Can French people speak English?
According to a survey, conducted by French market research institute IFOP for the weekly newspaper Dimanche Ouest France, 34 percent of Franch adults said they did not speak English. That means 66 percent spoke at least some English. Twelve percent said they were fluent in English, six percent said they understood and spoke it well, and 48 percent said they “more or less” understood English but did not speak it fluently. Given that only 9% of Americans for whom English is the language spoken at home can speak another language fluently, we certainly look like a bunch of idiots compared to the French. Although I speak French and several other languages, I often travel with people who speak no language other than English. I have never noticed any of them having any problem at all, at least in Paris. It often seems that almost everyone speaks English and is happy to do so. I suspect that feigning an ignorance of English is simply a way of avoiding dealing with annoying people.
