French Customer Service: Impolite or Misconceived?

"Good day!" Calls out the seller cheerfully as my feet cross the threshold. "May I help you with anything?" She offers shortly afterwards, taking the time to judge my size in jeans by eye as she notices my interest and directs me to the right section. "How do they fit him?" She asks my partner who searches for the next size up whilst I grimace at my increasing waistline in the mirror. "Tell him not to worry, these are a slim pair of jeans and it's normal to need a larger size than usual." She advises thoughtfully. My mind settled on two pairs, we head to the counter where she smiles and asks once more if I'm happy with the fit. The transaction is completed, and she bids us a lovely remainder of our day. This is my most recent experience of French customer service, and I'm pleased to say it is anything but an isolated case. 

Where does it come from, that classic cliché of the rude French seller? Plenty of us have heard words along the lines; "The French don't even bother trying to speak English!", "It's a nightmare to buy things from such rude people." or "If you don't speak French to them, they treat you badly." I arrived in France with such warnings ringing fresh in my ears, but have encountered nothing but service ranging from fine to fantastic, with plenty more of the latter at that. From what I've been able to discern, the criticism has stemmed from nothing more than national pride and common courtesy. At least this is the impression I have received from those I have spoken to. Put simply, the French have a right to be proud of their history and the importance of their language and naturally don't appreciate when others ignore this, and they also tend to, quite rightly, believe it is only common manners when visiting another country to take a stab at the local lingo or at least not wander around speaking rapid, complex English and expecting universal comprehension.

Fiction : Reality ?

France is one of the great historical nations, they had an Empire, they conquered unknown lands, their language was spoken far and wide (particularly in England for a very long time), and they remain a dominant global force still today as one of the richest countries worldwide. They're important, and so is their language, and what I've gathered is that they simply wouldn't mind some of us "Anglo-Saxons" (as they call anyone from Britain or the US) acknowledging that by saying a simple "Bonjour" when we enter a shop, rather than kicking off each conversation with "Do you speak English?". It's not the tallest of orders, especially since we do use thousands of French words on a regular basis and the basics of Bonjour/Au Revoir/Merci are reasonably common knowledge. Simply put, if you make an effort, they'll make an effort. The philosophy I've seen here is not so much "The customer is king", rather "The customer is welcome, but not entitled to be rude", more "Customer Service" than "Customer Servants". 

The little story in my introduction naturally occurred in French, but in the very first week I arrived here, I was similarly shopping for jeans when a young worker approached me. Upon realising I was English, he went on to conduct an entire sale in my native tongue with flawless execution. I think any native English speaker, be he British, American, or otherwise, would admit the nigh on impossible odds of a seller in one of our countries suddenly breaking out into French or German or indeed any other language to cater for a foreign customer. Of course I'm not denying it could and does happen, but visitors to our lands are, more often than not, expected to speak our way. English is indeed a global language and with that have come many great things, but also a hideous arrogance and sense of entitlement on the part of its native speakers. It appears that some of us turn up abroad and expect the locals to understand us, and if not we chide them, no better than our imperialistic ancestors.

My civil union partner worked as a cashier a couple of summers ago and encountered a wide range of English-speaking tourists. Very few actually attempted to speak French with her, but since she has an excellent level of English, she replied to them and helped them out. However, she still found it rude when, for instance, a man opened a conversation with "Do you speak English?" to which she would reply in the affirmative, and he went on to talk as though he were at home, without making a slight effort to articulate or speak more slowly, and promptly having the gall to loudly sigh at her when she couldn't understand something he said, as if he were saying "Why did you tell me you could speak English, silly foreigner?". Surely such a scenario should involve far more humility on the English-speaker's part, but apparently he believed the opposite. Personally, I'd feel incredibly rude visiting a foreign country armed linguistically with nothing but my mother tongue, and I'm sure there are plenty of English, Americans, Australians, etc. who agree with me and do take the time to study before arrival. However, from what I've heard and seen, the above scenario is not all that uncommon with English-speaking tourists, and I'm sure in the position of the shop worker, anyone would feel a sense of frustration in a case like that.

I came here with no knowledge of French but have picked it up as I've gone along, and even in the early days I attempted the basics, thus I've encountered no problems. Perhaps if I did walk around speaking English and expecting everyone to understand me, I might encounter some of the famed rudeness but frankly I'd expect nothing less. You'll have noticed earlier I mentioned saying "Bonjour" when entering a shop, and this is very common practice from what I've seen. I could count on one hand the number of times I've crossed a store's doorway and not been greeted within a few moments of my arrival. This is a country where saying hello, goodbye, and wishing everyone a pleasant day is a fundamental role of a customer service worker, something sincerely lacking from those in my English hometown. Genuinely, whether they be old or young workers, timid or bold, whether they be in big brand supermarkets or the bakery on the corner, I've always been greeted warmly and help has been provided when needed.

From my brief time and experiences in France, I've found the horror stories of customer service to be nothing but fairy tales. I've seen a people who simply, from time to time, get a little fed-up of having to bow down to Anglo-Saxons in every walk of life. Of course if you walk up to a foreigner and have the arrogance to be surprised when they don't speak your language, they might get a little rude. But the only legitimate complaint to be made in that instance is against you, not them. The English language already dominates an inordinate amount of the world, forcing countries like France to learn our language from primary school age all the way through to university (where it is often a compulsory subject in addition to the main body of study). Thus, we live in a world where an impressive majority of the people I've met in France speak very good English, while back home barely 10,000 students took French as an A-Level option last year out of the approximate 800,000. The horror stories need a new subject, and I think we only have to look in a mirror to see the ideal candidates.