It's true that everyone here must know some English, but the average level is bad to atrocious (even among people in their early 20s), and like others in this thread have said, many people hate being forced to switch to English for a colleague who can't be bothered to learn French. You may get by professionally (assuming a company is even willing to hire you if they know all your colleagues will hate you; think "culture fit" for a Silicon Valley way of putting this), but you will not be treated in a welcoming way and will de facto be excluded from conversations at lunch, in breaks, and at social events. I've seen this happen to expat colleagues. All this gets much better if you show that you are putting in the effort and learning, even if your current level is poor.
Really, if you settle anywhere, learn the language. Especially in France. French is neither super easy nor particularly beautiful IMHO, but it's not rocket science either. Not putting in the effort will harm you both professionally and socially.
I understand that that would be annoying. In your shoes, I'd be annoyed if they didn't even try to learn French.
I find that when I meet French speakers and want to practice, their first instinct is to switch to English. That's very kind, but it doesn't help me. If I was in a workplace in France, I would want people to speak French first, but slow down a little and tell me when I mess something up.
How would that go over in a workplace? Or is it the kind of situation where you speak English because it's the least annoying choice? :)
FYI I’m native English speaker who speaks French and German. I’ve lived in both countries and my current work brings me to both countries still. I’ve found this experience try for both German and French speaking friends/colleagues.
So it is just a matter of perspective. I wonder how the chinese see that picture.
What? You've never been to Europe have you? Try travelling here and speaking English in any country other than the obvious champions like Norway / Sweden / Danemark and you'll come to the crazy realization that people like speaking their own language.
But hey, on the positive side of things I have a feeling that the younger generations depend less on their own language and have better English skills.
There's not that many Spanish, Chinese or even French speaking countries you'd want to move to, as someone from a developed country.
I critizied that the people in France are known for their hostility against English. So I just wish they would embrace the international nature of English a bit more.
One thing I'll tell you is that in my experience, every culture has its own way of expressing annoyance. When those ways clash, it can make people seem way more hostile than they mean.
As an example, if I start a sentence with "Sorry, but..." I'm pretty annoyed, but in some parts of the world, that would be endearing. In other parts, it would be so polite as to be annoying.
One thing I'll tell you is that my country isn't particularly patient with people who don't try to learn English, or with people whose English is poor. We have a reputation for being very polite and welcoming, but I think that's more a function of people just not picking up on cues that we're annoyed.
“What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Trilingual
What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who’s speaks one language? American”
I’d be willing to bet that a greater percentage of French population have basic communication skills in a foreign language than Americans.
FYI until relatively recently, French was the Lingua Franca of the world, not English. In fact that was one reason I wanted to learn French, to help me in travels around the world. Yes English is more prevalent now, yet I’ve found French to be more helpful than English in some non native French speaking countries.