They do that with all languages. Try Mozart...

Is spa included in the price ?

Having lived in Italy for over 20 years,(the rudest people). I find French people very polite and kind if you make any effort with French. I always start with Bonjour, pharmacists, shopkeepers, restauranteurs, and my favorite the Boulangerie ❤❤❤

"break" etc. These are not so much English words as they are "anglicisms." They seem to be cropping up more and more in French and other languages as well.

Well, I think Céret is much better with an elegant and smart lady living in there.

(edit: removed the part about the police. Your EDIT 1 is definitely a must-read) When they feel you're in distress, some people feel the need to help, other the urge to profit from it. If he had been so sure he was in his own right, he would have called the police himself and not bring onto you this gestapo interrogation routine. The guy was on a complete power trip. Besides... Two guys coercing a woman into a closed room ? You must have been so scared, I'm so sorry for you: you had done nothing wrong and even if you had, this should not have happened. I know it doesn't make sense, but as a french man I kinda feel like I owe you an apology... nonsense, right ?

Funny , and it also works the other way round. If you pronounce Mariah Carey the English way, most people in France won't know who you're talking about. I remind my American colleagues talking about the city of San Jose, and for a while I had no idea of what they were talking about. But, by the way, I have to say that what you describe is not what we call "un trou de mémoire". A "trou de mémoire" is when you can't remember something that you should know very well, like for example , when you don't remember the name of this famous actor who plays the character "Jack Dawson" in Titanic.

French are super rude and arrogant. Can you please lecture them about their behaviors

Please don’t be hard on yourself .. It is easy to be overwhelmed under the circumstances you describe 🤗 The man involved is the one who should be ashamed of his behaviour

It happened here in San Francisco where I live. @ women at my door casing my place, I shut the door !. No thank you.

Banking fees were normal until I was in my 30s in the US. 🤗. Granted, I was born in the 1960s.

No shellfish. But snails. I love human beings.

A neighbor of mine from Quebec with a thick accent and a not perfect grasp of English grammar kept saying that her daughter was “going to away”. I finally told her that the correct expression was that her daughter was “going away” not “going to away”. She was actually saying that her daughter was going to Hawaii.

Reading this I realised I shouldnt use my card in a taxi and in fact to avoid taxis wherever possible

Im the opposite I avoid the coast completely. I love the French countryside of Burgundy and Ain theres always lakes and rivers for water

OMG, I'm so sorry that you had this experience. Just hearing you tell the story felt traumatizing, especially the possibility of losing the videos of your mom. Do they not have assault and battery laws in France? I suppose it would have been your word against theirs, unfortunately, Anyway, I love your channel!

Having taught ESL for years in French speaking countries, achieving true native “fluency” in ten years from nothing is unrealistic. True fluency takes significantly longer. You may speak French well, but be careful when claiming fluency. Your pronunciation from what I’m hearing needs work. You still have that definite native American English speaker accent. Although I live most of the year in the US and part of the year in France my French is pretty good (from what Parisians tell me) but I will never be fluent. Oddly, I regularly get asked if I’m Swiss or maybe Belgian although I’m a fluent native English speaker. I’ve worked for decades to be rid of a my “American accent” when speaking French and with time you will too. The best thing you can do is to stop speaking English as much as you can. In Metropolitan French cities these days, English is just everywhere and sometimes French becomes the second language and it’s easy to just lapse into English. I enjoy your channel.

I'm so sorry this happened to you Diane. Thank you for the lessons you shared from this experience, they are invaluable. I'm going to share it with my daughter and keep in mind to myself everyday. I hope you were able to keep those memories of your mom and family that you almost lost. I hope the behaviors to store owner and his colleague go on record. No one should ever experience that. xox

And to me this proves well never be fluent in English in France (unlike Quebec). We use a lot of English words but French iffy them so much it becomes French in a way :)

The reason unfortunately is that they refuse to teach pronunciation in schools, they focus only on reading and writing comprehension…but to me pronunciation is paramount

Sorry this happened to you. No one is allowed to snatch someone’s personal property like he did. Should have shifted the power and said give my phone/ camera back pls. If he refused I would ask to call the police. Take back your power and don’t apologize if you didn’t do anything wrong. If it offends them ok sorry and thats it. Anyone in this position should yell get your hands off me - call the police! Be comfortable saying NO! There was no deescalating anything from this story. The dude was out of control and attacking you.

I have more experience with Québécois French and what you described is the #1 reason why I have so much trouble understanding French from France. 😩 When Québécois people use English words they usually try to pronounce them like Anglophones do and make it obvious it’s an English word.

That behavior sounds like a form of kidnapping. Anytime someone grabs you and traps you in a room, that's kidnapping.

how patronizing it is to the staff to be depending on handouts instead of a proper and well- deserved salary.

Diane, thank you for the video! Had this kind of fun many times! For me the hardest one was “Elle a changé de look…”

An important reminder to us all. You are very brave to relive it all in the telling. I hope that now you can start to put it further behind you as an aberration and two terrible men. Bullies. Karma will come to them.

Good video! Everyone has multiple differences and needs that should be considered. Even the move itself - learn what’s necessary, what stressors one might run into and mentally prepare. Because, like it or not, a major country move, unless you are a millionaire paying someone to do all your paperwork and running your errands, you will run into things you will need to solve and do on your own, and it’s just a reality of such a big move. But as an expat to, so rewarding when you finally get settled. ❤🎉

It's actually pretty common for store owners and their security crews to largely overstep what the law allows them to do. Basically, store owners have a problem, like shoplifting, or competitors spying etc. And that drives them mad. And as a consequence, they completely lose their shit and behave stupidly, often in an illegal manner. Now asking to "not call the police" probably reinforced his opinion that you weren't telling the truth. On the contrary, you should have asked them to call the police. You'd done nothing wrong and he was losing his mind. But it's easier said than done in a country which isn't yours and where you're not 100% sure of your rights.

Not everyone has the same ability. I grew up hearing relatives speak Spanish most weekends. I understand a reasonable amount, but when I would try to speak it, my family, first cousins then later sisters-in-law, would mock me and never try to help me learn. I resented it and avoided hearing or speaking it at all for decades. Now, I've tried learning French and am hesitant and find myself worrying about that every time I try. It's sad how some people never give a second thought to the harm they may cause others and how small cruelties can totally change the course of a person's life.

Wow ! L'histoire est tellement choquante !

Yes we are very bad at english accent... and all accents. French is not à tonal langage, it is flat. We also ashame to speak foreign langages and to make mistake. But a little time and humour it is easy to understand each others and you are very wellcome in Paris (véri ouèlcom ine Paris !😊)

I'm moving to France from Ireland and watching this made me realise that the situation in Ireland is far worse, and I'll be ok in France :D

Diane: You were absolutely not in the wrong and I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach while listening to you talk about what happened. I'm also an American woman who moved to France because of my French husband (and I've also lost my mother, too). I had a few horrible, awful "encounters" with some men in metro stations in Lyon and while I did go to the police (and the doctor to get an official medical certificate to prove my injuries!), they did nothing. I've also had "road rage" situations with French men who went after me (with my kids in the car!!!) and it's beyond scary. It can be totally disorienting, not only as a person not accustomed to dealing with aggressive men, but the added layer of not wanting to make a fuss, not wanting to be an "ugly American". The frightening uncertainty in the moment of thinking, "ok is this really as bonkers as I think it is or is there a cultural thing I'm missing???" It's so so hard. The PTSD is real.

Oh NO!! I would have seen the inside of a French jail that day.

This story reminds me of a time. I was five years old playing the neighborhood. There were some "big kids," maybe ten years old. They grabbed me and took me into a house that was under construction and told me that they were going to kill me. The terror that I felt then has never been repeated to that level in spite of serving a year in Vietnam as an army helicopter pilot and then later as a police officer. I have never forgotten it. It will stay with me for the rest of my life. I totally get where you're coming from. Godspeed to you.

"Please don't call the police!" No my Dear, DO CALL the police. This is false imprisonment, kidnapping, and wrongful confiscation of property. And YES, you should denounce the store. People watching your video want to know where to avoid.

I had a hilarious discussion with a French lady who spoke little English, as I speak little French. We were stumbling along and she, sure I would know what she meant, asked me about the director "Oo-dee-ah-lah". She seemed shocked when I said I had never heard of him. She said, but he is un Americain! I said, so sorry, I don't know him! It took me a few minutes and then I said, "Oh, Woody Allen!," laughing at the situation - but I think she thought I was laughing at her! Oh well, you win some, you lose some, lol.

Surprised about the toilets...I've used a lot of toilets in older areas or European cities that are connected to very old plumbing, or had weak flushes.

Dans le sens inverse : il y a une quinzaine d'années, une amie américaine me parlait du film "Dababla". En fin de compte c'était "There will be blood".

"Freedom" is different for different places. Some French ways I agree with, some U.S. I definitely think you should be able to buy paternity tests. What about DNA tests, for genetic or health purposes? Are those forbidden too?

Hi Diane and Happy New Year. A relative of a friend was staying in "For Lo-dare-dahl" en Floride. (Fort Lauderdale). On the flip side, I live in Michigan which has a lot of French words that a French person might not understand if I used the English pronunciation.

Once an American asked me if I lived in “Pelouiss”. I told him I had never heard of it. He looked at me with wide eyes, he wanted to talk about Paris (otherwise, a German woman asked me: -Kennst du Jesus? -Yésous? Nein. ist er berühmt?)

Create a scene,especially the ladies alone! Draw lots of attention if you feel unsafe. Get bystanders and police involved. If you have done nothing wrong, there is no reason not to. Too many women worry about “being polite.” If someone is rude or aggressive, being polite is not going to protect you.

It reminds me ofsomething that happened to me in the US. I was doing a fashion design program in California and whenever I was talking about French designers such as Chanel, Givenchy, or any others, I would get very confused looks from my audience. Then I realized that, in order to be understood, I had to pronounce those names with an American accent. Ahhh CHEUNELLLL, GUYVINCHEE,....HAHAHA!

Bring European I share the French way… The American way is pretty alien to me…

This has happened to me with Norwegians. Any words where the words get the stress on the "wrong" syllable will throw me.

Yeah, I still call it Peking too.

I think it is much easier if you move to the country when you are relatively young and are surrounded by people who don't speak your native language, then you learn quickly and are less self conscious about appearing stupid when you make mistakes. I lived here for a year when I was 19 and learnt the language (I moved here permanently at 23), and it was relatively easy because I was still young

I live in Israel, I have no problem reading in Hebrew except when it's a word transliterated from English...then I have no idea...I always have to ask my husband, just to realize it's an English word "written" in an Israeli accent. I also remember when my bilingual son was 3 , I asked him how do you say tractor in Hebrew (it's the same word , I was interested how he'd respond) , he answered "in English it's "tractor", in Hebrew it's "tractor" (said in an Israeli accent)", to his child's brain they were two totally different words

Someone (french) once asked me for a "beek". I understood every word except the thing they wanted. Then they said stylo. So I finally connected the dots. They asked for a Bic pen!