Dealing with French clients.

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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Man of Honour
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As we consider moving into the French market we are met with the challenge of the French refusing to speak English. We have decided to provide you with a simple three step process suitable for all management levels. This is provided at no cost by your ever helpful Support team.

E: Do you speak English?
F: Vous Parlez anglais?
E: Why not?
F: Pourquoi pas?
E: Go and find someone who does...
F: Allez trouver quelqu'un qui fait...
 
"Vous parlez anglais" is a statement that you speak english, "parlez vous anglais" is more of a question - do you speak english.
 
daz said:
"Vous parlez anglais" is a statement that you speak english, "parlez vous anglais" is more of a question - do you speak english.
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Well I may be wrong here but I use one as do you lot speak English (vous parlez Anglais?) and the other for do you *while pointing my finger at the person* speak English. I don't think it actually matters in this instance. They will get the message.
 
In my last job, we had a French guy working for us. We were having a weekly meeting, and were discussing domain names; we owned www.companyname.com, and were in the process of getting www.companyname.co.uk. He got really angry and said "WE CANT DO THAT!!! That will annoy all our French customers. The French hate the UK". He got seriously angry. I pointed out that WE WERE IN THE ******* UK. Arrogant fools, the French.
 
As a side note when in france ive found that if you at least try to speak french the attitude changes dramatically. They will usually break into a smile and then say something like "maybe my english is better than your french sir?" but at least it makes them feel like you have made an effort. That seems to go a long way in france to make the mood lighter :p Then again the same can be said for most non english speaking destinations. If you make an effort you usually get rewarded with a smile and then some help rather than a snort and bad service ( in cafes especially ).
 
I have most of my training courses in France, all courses arte taught in English and all questions must be asked in English

had one with me, 7 french students and a french instructor, all done in English :D
 
AtreuS said:
As a side note when in france ive found that if you at least try to speak french the attitude changes dramatically. They will usually break into a smile and then say something like "maybe my english is better than your french sir?" but at least it makes them feel like you have made an effort. That seems to go a long way in france to make the mood lighter :p
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I have often tried but have generally not recieved such a positive response, I do find attitudes in the south better than those in the north though
 
/turns on french protection mode

I dont see a problem with it really. Especially if your company deals with French customers.

If a French company decided to expand its market to Britain, we would expect that company to speak to us in English.

English people do seem to "expect" people of other languages to speak to them in English, or at least understand them to a degree. But imagine a French person came to your resturant and ordered in French, fully expecting you to understand and take their order.
 
Talk to them in english, if they don't understand just talk louder, if they still don't understand then smash the crap out of their office and walk out. It works for the english football hooligans so I guess it would work for you !! :P
 
It's worse in Belgium I've got a strong scottish accent but the population here (banks, corporate etc.) are told they MUST (not can) but MUST speak to English speaking clients in English. It has lead to very frustrating conversations with bank staff and call center people.

I have a friend who works for a telecom company here and he said if you put english on any form they should respond in English. I now just put french or dutch for the simple reason that the wait time to get through to someone in a call center can be 3 times longer if you want an english speaker.

The French are proud of their language, it's a pity that us anglophones aren't as proud of our language.
 
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