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ZM Spalter's avatar

David Sedaris has a great collection of essays called "Me Talk Pretty One Day" about learning to speak French and observations about France and America. Being one of the 80% monolingual set is a regret for sure.

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Kiki's avatar

My experience with France has been similar to yours. Most people have been incredibly nice and welcoming when I’ve visited, and I only know basic greetings and understand approximately 5% of what is said to me. In fact, my first trip to France was an incredibly humbling experience because it was the first country I had been in where I understood almost nothing and was unable to communicate at least a little in the local language.

A couple of years ago I worked with a woman originally from France and she told me that she felt that people in Spain were too over-the-top. She explained that her Spanish friends here would gush over how handsome a guy was, but in France her friends would have said something more like “He’s not bad” and that was taken as a huge compliment for the guy. She also said she felt it was overwhelming how everyone calls you “guapa” in Spain (something that I personally hate in the US--being called “sweetie” or “honey”--but find endearing here). It’s interesting to learn about those little cultural differences!

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