Dancing in Paris

Misunderstandings give the French a bad rap for being unfriendly to idiot tourists. Those who live in highly touristic areas become annoyed with the same thoughtless questions every day, and thus are seen as unfriendly to people who should have planned their vacation more carefully.

They further say the French are uppity and snooty because they aren't eager to speak English to tourists. It is true many are hesitant to speak English, but this is because they don't think their English is good, but it usually plenty understandable once you get them started.

There are two approaches to cracking this egg.

1. Learn enough French and use it terribly to show your French is worse than their English. They will take pity on you, and relieve mutual suffering by resorting to English.

2. Those skilled in accents and acting can jump directly to speaking in a bad European English (think third/fourth language), at which point their relatively more capable English will confidently emerge.