Until 1959 the school-leaving age here was 14 & then went up to 16 with a get-out at 14 for people going into apprenticeships etc - many people slip through the net, especially if they don't have to read, or particularly write, on a daily basis. There are many people of all ages though all over Europe, let alone elsewhere, who are functionally illiterate now.
Here in the Parc des Monts d'Arree not that many locals speak English and personally I don't expect or want them to. On the other hand if you at least make an effort then they love to talk with you even if you are not perfect. Most officials are helpful and polite. In fact I would say most people and especially children are much more polite than in the UK. A few locals speak Breton and if you have a smattering of that too then it goes down very well. With languages listening is more important than speaking- so try listening to French radio, watching French TV or read you local apre. Don't put yourself in a bubble. One thing that I DID find very interesting was that my non EU wife was allowed to do a course to improve her ability in French in a workplace environmment. The course was sponsored by the French governmemnt. She arrived to do the six month course and was rather baffled to find that she was the only immigrant on the course and all the rest were French adults who shall we say had not left school with the neceessary level of reading and writing. Local shops frequently have to write out cheques for more elderly customers.
Most people under about 35 can speak a little English but while it might be OK in a shop for a simple transaction it won't be good enough to explain the subtleties of the tax system or social security - you might like to think about whether a French person in an English-speaking country would find staff in regional tax or social security offices who speak French well enough to explain things clearly and unambiguously. Older people especially will probably not have had much in the way of foreign languages at school and they certainly won't have been encouraged to speak. Even now it isn't that marvellous.
Here's an explanation: in Lycée, pupils doing the science and economics Bac get 2 hours a week of English and another 2 hours of their other foreign language. Pupils doing the literary Bac get two hours a week of each as well, unless they also do the heavy option when they have a total of 5 hours a week in that language & 2 hours in the other, pupils doing a technological commerce Bac get 3 hours of each language a week. They are in classes of up to 38 so I don't think it is difficult to calculate how much time actually speaking English in class that gives them - they are all much better at reading and writing in English than at speaking. Some of my heavy-option Lit specialists speak excellent English and have a very sophisticated grasp of the language (subtlety, implicit meaning etc) more sophisticated in fact than the command of their native language that some of my pupils in GB had..
At least in France (unlike in the UK) 2 modern foreign languages are compulsory throughout school - but the results of individual pupils will vary enormously. Some of my pupils write better English than their native-speaker peers in school here, most of them get by, at least. Some are frankly appalling and simply not interested, but they have to do them anyway. We aim to get them to a stage that they can build on subsequently ie a stage where they can survive and then improve later on if they are in an English-speaking environment or they need it for work. My 30 year-old stepson (French), for example, speaks Spanish fluently and publishes all his work in English - he's a research physicist - but doesn't feel confident speaking English socially although he understands and writes it very well especially when it is subject-specific and gives lectures in English to other physicists at international conferences. His only English input has been school/university/postgraduate study.
Many English speakers also speak very fast and colloquially, sometimes with regional accents, to French people who speak a little English (they assume better knowledge than the French person has, just because the French person has a little more English than the English-speaker has French) so the Fr person gets flustered and shuts down and won't make the effort at all the next time (probably what happens to some English people who try to talk to some French people in French, it cuts both ways).
If you are in France, you shouldn't expect people to speak English - it is nice if they do but there is no reason why they should. In law, the language of France is French: contracts have to be in French, tradesmen's devis have to be in French, etc etc that is how it is.
Not everybody aspires to speaking English, most of my pupils speak Spanish much better than English because it is intuitively easier for them and easy to go to Spain on a whim or for holidays (I'm in the South-West). The UK is easy to get to BUT it takes longer, you have to change money and many French people worry about not being understood because guess what, very few people speak French even to the extent of giving directions or explaining which bus they should take etc. Many French people are perhaps too aware of their limitations and will say they don't speak a foreign language when in fact they can just about get by.
Another thing is that we also find it galling that many (not all by any means) English-speaking people just expect us to speak English and talk to us in English without even going to the trouble of saying Bonjour, est-ce que vous parlez anglais? - it is irritating. I know because it has happened to me fairly often and quite frankly on some occasions it has annoyed me so much that I have pretended I don't speak English. In fact I think I had a rant about it on here a couple of months ago...
Just as a matter of interest, where you come from, do many people in offices or shops or random people in the street speak French well enough to help a non-English-speaking French person?
Oh dear I have gone on a bit.
I think it's the attempt, no matter how bad, that's usually appreciated Ashley. Specific to your post, I think the safest presumption would be no, government officials won't be speaking English. When I've had to raise queries etc before, I've armed myself with a sheet of questions Google translated so that they can read it if necessary to at least get the gist of what I'm trying to say as my French is the pits, to say the least. The man who works at the local Tresorie does try to help me out if I get completely stuck, using his faltering English and we sort of muddle through. I think his willingness to do that is because I did try initially to speak in French.
Ashley, the French civil servants you will be communicating with will most probably speak much worse English than your French. I've lived in different countries and I have to say, the front desk staff who deal with foreigners seem to speak even less English than the decision-makers who are hidden somewhere at the back!
In fact, it's not the language barrier that causes the greatest problems, but the cultural differences, foreign laws, rules and policies are baffling at best. French administration has a bad reputation and justifiably so, but if you are in a bind, they will do what they can to help you, providing you remain polite and calm, which may not always be as easy as you think it is…. There are a few things you need to know:
- they ask you to send documents and then claim they don't have them (4 times for my birth certificate)
- they send letters and then say that you don't need to take them into account (huh?!)
- you need to pick up the phone, get someone pick up the phone and talk to people
- you need to go to offices in person
- refrain from sending a letter to explain your situation, it won't be read
- if you really need to send a letter, send it registered
Good luck!!
I don't think anyone meant any disrespect. I certainly wasn't trying to be rude. I am not ignorant or naive.
I certainly know the importance of trying to speak french and learn the language. Each time I have been to France I always tried to speak French, and practice the french I knew.
I also carried my phrase book and french dictionary, so I could practice new things. When I spent 5 months in France last year, I told a few people in the little village I was living in, " Sorry but I need to practice my french". So they accommodated my bad french. The shop keepers knew I was trying to get better.
My question regarding "Do they speak any English" was more about, if I was struggling to communicate, would the government officials speak any English to me. Dealing with officials for visas etc can be very stressful.
merci Roger, sans manquer de respect
Where have you been in France where most people speak English? In my 8 years experience of living here that's not the case at all. Most people definitely do not speak English and why should they? There is an English speaking service at Orange but that's the only one I know of. If you're not prepared to learn French you probably should not come to France.
And...do YOU speak any French ?
Excuse me but... has it come to your attention that the inhabitants of France don't NEED to speak YOUR language ? You are the one who needs to find a means of communication, not them.
You chose to come to a foreign country, where people speak a foreign language. Are you some kind of a "most serene highness" that people around you need to learn your language in a hurry so you can communicate with ease ? If I travel to your country, will everybody learn French to please me ?
Amazing as it may sound, the world is not an amusement park, the inhabitants are not at your service. They are real people with real lives and they might have other goals in life than make you feel at home.
By chance, you were born in an English-speaking country. So, you never had to learn an international language. But it does not make you ruling class. When abroad, you need to integrate, like anybody else.
And yes, some people of the world chose not to speak English, whether they don't feel comfortable with a language they don't know well enough or because the person in front of them is rude enough to not even try to speak their language.
It happened to me once. An American tourist stopped me to ask me some information in English. No "Bonjour", no "Excusez-moi", no "S'il-vous-plait", and, of course, no "Désolé, je ne parle pas français". Just "Excuse me, I'm looking for... blah blah blah". As if I was a waiter or a porter. But, I gave her the information anyway... in French, with loads of details. :) The expression on her face was a delight.
But, the rest of the time, I don't need to be that rude. Foreign people are generally polite enough to learn at least some basic words of French. So, when I find foreign people struggling with the language or with anything else, it's a pleasure for me to help them with some words of English.
Oooh you are such a little imp Simon.
I have been there to a point. I know my own accent and pronunciation does not entirely reflect my own education but my younger daughter somehow or other acquired a 'posh' manner of speaking, her pronunciation, enunciation, phrasing, timing and so on are very close to perfect. Yet teachers have told her she is saying something wrong! But no ma'am it ain't just English, her second German teacher in a row is teaching twaddle. My German is fluent, has been since I learned speech and I also use dialects. To have a teacher on the one hand insist that something is Hochdeutsch that is in fact regional and then to insist they pronounce things wrongly and dare to send a message home to tell me to effectively keep out of it is actually insulting. France once had the most ambitious foreign language programme of any European nation except Switzerland where four, three of their own plus English (in some cases all four of their own, plus) is standard and works perfectly well. Yet with only one langue vivante and the option of at least one other language they are floundering. There are good teachers, no doubt the students who have 'our own' totally bilingual (plus all the others she speaks) Véro Langlands are privileged, but thus far I am not impressed. I am not blaming the teachers but those who politically control and fund education.
With that disadvantage there is little chance the vast majority of people will have the confidence to speak other languages. English is not the only one, so without going down the well worn track of universally used and so on, I seem to remember that people also have choice, preference and so on but those are not well enough nurtured to become currency of the world in which French people also live. Mind you, having had a career that saw me travelling to a lot of countries, often where none of my languages were especially or at all useful, I heard 'Do you speak English?' far more often than any equivalent. Yet working in some countries, such as whilst in a school in a small town in Viet Nam or way out in the sticks in China, I have all but been mobbed by primary school children wanting to try out their English! In fact, when asked which other languages I speak, in China early middle school pupils had each of them. Some were learning three languages. I was the first non Mandarin (I think, China has lots) speaker some had ever met, yet they had no problem. Their comprehension was stunning.
Here in France English first language speakers are a minority, it is incumbent on them to learn French but then why is the country not using the skills of those who have language abilities better than they are? Often spoken English is there but without the level of comprehension to allow people to have the confidence to use it. Potentially the French could be terrific linguists but somehow a link in the chain went missing and nobody is joining it up at the Palais de l'Élysée or where such decisions are made.
Hi
Yes nearly all French people learn english in schools, just like most British learn (or did learn) french. If their language skills are not used or needed in later life, then those skills get forgotten . Civil servants working in tax, social security or driving depts are probably working mainly with the french_speaking population . I don't think it's a question of them not choosing to speak to you in english. How many tax or social security officers would you find speaking french in UK offices?? bonne chance!
If your experience in France has lead you to believe that ‘most’ French people speak English you must have been ‘lucky’ in your choice of holiday destinations. I have spent many years living in Germany on the German Netherlands border and now live in France. My Dutch vocabulary is about 10 words. Around where I lived so many of the Dutch spoke English there was little need to speak their language. Those who had no English spoke fluent German. My German is not bad but so many times a conversation in a shop, restaurant, garage or when just out and about would start in German but continue in English. The Germans in my area spoke good English and enjoyed doing so. Then I came to France. English is taught in French schools, indeed the one school that I have contact with teaches it so well that I have enjoyed conversations in English with some students about art, literature and travel that I could not have imagined having with an English child of the same age, but in the country in general it is accepted that French is the language and French will be spoken. Personally I think that that is a good thing. Concessions are made to Anglophones and many of the banks, services and utilities have English speaking services but it is not the norm. There is of course, in many areas, an expat workforce who provide most of the trades and services needed for life. What I find difficult to understand is that so many people move to work in France expecting to get on without learning to speak, read or write in French.
Come expecting nobody in authority to be comfortable in English then you will not be disappointed. There are plenty of translators and facilitators who will help you through the ins and outs of fulfilling the requirements for living, and working, in France and there are the aforementioned English speaking helplines so any language shortcomings are not difficult to overcome.
In my area, it visibly makes the locals 'bristle' and spin around to stare when they hear any language other than French being spoken - naturally I make sure to chat away in English with total abandon in public places in the sure knowledge that it is making some of those around me feel sooooo uncomfortable. I used to almost whisper when talking in English but, happily, I've got over that ridiculous phase :-)
I can't count the number of times I've heard that xenophobic phrase 'talk in French, you're in France'.....
There is a cpam english phone line but as you are planning to be self employed, you won't be dealing with them for a social security number. Other 'official' bodies will not automatically have an English speaker.
Frances don't get me started on the English taught in schools - I was a mobile English teacher for the Inspection until they had the bright idea to make us redundant and train up the French enseignants. I kid you not, the teacher in my son's school (she is an ex collegue) did not want to teach English but was forced to do a 2 day formation to 'qualify' here for teaching in the school. I can't even go in on a voluntary basis to help. It's not easy when your 6 year old tells you that you are not pronouncing words properly because 'maitresse doesn't say it like that'
They are unlikely to ever speak English. When I see the state of my teacher trainees who seem to have a language level of A0 to A1( after 13 years of English classes) and are supposed to get their students to A1 by the end of primary school it's no wonder the French can't and won't speak English. On one hour a week being taught by the totally incompetent they will never speak English with any confidence. They need to spend a little time in an anglophone country to do that.
However, with so much English around them every day those who really want to improve can do it and the internet is a wonderful resource that can help. The education system is a joke when it comes to English so you can't expect them to do something that embarrasses them. I've never some across any public servant willing to speak English and if you ask them to slow down their French they ignore it. It's their country and they are formatted in a system.
I think just about the same. In fact, one might say that since for a couple of generations they have learned English at school they clearly all speak the language. That is far from the case. In fact, only a minority appear to speak or comprehend it and then people having contact with visitors such as business people and tourists will have cultivated it. As a traveller it may well appear that MOST people speak it, get off the beaten track and try that again. Regular public and civil servants have no good reason to cultivate any foreign language since 99% of people they deal with use their one. As Lisa says, you may find somebody but don't bank on it and why should they anyway?
All in French ... adapt or die :) You may however find somebody who can speak some English but do not count on it !