It's polite. I did try to say "bonjour" and followed it with "parlez-vous Anglais?" if I actually wanted to converse (if they had replied "non" then I would have attempted to continue in French, which would probably have been painful for both sides since I learnt it around 40 years ago and haven't really used it since). The exception was the hotel desk, where I had already confirmed that they were happy to use English with the guests (and indeed preferred it to having to decipher ancient school French).
The only place so far I've been stumped in learning at least the politenesses (hello, goodbye, please and thankyou) was in Guangzhou ('Canton', China), where the pitched tonal language defeated me. Apparently at least one of the ways I said "Ni ha" (hello) was rather rude, and I couldn't hear the difference, so I gave up rather than be impolite in a different way. I believe that if I at least start and end with attempting to use the local language people will be more willing to make the effort to communicate.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-14 01:04 am (UTC)The only place so far I've been stumped in learning at least the politenesses (hello, goodbye, please and thankyou) was in Guangzhou ('Canton', China), where the pitched tonal language defeated me. Apparently at least one of the ways I said "Ni ha" (hello) was rather rude, and I couldn't hear the difference, so I gave up rather than be impolite in a different way. I believe that if I at least start and end with attempting to use the local language people will be more willing to make the effort to communicate.