i haven't had much experience with French people, the only French person I've ever met was actually a pretty kind person. I'm aware this story very, very likely fabricated
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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That page obviously does not contain the evidence. It's page 1 of a list of lists of evidence.
My experience being stationed in Germany with the US military, about 30 mins from the French border:
A coworker of mine complained about his visit to Paris because every single French person he tried to speak to either ignored him, turned their nose up at him, or was just rude to him. He only spoke English and they all seemed offended when he tried to get their attention in English.
My wife and I took several years of French in high school, and whereas neither of us could hold a proper conversation, we knew enough to ask directions, order from a menu, or request help.
Every time we started off a conversation in French, the French people would immediately switch to English and help us out. They were very kind to us.
We learned that if you make an effort to speak their language, most French people are very helpful. But if you just assume they'll speak English, they're likely to be offended and won't help you out.
One time in Berlin, my wife tried to speak German to a guy at a tourist shop and he immediately switched into French. Apparently, my wife has a heavy French accent to her German. She was able to finish the conversation in French.
We learned that if you make an effort to speak their language, most French people are very helpful. But if you just assume they’ll speak English, they’re likely to be offended and won’t help you out.
You're not the first person I've heard this from. It seems to be a pretty universal experience, particularly in Paris.
Personally, as someone who took French in school, when I went to France I wanted the opportunity to practise it. And I found the French to be very friendly with it.
when I went to France I wanted the opportunity to practise it.
My wife's biggest frustration in France was that she wanted to practice her French, but everyone picked up on her American accent and immediately switched to English. She rarely got more than a sentence out.
We Germans are worse, we also see it as an opportunity to practice our English on a native speaker.
I had the same experience in Italy. Since they hear an accent they want to help out by switching to your language. This doesn't help if you want to experience.
Honestly, I make an effort to learn some basic phrases in the language of any country I visit, in no small part to simply not get put in the same category as those who don't bother.
That and some of the more fun holiday memories I've got over the years started by me fumbling through the local language—as you say, most people are magnitudes more friendly if you don't give the impression you think everyone should speak your language
I don't get why people care about that, i mean sure if a foreign visitor shows up speaking actually good swedish i'd be pretty impressed but otherwise it kinda just feels a bit pretentious and cringy.
It's not like speaking english means you're from an english-speaking country, and assuming that feels really anglocentric, ironically.
Kindness is not how I would describe my experience in Paris.
I went to Paris once, but ze waiter ignored my attempts at speaking French when I tried ordering something to drink. And when he deemed me worthy of a little bit of his attention, he insulted me (the French friend I was with was appalled by what the waiter said about me). We left without getting anything to drink there. Instead opted for a bottle of water from a supermarket.
They say we Dutch are rude, but we pale in comparison to French waiters.
The only exception I’ve heard to this is that supposedly Parisians are dickish. But that’s only two people who had that experience ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Wife's cousin was a concert harpist living a while in Paris. Every time she would practice THE HARP, during normal daylight hours, the older woman would howl and bang the ceiling (cousins floor) and was extremely awful to her in every way possible. Because... Harp.
Fucking wacky
Some people might say that you shouldn't judge a people based on the actions of one person but what about the time that I was twelve years old and the entire past, present, and future population of Italy kicked down my door and stole my lunch money?? How do you account for that? You cannot!
How could 501 people downvote such a brilliant work of fiction?
I think that's showing a total score of 501, and that the screenshot-taker downvoted. So at least 502 people upvoted it.
omg you're right... I've been off r$ddit long enough that I didn't recognize that... I guess I'm starting to heal...
This is from libred, a private reddit frontend. You cant up or downvote, that down arrow is to hide or collapse comments.
This made me sad :(
(More people should use redlib instead of having a reddit account)
10-second pitch: Redlib is a private front-end like Invidious but for Reddit. Browse the coldest takes of r/unpopularopinion without being tracked.
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Hell yeah 😎
The diesel nozzle is thicker than the gas one, it wouldn't have gone in.
Not in the country I'm in so not necessarily true.
The greentext was about France.
Oh yeah!
It doesn't have to be. I managed to fill my car up with diesel accidentally once... the nozzle was the same size, just a different color (which I didn't notice until much too late).
But it wasn't in France, was it ?
Good point, it was not.
You gotta hawk tuah that shit.
Just because one French guy was mean to you doesn't mean all French people are bad lol. There are dickheads in every country.
There was a foreign exchange girl from France. She was brutal. She said whatever was on her mind. She wouldn't even blink as she said in broken English that you werent worth the air you are breathing.
So yeah, this story checks out.
God I wanted her to step on me.
Wait what?
Including Americans apparently where some of them go on holiday and expect people to pump their fuel for them.
Maybe they've never been outside of New Jersey.
It truly is a mystery why the French have a reputation for being haughty assholes. The world may never know.
Le gars ne sait même pas prendre de l'essence lui-même. C'est pas juste qu'il n'a pas l'habitude, il est allé demander de l'aide à un inconnu. Il ne vérifie pas si le carburant est le bon et après il suppose que le Français l'a fait exprès parce qu'il le voit rigoler. Excusez-moi mais il est risible en faites. C'est tout.
Found the Frenchman who pumped the wrong fuel.
I did not. I do not honk at people just for fun.
Wrong “gas”? Most Americans don’t know what gas is. They really have no clue that gas stands for gasoline and it’s a different petroleum product that diesel. The other day I saw someone arguing with another person for saying “Oxygen is a gas”. The American kept saying, “No, oxygen is what we breathe. Gas is what we fill in our car.”
I'm confused. Americans are the only ones that do say "gasoline"/"gas". For the rest of us, it's petrol.
Bien joué, mon frère !