Katya- they can hear your accent. They know you're English speaking by your pronunciation. Especially when it's bad. And that's true for any language. I know a native French speaker from a native Spanish speaker when they say 'hello.'

Why start a thread about rude American tourists? Why not just rude tourists in France? We're not the only travellers on this planet.

Belledame, what you say about French people recognising an anglophone accent is true. But there is another phenomenon: I have had French people address me in English before I have had a chance to utter a word. I have on some occasions asked why, and they were frank about it: they knew from my appearance and comportment that I was anglophone, but could not identify what particular cues they picked up on. Maybe it was the white sneakers, or the socks with sandals.

On the more general question raised in this thread: no, I don't find Parisians rude. It might be related to the fact that I try to ensure that they do not find me rude.

I agree!!! Most Parisians know a English person when they see one. Maybe it was my Canadian accent that gave me away when I tried to speak in French (which is very limited) I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly everyone was. Paris is wonderful and I hope it never changes. Ptm

Belledame: I totally agree that an accent is recognizable, but I have an accent in Russian, too- and if I address someone in Russian, they answer me in Russian- out of respect for my attempt to try to speak their language.

I can't imagine if someone came to the US from (for point of comparison) Russia, and greeted me with "Good morning"- I detected an accent and returned with a "Dobroe utro".

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Nope..nor did I find New Yorkers rude!

Katya, if you read the article cited in the original post, you will see that the people of Paris are being told by the mayor's campaign to speak English to visitors as a sign of respect to them and to dispel the image of the rude Parisian.

I have read other opinions like yours (and commented on it earlier in the thread) but I do not really understand why people interpret this behavior as rude. It is true though that when I am in France, I want to practice my French, so it is a little frustrating that the French people also want to practice their English.

And if I detected a person with a French accent here in the US, I might well respond in French, both to acknowlege the visitor's first language and to practice my own language skills.

Whatever- to each his own.

For my part, I will continue to encourage my students to speak Russian/Spanish even if someone responds to them in English.

My opinion is still the same: if I speak x to you, respond in x to me.

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I, too, have had the experience of people switching to English when they saw I was minimally proficient in French. For our next trip, Claude E.A. Bear and I are working on improving that proficiency--we will, however, inevitably have a strong and easily noticed accent.

Can some of our French or French-fluent posters tell me whether saying "Je préfère essayer de parler en français. Est-ce que ce semble acceptable à vous?" would be perceived as poli et raissonable?

Merci pour votre aide!

You could say : <i>Je pr&eacute;f&egrave;re essayer de parler fran&ccedil;ais, si cela ne vous d&eacute;range pas / si cela vous convient</i>.

I don't want to play the dismissive French teacher, but <i>Est-ce que ce semble acceptable &agrave; vous?</i> is not a proper construction. <i>Sembler</i> calls, indeed, for a dative, but the dative form of the pronoun <i>vous</i> is... <i>vous</i> !

Your proposed sentence should be <i>est-ce que cela vous semble acceptable</i>, which sounds very formal and awkward here. You would speak like this when negotiating an agreement !

Sorry, in my post above, I should have written <b>Your suggested sentence</b> and not <i>your proposed sentence</i>. I fall way too often in the <i>proposal</i> trap !

You fall too often in the proposal trap? You should have a good lawyer on hand to negotiate those prenuptial agreements.

Otherwise, I see nothing wrong with your use of the word proposed.

We just returned from Paris. I have to admit Paris was never on my list of places I wanted to go because of things I've heard about it.. rude.. etc. I didn't even want to go, but it was a stop on alonger journey. I was absolutely THRILLED to find that Parisians are absolutely delightful people. We learned a few phrases and a little bit of French goes a long way. And when we were standing around, very confused about how to use the public toilets, a Parisian approached us and showed us what to do! (We were trying to put money in a slot!). We were made to feel quite comfortable and we fell in love with Paris. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the citizens in the place we visited next... Barcelona/Sitges...