Saturday, June 6, 2009

Do I Intimidate You?

Upon returning from my trip to the south, I dropped my bags off at home, scrounged up any change that I could find because I was out of cash and in possession of a useless carte bleue and headed out to have a celebratory drink for my friend KD's birthday.

During the evening, as I was chatting with one of our mutual French friends he made an interesting confession to me which left me scratching my head. He told me that he was intimidated by me during our first meeting which is why he spoke less than 5 words to me or anyone except the host for the entire evening. In case you didn't know I'm a petite girl. I'm also shy and have questionable social skills, how someone can find me intimidating is beyond me.

However, I must confess that because almost everyone in Paris speaks English I make an automatic assumption when I meet people for the first time and start speaking to them in English. I know how bad it sounds especially considering how long I've been in France and my level of French and I can understand how it can be somewhat intimidating to a Frenchie who may speak English but may not be all that comfortable with his mastery of the language.

So my goal for any future social interactions with Frenchies is to try to be less intimidating to the by at least putting forth an effort to speak to them in their language.

6 comments:

Ksam said...

Dahling, it's not just the Frenchies that you intimidate! ;)

David in Setouchi said...

On the other hand, when meeting Parisians, intimidating them as a first impression is not a bad idea if you want to get respect from them.

Piccalilli Circus said...

Hi, very interesting your blog !
If you want to discover an other city than Paris in France, I write a blog about Lille, a city situated in the North of France.
http://bieresetchicons.wordpress.com

I realise sometimes some guided visit. If you are interested by this, don't hesitate to contact me. Lille is 1 hour away from Paris ;-)

Florence said...

Hey, I know we have not met. So I'm not intimidated, but wanted you to know that your blog was an inspiration to me before I made the move to Paris (Last week!). Hope to meet you one day. If not. Check out my blog at: ParisFocus.blogspot.com
Keep up the inspiring blog!

Koko Rachelle said...

Aww bless, poor intimidated guy. Lol, I think it's a great idea to speak French in France! Bonne chance!

Non Je Ne Regrette Rien said...

I think making the effort to speak in the native tongue of whatever country we're in is well worth it and much appreciated by the locals. If you turn the tables, its the same way, eh?