> even if you were off on the pronunciation, most people appreciated > that you had taken the time to learn something, and, as a result, were > invariably more willing to understand what you needed; this was esp. > true in France. That wasn't my experience in 1978 when I could speak tolerable francais. I was on a train going from Amsterdam to Paris with a friend who was quadriplegic. They only served food in the dining car but my friend's wheelchair couldn't fit through the door. I explained the situation to the conductor but he was quite pompous and pretended not to understand even though it meant that my quadriplegic friend went hungry. A few years later I recounted this story to a lady with a Masters in French from Stanford. Of course her french was impeccable. She had lived in Paris a couple of years as part of her masters program. During her stay she asked a native friend why the French were so rude to Americans. They reply, "Well we are rude to each other so why shouldn't we be rude to Americans?" :-)
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