Language Barrier 10 3, 6:20pm

Two points on the French from a native:

- Please, please people, do not confuse the general Parisian attitude with that of the rest of France. Parisians are stressed out and just a weeeee bit arrogant(-er than the rest of us). They'll be short with everyone - including their own countrymen, although rarely for language reasons. In the rest of the country, bar the worst tourist hotspots, you'll generally find people who appreciate that you make an effort, even if we might reflexively wince at your pronunciation.

- Many French people are accutely aware of how bad their own English is, especially pronunciation, and will be ... shy, I suppose, about using it. That explains a fair amount of the "I'll speak French to you even though you don't seem to understand it" behaviour - we're just filling the space between two broken English sentences with words because, well, I don't know, that's what you do, right? Keep talking?

We're not, as a whole, quite as bad as our reputation makes us out to be. Give us a chance. And get out of Paris. :p