Why is it some French people hate it if you can't speak French?

Question

I'm from sunny Australia/and Britain and we went on holiday to France last week and came back two days ago. I went with a family of 10 :)

We had a lovely time on the beaches and walking around in towns and Paris and Nice were stunningly beautiful!

The people there were very nice and if you couldn't speak French very well, they didn't mind. They just went with the flow.

But we went to Toulouse and went out for tea and the staff were angry at us for not speaking French properly and refused to correct us and speak in English.

I speak quite good French, so does my elder sister and we ordered what we would like, and the staff saw that we were from Australia and Britain and refused to speak to us. They told us to get out and never come back. We were appaulled! Never had we been trated so badly. There were a lot of very rude people in Toulouse.

Do they really hate English speaking people THAT much?!

If you're a tourist, then you wouldn't know it fluently. There are some French people that can't speak English, and some people I've seen didn't get mad at them. What exactly is the problem??

Like I said, it is only SOME of them. A lot of them we met were very welcoming. But the others we met really hated us just beause we were English!

Answer 1

It is far worse than that!!

In any other country if you try to speak the language and get it slightly wrong they will try and help you.

Get a whole paragraph right in French but slightly get just one word wrong and they will shrug and walk away as if they understood none of it.  Yet the French refuse to speak English!!

When it  comes to language sadly the French seem to be the most ignorant and rudest people on the planet!!

Answer 2

Well, it's like how some people here in the U.S. critisize people for not speaking english. Except, restaurants in Paris know English, so technically he had no right to kick you out. If that ever happens again, ask for his/her supervisor. If you ask that one thing, he/she might cooperate. GOOD LUCK.