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For the same reason everybody who wasn't French in that video used English - it's the international language of business. Also because most educated French peop
by wilfra 14y ago
For the same reason everybody who wasn't French in that video used English - it's the international language of business. Also because most educated French people can speak it just fine, they just refuse to.
- _delirium 14y agoMany French people I've met are very unconfident about their spoken English, so prefer to avoid it if possible. Reading and writing is fine, but they worry that nobody will be able to understand their speech, or that they'll make an embarrassing gaffe.
- jvzr 14y agoIndeed. We are very aware of our flaws and almost ashamed of our french accent. Some know it may be an asset elsewhere (especially cause some people find it charming), but the whole rest prefer to avoid it. I don't think it's intentionally targeted at the English, kind of like a revenge for some Napoleonian shenanigan or whatever. Just damn aware that we speak badly.
- raverbashing 14y agoThey are usually right, unfortunately And their accent still shows (like a sore thumb) even when their English is good. Same for English speaking people speaking French. (Except Canadians, I think their French accent is a kind of 'impedance matching') I think I saw a couple of French people with very good English and almost no accent though.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- antr 14y agoThis is not about business, this is about introducing a bank note to the citizens of the Eurozone, of which 65 million are French. The EU has linguistic rights and to say "they refuse to" speak English is taking away their rights and protection.
- flyinRyan 14y agoMaybe they still have hope of French taking this role back. Though personally I'd bet on German before French.