This piece of advice helped a lot in both Germany, Ukraine, and Russia.
They will first reply with "Non", often coupled with a wounded look.
Then you have to start speaking in a very broken French, ideally with a monstrous accent (though this comes naturally).
And only then they will suddenly re-discover their long forgotten English skills, which will turn out to be quite decent.
Unfortunately, Grothendieck, Galois and as far as I know, Bourbaki is not fully translated. And unless someone actually spends many years doing it, a lot of it never will be.
I also think Russian is useful, especially to read some old texts from the cold war era. But a lot of the books are translated (but not the papers). Kolmogorov's books and probably quite a few others were translated not very long after they were written.
But, to be honest, I think knowing French and Russian is more of a personal pursuit than a necessity to access the mathematiacs. Galois wrote down very little and his memoirs (written by someone else) should be the interesting historically. Grothendieck should also be interesting, especially to see his unrelenting commitment to translate everything to category theory. However, for almost any topic, somewhere, in English, there would be a good source. Bourbaki was never really "completed" and I am not sure whether it's useful to read those texts (rather than the stuff that was inspired by them).
I can recommend Lawvere's books, especially Conceptual Mathematics since it's even accessible for high school students. My main interest is in category theory and set theory, so it may well not be what you are interested in.
I've also seen really useful stuff in the internet era, like Category Theory for Programmers by Bartosz Milewski.
In Paris in the summer this crossover point is higher since I think they're pissed they are stuck in the city for the summer dealing with tourists rather than frolicking in the countryside.
I think "Comment apple two" is a great opener for this.
PS. To clarify for others - It's a bastardized version of "Comment tu t'appelle?" which means "What's your name?" or more precisely "How do you call yourself?"
Seriously, don’t learn boring words, we already know someone doesn’t speak French. Learn movie quotes and you’ll kickstart a discussion. Learn awesome movie quotes and you’ll have something to discuss about.
hanasemasen = can't speak
hanashimasen = don't speak
It's arguably more proper to say "nihongo ga hanasemasen" (I can't speak Japanese) than "nihongo wo hanashimasen" (I don't speak Japanese). The first is a statement of my personal abilities. The second could easily be a statement of my attitude. "nihongo ga hanasemasu kedo nihongo o hanshimasen" (I can speak Japanese but I don't speak Japanese)
For whatever reason I've never heard wakaremasen (can't understand) but only don't understand (wakarimasen).
I've honestly never heard anyone use ga before hanaseru. It's always been wo that I've heard.
I think it is very much like "was/were" in English. "If I was to give you a cookie..." / "If I were to give you a cookie..." "were" is "correct" (as though there is such a thing in English), I think, but "was" sounds fine. "Was" looks pretty abrasive in writing but say it out loud and you'll notice that you hear it a lot.
Now, I never realized... the interesting thing is both wakaru and wakareru use the same kanji: 分かる 分かれる (although there is also 解る or 判る for wakaru)
You assumed correctly :-) I thought that adding a "sen" suffix to any verb was the only way to negate it. Wakarimas = I understand. Wakarimasen = I don't understand. (Yes, I read Shogun :-) Japanese is apparently much more subtle than I realized.
One of my teachers explained to me that "wakaru" (to understand) already has the implicit meaning of "able to" in the word itself, so you should never use the potential form. Searches[1][2] for "分かる 可能形" seem to agree.
[1]: https://hinative.com/ja/questions/2884450
[2]: https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14...
A: I'm sorry, I don't speak English.
B: But you just spoke English, how is that?
A: I'd answer this, but like I said, I do not speak English.
Migrant Worker : Hey, that was pretty good, except when you said, "Me llamo es Brian," you don't need the "es", just "me llamo Brian".
Brian Griffin : Oh! So you speak English!
Migrant Worker : No, just that first sentence and this one explaining it.
Brian Griffin : You... you're kidding, right?
Migrant Worker : Que?
— “Pas de palais ? Pas de palais” - see here for example: https://youtu.be/ghiMU3seRVM - “Je m’appelle Juste Leblanc” — or even asking for a local celebrity is more fun.
For starters, I can tell you from firsthand experience that saying "I don't speak X" does not "kill the interaction." It is invariably taken as ironically humorous, and a sincere effort to fit into the local culture. I've never had anything but a positive response to it, and I have traveled extensively throughout the world.
Furthermore, putting myself in the listener's shoes, if a foreigner walked up to me and recited a random movie quote in broken English I would be utterly nonplussed. I mean, think about it: a random stranger walks up to you and the first words out of their mouth are, "No palace, no palace." I can't imagine any reaction other than: WTF?
This happens all the time in other contexts. "Have you seen movie X?" "mm yeah" "what did you think about the part where <20 minutes of explanation>" "oh you know I didn't actually see the movie I just didn't want to say no". The reason people do this is because they hate saying no, and 50% of the time having seen the movie / heard the song / know the celebrity / is not actually relevant to the anecdote. But when it is, you sure look like an idiot.