Do many people speak english in France?

Question

I will be going to France very soon, but I know only minimal french. I'm going with a tour group but we will be on our own to order lunches, shop, etc, and I am kind of nervous about communicating in French. For those who have been there, are there many english-speaking people in the major tourist areas? or is it fairly hard to communicate with others?

Answer 1

Qu'est-ce qu'elle raconte ?

Answer 2

I'm french and i know for a fact that their english is pretty bad! But English is a mandatory course at school and more or less everyone know how to speak it a bit! Of course their accent is hard to understand :) But don't worry even if a few french people are rude and grumpy, most of them will help you out with your french anyway!! have a nice trip!

Answer 3

Yes, they speak, more precisely, they understand, but they don't like to speak (especially in Paris). But in the touristic areas you'll find a lot of people speaking English and glad to help you. So, don't worry, you'll have a great trip !

Answer 4

i have travelled to france and i have met many people who know english.i hope you will have a great time

Answer 5

In a survey, conducted by French market research institute IFOP for the weekly newspaper Dimanche Ouest 6% said they understood and spoke it well, and 48% said they "more or less" understood English but did not speak it fluently. Put another way, only 34% said they didn't speak English.

In major tourist areas, such as Paris, almost everyone in the service industry speaks at least some English.

However, even if your French is very limited, give it a try. My own experience is that the French (even the supposedly terribly rude Parisians) are very indulgent towards someone who is clearly making a sincere effort to communicate in their language. Over the years I've generally gotten a lot more smiles than frowns even when butchering the French language and sounding like a retarded 12 year old.

Answer 6

If you plan on staying in Paris, you ll encounter many people speaking some english, but if you move to middle or small size french cities, you may have more difficulties to communicate with locals, I would advise you to aim young people, at least under 35 years old, they may have a better knowledge of english.

As it was said before, people are more keen to speak in english when you attempt to say few things in their native language, otherwise if you show up and just speak in english , i think it is considered rude worldwide.

Answer 7

You shouldn't have a problem.  The fact that you know some French means that they will warm up to you.

I'd like to challenge you to step out of your comfort zone.  Use what you know of the language.  I think you will surprize your self.  What is the worst that could happen?  You might make a mistake?  They arn't grading your homework or paying your bills.  You'll just laugh it off and move on.  But then you'll learn from the mistake and know better what to say next time.  Take the pressure off.  And above all - have fun!  The french like to have a good time as much as the next person.  So put on your smile, stop being scared of making mistakes, resolve to have some fun - and use that French!

Answer 8

Still recently french people who have to deal with strangers had a high level of $ understanding - $ enabled miracles in terms of mutual comprehension -

You should worry more about $ weakness, than language ones - even if you were a french-language wonder, but as my father said, without a dime and a passport, people would definitely not understand you at all.

Qu'est-ce qu'elle raconte ???  Rien - des quonneries - ça va passer après la piqûre

Answer 9

The young french people speak the same of me. They can have a conversation if you speak slowlyt. For the old people they don't speak nothing and the adult have some notions if they don't do buissnes or other type of job where you should speak English. The problem of the french people it's that they don't want speak English because they think that they can't. Because in English's class we write a lot but we don't speak a lot

Answer 10

Hi, I am french and I have no problem when I am living in NYC, in Paris it's same, everytime you meet a "parisian" who is able to say to you some words in your language, in restaurants, in the street, with your guide/tour, Paris is a very touristic city, you must dare your french vocabulary, with your smile, parisians love american people, try to help you, cab drivers are the worst, but it's international, never I met a sympathic cab in the world, Welcome in Paris, I wish you a nice trip, bring warm clothes, umbrella, trench coat, the forecast is bad.