I find that if you speak a little bit of another language, it really helps when approaching native speakers of that language, even if they speak much better English and are going to switch over after one or two sentences anyway. It is incredibly embarrassing, but that's part of why it helps: you've effectively voluntarily taken the discomfort of the conversation upon yourself and avoided seeming to presume.
Of course, the only other language I speak is French, so my experience may have something to do with specifics of francophone culture. French people get as irritated as Americans do (and much more so than most Europeans) when you approach them speaking a foreign language a mile a minute. It helps to start in French in Québec, too, but less so, because the people there are used to anglophone Canadians speaking crappy French if any, and their English is better. (Official language-pride aside, English instruction in Québecois schools seems to be a lot better than French instruction in Ontarian ones.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2003-10-26 08:01 am (UTC)Of course, the only other language I speak is French, so my experience may have something to do with specifics of francophone culture. French people get as irritated as Americans do (and much more so than most Europeans) when you approach them speaking a foreign language a mile a minute. It helps to start in French in Québec, too, but less so, because the people there are used to anglophone Canadians speaking crappy French if any, and their English is better. (Official language-pride aside, English instruction in Québecois schools seems to be a lot better than French instruction in Ontarian ones.)