It is my plan to also tour France during June / July I am hoping to camp as often as I can, is it possible/ Also, I do not speak the french language at the moment is that a problem today? John Daley Australia

[This message has been edited by jdaley (edited 04 April 2006).]

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John daley

Hello John:

It likely won't be a logistical problem, but you might find that people in France are a bit more sensitive about switching over to English from their own mother language than people in other countries. It's hard to express the nuance of this well - I guess what I am trying to say is that if you visit (for example) Poland, and you don't speak Polish, no-one there will really expect you to speak Polish, so they will not be offended by that. They'll go out of their way to communicate with you as best they can.

People in France can sometimes have an expectation that because you are in France, you should be able to communicate with them in their own language. If you are suitably diplomatic about things (for example, learn how to say "I'm sorry, I'm from Australia, I don't speak French well" in the French language, and use this comment frequently), then folks will do the best they can to communicate with you in your own language, or via pantomime, or whatever.

It is interesting to note that I speak Canadian French (a dialect of French) well, but people in France don't speak or understand this dialect. So, if I start up a conversation by speaking Canadian French, more often than not the person I am speaking to will reply to me in English (this because they know Canada has two languages). However - If I was to start off the same conversation with the same person using English, they might reply to me in French.

Hope you understand what I am trying to say... I think it all boils down to people being a little bit more sensitive about language in France than in other countries.

Michael

Have found the french willing to speak English every time I've visited, some times after having made a very poor atempt in French first .
It seems to be in places like calais and boulogne where they not as forthcoming with english, most likley due to the number of us they go over on a 'boose cruise' and asume every one speaks english .
French Canadians on the other hand can be a damn funny bunch, had problems in a shop last time I was there as i dont speak French. Not that I expect every one to speak english, but at least an effort to communicate would be nice. Its easy to see why a lot of canadians dont like the french!

BTW the reason Meeks's family are worried is that he has a knack of getting knocked off every few months and has an appalling sense of direction