Matteo Lane-Ordering Food In France 

French is _my first language_ and they would STILL reply in English 😭🤦🏽‍♀️

Nicest interaction between a tourist and a French person

Can confirm, we Italians are delighted when you try speaking a couple words in our language, it's the spirit that counts.

He's not wrong - three words in Italian and they practically adopt you.

I ordered food in French at a restaurant in Paris once, and the waiter responded by saying “Don’t bother, I speak better English than you do French.” It was traumatic.

I got treated like crap for speaking English in Galeries Lafayette so I did my best to speak choppy French at this mid-tier restaurant with the help of Google translate, and the waiter was like “you can just speak English, we understand”. I told him about my experience in Lafayette and he was like “those people are snobs, even us normal French people hate them” lol 😂😂😂

She understood you and did not ask you to repeat or speak english, you can be proud

Italian are the best, they are forgiving and appreciate when you try. Love Italy.

I love France and took 5 years of French in school, so I speak basic conversational French. My First time in Paris, I went to a restaurant and tried my ass off to order, knowing it was probably not the best. The server complimented my effort (very kind) and stated that it’s just nice to have people try to speak the language. It really made my night and regardless of the interactions I have when I go to France (don’t really think I’ve had a bad one) that is one of many that counts and a reason I always love to return.

Since he speaks Italian fluently he should have gone off on the French cashier in italian for assuming he was American and never admitted to speaking english lol

I tried to order in a small shop in Paris. My French was terrible. The woman asked if I was American, I said yes, and a younger woman came from the back with a big grin on her face. "Uncle. Sugar." "Apple." Everyone in the shop started sharing every English word they knew with me. One of the most charming moments in my entire life. I ❤ Paris!!!

My experience is that if you speak English to a waiter in Paris they’ll just ignore you. My dad has gone to Paris on work trips and he and his colleagues once sat at a table for like 1 hour being ignored. They left when they finally caught a waiter that said “no French, no service. Sorry”. When I was in Paris with my family my mom had to do most of the talking in her poor school French. They literally sighed and scoffed in her face. Also love when you speak to them in English and they reply to you in French. Had one woman tell me that next time I go to France I should learn French first. Like I don’t expect people to learn Swedish when they visit Stockholm where I live.

A French person who actually spoke English. I am impressed.

I had a really positive experience in France. I didn't speak French at all but the people were very nice. We were at a French restaurant in Paris with the family and the waiter was very pleasant, speaking to us in English. He noticed we spoke Chinese amongst ourselves and since it was late and the restaurant wasn't crazy busy, he took the time to explain a little bit of history of French food while we shared some interesting stories about traditional Chinese cuisine.

Americans may correct your English but the French will suggest you correct your existence if you misspeak

I’ve been learning French for two years now and I go to Paris often. I speak to them in French and when they immediately assume I’m an American and respond to me in English I tell them in French “desolé, je parle pas anglais, je parle portugais” (sorry I don’t speak English, I speak Portuguese -which I do) and those who don’t speak Portuguese look so annoyed they have to keep speaking French to me. 😂😂😂 But I’m not letting them make me miss out on practicing

We had a French exchange student at my school as part of us learning French. One day he asked why English people had such a hard time learning his language when quite a bit of French is still part of our English language, and we've had literally years to learn it yet still butcher it. Our teacher (who was also French) explained it in a way that had never occurred to me. It's because we're not just having to learn a new language - we're having to learn a whole new _framework_ of how a language works _on top_ of learning the actual language itself. And it was the framework that made it the most difficult and what we messed up on the most. Because French is a gendered language whilst English isn't, so our brains are literally not wired to process gendered languages properly. We still try to speak it without the gendered words or get them mixed up, which obviously won't work very well with languages like French. It also didn't help that any time we try to get better by speaking it with actual French people, they get offended and gatekeep their language and make us far less willing to keep trying. Even going as far as butchering it even more on purpose out of annoyance and spite.

When I went to France, a French lady asked me something on the street and I replied saying I don’t speak French only Spanish or English and she gave me … THE DIRTIEST LOOK AND WALKED AWAY IN DISGUST this was 7 years ago, I cannot forget

Italian and Japanese are so ecstatic and practically adopt you if you use a single broken word in their language

This is interesting. I’m an English teacher and also learning a 2nd language. I think it’s possible that someone could perceive a compliment on their language ability as patronizing. It’s hard to gauge how long someone has been learning for. For some people ordering a croissant is a massive accomplishment worthy of praise, and for other people it’s trivial so a compliment might feel awkward or offensive.

As my French teacher said: They always know if you’re a tourist.

It's truuuueee lol. I took French for 13 years, I have a degree in French, but if they hear even a whisper of an accent when you try speaking French, they will call you on it by responding in English lol

My german teacher told me a story about when he and his family went to france once. They had their stuff stolen and when my teacher was the only one who could speak a bit of french, and while he was telling the police what happened, his dad just started saying no in french for each thing that was stolen and listed all the things that were stolen in german and in a paniced tone. My class absolutely laughed their asses off.

We spent 2 hours in a little restaurant speaking to the owners in half spanish (because there's overlap with a lot of words) and half google translated italian. They were so kind and even shared their private stash of alcohol that they had brought in to celebrate one of their birthdays that evening.

The thing about Italians is spot on. Went as a teen and every place was so excited we were interested in learning their language and they were so encouraging. 10/10 would return many times.

I just traveled from Europe and he’s exactly correct!!! Italy loves when you speak their native language the French are not that impressed. 😂😂😂

My experience in Paris was that the waitress actually ignored us (we spoke in english, and the restaurant was on a very touristic area) and didn’t even look at us in the eyes when we were trying to order. She directly talked to the next person in line. She was extremely rude. Unfortunately racism there happens more often and it seems to be normalized. The place was called Merci Jerome Kleber, dont go there if you are a tourist.

He said “une café” and she was like “this English white boy 🙄” 😂😂😂

I swear you can have like a full 3 minute conversation with someone in a French bakery and they will be like: “ah yes nice try sir but you actually used the wrong conjugation of that verb about 30 seconds into the conversation”

As a french, it reminds me of my travel in Thailand, lol. They are SO used to tourists (like french Parisians are) that they almost never try to talk to you in Thai, or even between them if there's a client. They just do some kind of "tourist sign langage" magic, or speak English if needed, but won't try to answer you in Thai xD

As French person, first of I'm impressed ! Secondly, the employee may have been as happy as you to respond in English to show she could do it too because we are notoriously bad at foreign language lol

gotta love how you visit one district in one city and suddenly an entire country are "all the same"

i was in paris with my girlfriend and i kinda had to speak french cuz some stores would straight up just pretend they don't speak english. they'd nod when i spoke english to them so they understood what i was saying they just refused to actually speak back to me in a language i know and it was kinda frustrating lmfao

From my experience this is actually a compliment. If you go into a place expecting them to speak English they can get annoyed, but if you try to speak French and they see an effort (but can tell from your accent you aren’t a native speaker), they will normally automatically speak English back to be polite and try to help accommodate you. It’s not them mocking you.

as someone from brussels who speaks perfect french and was conditioned to hate parisians (bc they hate us and discriminate us), i can 100% tell you the rest of france is not like this and they all hate parisians as well. although ofc posh snobs are everywhere but it’s generally easier to be a foreigner and feel included in parts that are NOT paris

This dude needs to do impression way more than he does them. Honestly never seen someone this good at that. Great job fella

We italians understand that it’s a difficult language to, both, learn and speak fluently. So if a foreign comes to us talking in Italian we are simply impressed and try to cheer him up and convince him to practice even more.

That actually happened to me in Italy once. Was in a pizza shop in Rome and asked the guy behind the counter in my broken Italian if he spoke English. He replied “Yes, it’s my first language.” Turns out not only was he American, but he was from the same state as me.

The French can sense non French people. Not saying they hate them, but they know foreigners

Display basic conversational fluency to any Spaniard and they will treat you like they have known you for years

Sometimes people can tell you're foreign and just want to practice their English but are unwilling to tell you that up front 😅

I’m Danish and I work in a café, and even though I think it’s super sweet when tourists try to order in Danish, I always secretly think “look, this would be so much easier for the both of us if we just spoke English”

Lmao there is nothing I don’t love about this guy. Constantly hilarious and accurate which makes it even more hysterical.

I went to Italy, learned ciao, grazie and Prego. Italians thought I was the bees knees. Went to France, I can speak conversational French quite well, I had the same experience, I was about to order in French after I had greeted the cashier and she said "English please" I was like huh? she didn't even give me time to try and massacre the language. 😅

Most polite French person:

I'm in Japan right now, and if I ask any employee even the most simple question in Japanese, they respond in natural speed Japanese that's way beyond my level as if talking to a native speaker 😂 And then I feel terrible asking them to repeat themselves or speak slower. But so far everyone's been really patient and polite with me ❤

The thing is, English speaking people hardly bother to speak other languages, they just expect you to speak English. So that was really good he did his best! 👍🏼

We used to visit Calais with school, as a British child learning French. The teacher would say "practise your French" but the moment someone from Calais hears an English accent, they immediately switch to English 😂 It was impossible to have a conversation in French 😂 Other parts of France are completely different though.

I speak Korean as a second language and Koreans in Korea would be like “WOW! Your Korean is so good!!” But in LA, the Korean Americans or older Korean immigrants won’t even acknowledge I spoke to them in Korean and just reply in English.

His hands motion during Italian explanation went over so many people’s heads 😂😂

I had literally studied French for 3 years before visiting Paris and they were still like "hmmm. No. English."

Exact same experience in France. I ordered a latte coffee in french and the girl just replied with "anything else?" In perfect English 😭😭 edit: i love everyone arguing in the comments, at the time, my belgium friend assumed it was because the lady probably heard us talking in english before. My parisian friend in the meanwhile thought it was because I forgot to say "please", even though I said everything else correctly. Idk what the reason was, but it was just a funny story guys XD

wow, homie really speaks Italian. refreshing to hear na American that says they speak another language who doesn't just pretend. I speak Italian so I get really aggravated when people insist they speak it but then they just lie.

As an italian, we act like this because most italians will avoid speaking english as much as possible

So true. I took Italian and French in college and whenever I made a mistake, even if it was the same mistake for the millionth time, Italians were always like “Even we make mistakes, don’t think too much about it, rules of our language are so hard.” They were always super supportive. On the other hand, if I made a mistake while speaking French, no matter how minor it was, they were like “If you cannot speak proper French, don’t speak at all.” They honestly scared me to the point that whenever someone speaks French with me, I freeze.

His accent wasn't completely horrible, so she probably understood completely. Even though I'm totally fluent in French, I still have to just continue talking in French when they try speaking English to people in order for them to realize that I completely understand what they are saying haha

I am British but everytime an American pronounce “crosants” for croissants, a little bit of me dies inside

I remember walking into a restaurant in spain and i perfectly had my order memorized in spanish. and before i even got a word out, the waitress went “hi what can i get for you?” heart broken

I grew up in a state near Quebec so most of my French teachers were from Quebec and it would always slip that when they took students to France, they would get responded to in English and they’re like “French is my first language”

When I lived in Paris, the French did not like you, unless you spoke their language. Luckily I speak fluent French having been to school there.

He has the most important part of the Italian language down, talking with your hands.

Yes, that is definitely how the French show appreciation for your hard efforts in speaking their language; they immediately take pity on you and speak English, regardless of how well you spoke French. Still worth speaking French; they only admit they speak English if you try speaking French first. :-D

I actually had to walk out of a French restaurant while our food was still being made bc of how rude the owner was to us. It was summer 2019 and over 105 degrees and they gave us a tiny little glass of water for 2 of us which we literally gulped in one sip. So I was trying to get more but I saw our waiter having a smoke break down the street so I went inside to ask for water and the manager started cussing at me in French (which I understood, he assumed bc I was American I couldn’t lol) and I was like !! I literally just want water it’s super hot and we haven’t had any all day and he continued to berate me for being an American tourist and cuss at me for being so demanding for asking for extra water. I said, well the waiter is smoking up the street so what else am I supposed to do but ask since there’s no one attending to our table. He continued to cuss at me and I was just like lol this is not worth it. We left and got the best sandwiches ever at a little shop up the street and the lady was the sweetest. Too bad he wasted 2 plates of steak/frites (prob would’ve been spit in) and we spent way less money at the other place so I think I lucked out. It sucks that some people there are so horrible they ruin it for tourists that are genuinely there to appreciate their city. I get there’s heavy tourist traffic but not all of us are there to trash the city. You still need to treat others w respect regardless of their nationality. Esp when we were nothing but polite, and what was actually rude was the way they treated US.

It's the way his face drops as soon as the word "France" leaves his mouth 😭 like that was a complete sentence

My friend is from Quebec and she will ONLY speak french with the thickst possible Québécois accent when she visits her inlaws (not with her in laws, lovely people). It annoys the hell out of all of them and i love her for it.

In India it’s a mixed reaction if you try to speak Hindi, cause if you try to speak Hindi in the north, they will act delighted like the Italians but if you try to speak Hindi in the south, they will be unimpressed like the French 💀

Matteo is so adorable when he explains stuff it’s unreal.

in québec, they’ll literally berate you to your face

In Quebec, they say that they want people to learn French, but if you try, they immediately switch to English and give you attitude for even trying.

This is true, I told my Italian friends I’m starting to learn Italian and they acted like I taught myself fluently 😳 . I only knew like 3 words haha

For those wondering, He said this in Italian: “oh come on he speak good Italian”

I was helping a french speaker at my job in the us and she asked me IN FRENCH what items were on sale and I gestured to the rack in front of us and said “tout ces objets ci” (all these things here) and she CORRECTED ME “tout ÇA” (all THAT) she used the emphasis and everything. Like girl?? Im speaking your language in my country for YOUR CONVENIENCE 😭😭

As a French person here I believe we're in the same position as you guys: we're so excited to be talking to English speakers that we want to also show off our English skills!

back in the 80s my mom was road-tripping thru France, and she gets to a little hotel and needs to ask if they have a room available. the woman at the desk speaks english but INSISTS my mom ask in french if there are rooms available. now, my mom is not so good at languages and accents, so this lady makes her spend 5-10 minutes perfecting her pronunciation to ask "do you have a room available tonight?" and when my mom FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT, the lady tells her "no, but if you come back tomorrow i'll have a free room then" the french are WILD 🤣

When I was in Bordeaux I was told that they even find Parisians obnoxious. Bordeaux was full of friendly Frenchies ❤

He's soooooooooo right. No matter how well you speak French, if it's not your first language the French know and the French will let you know they know. Just like she did to Mateo.

I am not gay but this man is handsome as hell.

“bOnJoUr aH hAvE a QuIsChOn”

Okay, as a french person here, I HAVE to try and tell y'all we're not that bad xD While this happened to many of you and french people seem to be talking back to you guys in English or Spanish or whatever, it might not be to humiliate you! In my own experience, most french people are not very good in foreign languages (especially when it comes to the accent lol), if we don't give you an attitude while replying (in which case you're in front of a typical moronic french person lol, that happens for sure), it might just be bc we're trying to accommodate to you

Took 2 semesters of French and use duolingo fairly often to stay fresh, but there ain't no way I could learn without living in the culture. Love the french

There’s no worse comment on your French skill if people from france answer in english

I cannot believe that this changed so much. 40 years ago as a German travelling to France but not speaking French at all, when I tried in English, every French person would just ignore me and pretend not to understand. Even if the term was exactly the same. We got involved in a car accident and the police simply ignored us. They do not understand and there is no one who can help.

No biggie…the secret is the French language (in France, that is) is about 75% English words ‘adapted’ to their jargon. In other words-that’s especially true for Paris and the Riviera, they will not appreciate any effort you put into learning ‘la langue’ -just order in English 😂

My friend studied French for like 9 years straight, and this kid was TOTALLY fluent, he'd say something and it sounded exactly like a native speaker - and he went there, and they still constantly made fun of him for his "bad" French. Someone would correct him on a word and say that no, it's pronounced like, "X" and it was literally exactly the same as what he said. I swear some people in France (not all, of course) are just mean and stuck up and want to make you feel bad if you're some loser American that DARES to try to be as cool as them lol.

In Sweden and Iceland, they’ll keep speaking the language with you long enough to go “oh wow you speak so well!!” And then they’ll switch over to English and they speak it better than you do

Same thing happened in croatia. The hotels receptionist just responded in english and I was crushed. I felt like all my ancestors were renouncing me at that time

I was in France with an entire aircraft carrier full of people who were walking around asking if anyone spoke English. The French refused to speak English UNTIL an attempt was made to speak French. I had taken two years of French in high school and found it very convenient that they almost invariably knew more English than I knew French. Hey, at least they didn't roll their judging eyes at me and pretend I didn't exist...

It's SO true. I'm an Italian, I've studied french for 8 years, and not only do they not answer in french, they can STILL immediately clock my accent and answer in Italian. Kind of humiliating 😅

This happened to me in the Netherlands. You think for one second and they immediately talk to you in English. So I learned to tell them I don’t speak English and they have no choice but to speak Dutch to me.

It gets even better when you hear about the fighting between French and French Canadians about who's the better French speaker.

After years of French I tried a bit of French in Paris, a huge group of police officers nearby started loudly making fun of my accent. I didn't speak another word of French the whole trip because I was so embarrassed, a few days later some friends tried to get me to order crepes in French and the shop owner acted deeply offended when I wouldn't. I felt horrible. There was no winning. If I could go back as an adult I would try my French anyway and ignore anyone overtly mocking my accent.

If you don't speak English in an English speaking country they'll shout English at you like you're deaf

I will never forget the time these investors from Honda flew in from Japan and my manager was trying to make a great impression on them but they knew zero English. So when they walked by, I stood up, introduced myself in Japanese, bowed and they was so amazed! The entire mood shifted. They wanted me to tour them instead at that point😅 they was so happy to tell me bye. It was a moment for me

Who da fck is this star?! He deserves his own show! 😂

I didn't know french will voluntarily speak English 😂

That happened to me in Florence, Italy. We waited for our waitress to get to us, reviewing the phrases book. She came over and said “what’ll you have tonight?” In an Australian accent! Blew us away!

It's funny coz my fiance's favourite interaction with a French person was he was waiting at the train station in Paris and someone asked him for a smoke, I can't remember if they asked that first but it was the 'Are you American?' and he said 'No' and the person replied with 'Thank God' which he always thought was so funny so he would always tell us the story LOL

Learning both Italian and French.. never really realized how similar they were until I studied on my own..American English teacher can’t teach a foreign language with a darn!😅😂 I’m glad I had Hispanic teachers in college.. they lay down the law.. in the most polite way 😅❤

Same when I lived in Germany. It was actually because they liked to practice their English with me 😂