what’s wrong with a french accent ? 
…
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I’m not gonna answer this. I’m not gonna answer this.
We are all friendly and respectful to each other 
No but honestly. As a German I would be glad a French person tries to talk German with me and I would not care about the accent. Some of my experiences in France weren’t that good communication wise as I did not know french and at least some of the older generation of french people refuse to speak English. I know for a fact that some could talk English.
Look I’m sorry there was bad blood between Britain and France but I was just trying to communicate, okay?
Didn’t have the problems with the younger generation though.
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I can do some horrible accents if I don’t pay attention, not the French one for German though 
However it seems almost impossible to switch from French to English without major difficulties 
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It’s not that they refuse… They simply can’t… 
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Yeah, no. That wasn’t it.
The father of the friend I visited talked to him in French and he clearly already knew what I talked about. The father then suggested to me just trying to speak German/Hand signs or the very few broken French words I knew.
I’m not saying that all of my experiences were people who could but refused but at least one or two I am certain that they understood more than they let on.
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@juli0r the language instruction in France is really really poor.
I myself consider I’m not good at all when it’s about speaking english but I’m WAY WAY WAY WAY better than the “average” french guy. really. a random french guy just doesn’t speak english. in fact a random french guy could not follow the B2B course. it would just be impossible. I’m a little bit better (still not much) at this because my job requires this.
I think a random german guy speaks/understand english WAY better than a random french guy .
about accent, I think the german accent is really horrible. sad but true. sorry.
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There’s some difference between understanding and speaking. I can understand a few languages where I totally lack the ability to make a coherent sentence. Add the risk of misunderstanding and you need to be really confident to engage in a discussion.
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sure, that’s why I’m not confident at all with my english speaking
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Maybe I misjudged in combination with the father suggesting to just not even try to speak English. It’s not that I generalize that experience anyway - I hope I did not make this impression. Communication in France just was harder than in any other European country I was in.
I remember in Sweden a random 14 year old girl we asked for directions spoke flawless English as far as I could tell.
Yeah I think so, too.
All the very hard sounds we have in our language do not translate good into other languages. It just fits for our language.
And especially with French which I would describe as rather soft and smooth I can get that us not letting go of all the hard sounds is horrible 
I think it’s horrible too if you don’t even try to make an effort to pronounce it right. But there are always limitations…
Sorry to shift this so far off topic. I just wanted to add this post to make sure to convey I’m not bitter or judge all French people on my few experiences.
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If you think the French are stubborn when it comes to speaking other languages, you should try Wallonia.
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Same failed education system over there, amplified by a dysfunctional federal state. Most walloons don’t know enough flemish or dutch to speak it. I could tell you about the stuborness in the northern part of Belgium as well, but that would be sliding down the slippery slope of politics
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I have yet to meet someone from Flanders who refuses to speak English.
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Try speaking French to them 
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Une baguette et deux croissants, s’il vous plait.
… that’s all the French you’ll get out of me; I don’t know any more. 
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Well, I know some words in Dutch…
Ik neem u fiets, or something like that 
Well, I have some passive knowledge, could follow an easy conversation.
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Yes, but as a Letzebürger, you’re absolved. 
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In my limited experience, the Germans and the French for that matter don’t appreciate their respective languages being mangled. It was a bit of bummer for me as a young student. Maybe I was just the wrong crowd at the University. There’s just not much enthusiasm for speaking/learning the tongue, particularly German. That said I enjoyed learning it, but I couldn’t really go anywhere after I took my two years. I really enjoyed learning it, but man did it mess up my Capitalization. To this day I still have a tendency to capitalize nouns in my English sentences. It really affected the way I think about grammar.
Now, Spanish is a completely different animal. Here in Texas, if you try to speak Spanish to native Spanish speaker, they’ll encourage you and they appreciate you trying. You’ll at least get a smile for your trouble. The sky is the limit, you learn as much Spanish as you can handle.
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Love the tone @Marcel,
Good instrument for people with small hands, or for youngsters wanting to take up the bass.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers Brian
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My experience in Germany was that people really opened up to you if you at least attempted to speak German to them. Switzerland too, though maybe less so. 
I’ve only been there twice though, maybe three weeks total.
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