Talking French

Hello again everybody

How important is it to speak a bit of the local language? We do not know any French at all.

We are Aussies and I figure that hand gestures work just as good

Thank you

Cheerio

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I speak very limited French and to be honest I had no trouble what so ever in Paris - I had much more trouble with language (French) in Casablanca when my bags went missing!

People comment about French arrogance. I didn%26#39;t strike any at all!!! But I always greeted people in French (Bonjour/ Bonsoir etc), apologised in French (pardon, desole....) etc

It was actually amazing the number of people who helped out with translation if they could see that there was a communication problem!

I%26#39;d suggest a small French phrase book and just generally trying to use some basic phrases will get you a long way!

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It is essential to know at least a few words. French culture is VERY polite, and the quality of your vacation is likely to be severely compromised if you are unable to perform the basic greetings, words of appreciation, etc. You can use the search box to find old postings, refer to the %26quot;handy phrases%26quot; part of any guidebook and pick up an inexpensive language learning CD at your local bookstore. Nobody will expect you to be fluent, but they will expect you to make an honest effort. Most French people are very welcoming and it would be a shame not to make an effort to communicate at least a little bit in the language of your host country.

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Speaking french is not nessesary, BUT, being able to say :

PLEASE

THANK YOU

HELLO AND GOODBYE

EXCUSE ME

are crucial to how you will be treated, and therefore how you percieve your trip in general.

It will take you about ten minutes to learn these words and it is the best investment for your trip.

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It%26#39;s common courtesy to learn some basic phrases in the local language and you%26#39;ll find that many Parisiens will be much more accomodating to helping tourisits if you at least try (then they%26#39;ll switch into perfect English!).

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Well, probably not perfect English, lol. I was amazed at how fluent the Dutch and Germans were, however, when speaking English. Holland definitely outranks the US or France when it comes to bi-lingual and tri-lingual people.

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TMG, as everyone as suggested, to the best you can to learn at least the basic phrases...it will be wel worth the effort.

We were in Paris just a month ago...you may want to check out the tiny url below regarding our experience with the language:

http://tinyurl.com/ez3nk

Good luck! You will have a wonderful time...and your wonderful time will be made even better if you try to learn some basic French phrases. (Try to think of a French visitor to Australia...how much better/easier will the French tourist%26#39;s visit to Oz be if s/he learns some English first and has a good French/English phrasebook at hand?)

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Sorry, folks, I mean...%26quot;do the best you can%26quot; and it will be %26quot;well worth%26quot; the effort...dealing with small print on my laptop here :-)

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Bonjour TMG et bienvenu à Paris Forum.

Good day TMG and welcome to Paris Forum.

It will be fun for you to be able to converse in simple words of appreciation. It%26#39;s not like anyone will boot you to your head if you say G%26#39;day mate by mistake.

My tip is to take a word like bonjour and practice pronunciating it with the same flare you would say G%26#39;day with. Then it will not sound like a boring flat word. You will enjoy it.

Passer de bons moments ~%26gt; Have a good time.

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Hi TMG

Someone else on this forum put up this link:

http://www.bonjour.com/

This has several very quick lessons (a few minutes) which teach you all the basics that others posters have suggested here. It has audio so you can very clearly hear how to say things. Soooo easy to do and so useful.

Cheers

another Melbournian

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Another extremely useful phrase is:-

%26quot;Ou sont les toilettes s%26#39;il vous plait?%26quot;

Oo - son - lay - twarlets- si- voo- play?

Where are the toilets, please?

The reply is nearly always accompanied by a hand pointing in the direction you need!

Good luck.