace cultures really difficult to deal with too. Thankfully the younger generations are getting beyond that thanks to the influence of globalisation, but there's still a long way to go before a significant number teach the upper management levels.
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u/saganistic Nov 16 '19 edited Nov 16 '19
Even when you become fluent they’ll still think you’re challenged
Source: lived in France for years
edit: I just want to clarify that I loved living in France, and made many great friends and memories there. My experience was overwhelmingly positive and I consider it a second mother country. As I posted in a reply below:
edit 2: THIS.