While working in France a couple of decades ago, I found that I got better service if I botched the accent and stuck to basic language (which I was ok at) than

While working in France a couple of decades ago, I found that I got better service if I botched the accent and stuck to basic language (which I was ok at) than if I tried to match accent, use l'argot and sound native (which is my tendency) and screwed up language. It was a helluva realization about psychology.