do french people learn english in school?

[SusanSocks]

as they very rarely seem too speak it when being interviewed for tv

Interviewed for what?

Would many English people who learned French at school be able to give a spontaneous interview in French, probably on a complex topic, years after they finished school? Or would they only manage Je m’appelle Dave, j’aime jouer au football?

Are you fluent enough from the French, German or Spanish which you learnt in school to be able to respond to interview questions on Liverpool FC or the rise of Refom or your thoughts on a new film?

Yes, I'm away at the moment with french and German friends and we were discussing this yesterday. Same as UK you can choose what language you do at options stage so most people do English but some do another European language. Re interviews, I got an A* in my French GCSE but no chance I'd have been jabbering away fluently in a TV interview.

Ridiculous question. of course they do. In fact all Baccalaureate students (equivalent to A-level) have to study two foreign languages. So a much larger proportion of the higher educated population than in the UK where even the vast majority of undergraduates stopped studying a language after GCSE.

How many British or American people could or would give interviews in French or another foreign language on TV? Hardly any.

And a lot of people also seem to have difficulty using correct English even when it's their native language. "They rarely seem TO speak it"

In the same way British people all have French lessons (although increasingly some schools only offer Spanish)? Yes most do, although some French schools will have Spanish or German as their main modern foreign language taught. English lessons are like French lessons in the UK. And few Brits I know would be able to converse in French.

J’aime jouer au foot is a stretch

We are woeful at languages in the UK, mainly because there are fewer opportunities to immerse ourselves in a foreign language than there might be abroad. For example, there is a usually an English-language film or tele programme on at any given time in France.

Yes they do, and I’ve found they speak it much better than the English speak French!!

not members of the public
i mean politicians, sports men and women

Yes they do. I taught English at a French school.

But obviously as Pps have said, there a big difference between school foreign language level and fluency for interviews.

Many French politicians speak really good English but would still want to be interviewed in French for TV

• speaking your native language allows you to be more exact, more nuanced, more diplomatic when talking about difficult topics.
• Most French people speaking English sounds like Inspector Clouseau and it massively detracts from their impact in English.

OP I've got a postgrad degree in French and I'd hesitate to do a media interview in French! Learning a language at school really isn't the same as speaking it fluently and confidently in a stressful, live broadcast situation.

Est-ce que vous vouliez parler en français si je vous interrogeais sur votre travail? Peut-être vous pouvez me dire comment vous avez improver les systèmes cette année, et expliquer pourquoi vous n'avez pas gagner assez de temps.

Je suis désolée si cette n'est pas le bonne français mais je ne parle pas le français régulièrement.

Yes, they were taught English at school in France.

Yes - from nursery. My secondary school used to do an annual exchange in the summer and the French kids were fluent in English, unlike us who couldn’t say more than a sentence at a time!

1. yes it's taught in schools but like all subjects, some teachers are better than others
2. it's very hard to become fluent just with school lessons, especially when half the class isn't interested at all
3. English is required much more of French people than a foreign language is required for native English speakers- it's required up to A level (or at least a foreign language is) and Business and engineering schools also require students to learn English and pass a certification (TOEIC).
4. all this is irrelevant when you are being interviewed- if you are not 100% comfortable about being able to fully express yourself in English then of course you will speak your native language!

I think we often hear French people speaking in English on the news. I always notice because I think it sounds so nice with a slight French accent.

Whereas English footballers who go and play abroad are regularly giving interviews in the language of where they live are they? 😂

Generalising hugely of course but most sport people are not known for their academic prowess. They’re good at sport, why would that make them fluent in another language?

Politicians are generally more academically inclined but again, I’d be surprised if many of the cabinet could give a fluent interview in the language they learned at school - particularly given most current affairs topics will have specialist vocabulary unlikely to have been taught in school lessons.

On the whole most Europeans speak English better than the English speak any other European language, but that doesn’t mean everyone is fluent.

@Runnersandtoms
a ridiculous question?
so you know the answer doesnt make it ridiculous to question it. dont be a knob

Yes they do. They start with one foreign language (LV1) in primary, then continue into secondary and add an LV2 (German, Spanish, Italian). They keep both languages right through to the end of lycée.

for the great majority of schools English is the LV1. It’s not obligatory, but it’s the one the parents want children to learn. So if they stay in school all the way to terminale, they will have done 11 years of English, 6 years of LV2.

However, my (British) children tell me the standard is pretty low. France isn’t very good at teaching English for lots of reasons: big focus on gramma, taught as an academic subject rather than a living language, low exposure due to films etc being dubbed rather than subtitled, not wanting to make mistakes in class, not often taught by native speakers. My kids friends who have really good English tend to have been very motivated - they watch tv / films in English, they use English social media, they really make an effort.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/12/04/which-eu-country-speaks-the-best-english-as-a-second-language

generally Northern European countries rank better than southern with the honourable exception of Portugal.

im learning a other language and while I can read it very well & write it pretty passsbly, the moment I have to answer spontaneous questions beyond the very basic - how are you? Where are you from? I'm like a rabbit in headlights!

edited after reading above - apparently one of the things that makes the Portuguese so good at English is that they don't dub English films/programmes into Portuguese but use subtitles

Sentences start with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark if we’re going down the pedantry route!

In fact they often speak better English than a lot of the English.

I did French to A level and was pretty fluent by the time I left school. 30 ish years later I can still speak enough French to manage in France or French speaking countries. Would I do a tv interview in French? Absolutely bloody not. And frankly the suggestion that non native English speakers should have to is borderline xenophobic. I do not understand why you expect them to do so.

just interested when you compare the dutch and german professionals giving interviews compared to the french