One of my gym friends has been pushing me to do the cycling (spinning) class with her and last night I finally caved in. I was reluctant because I did it once before in Australia and was sore for about a week after! I swore I'd never do it again. Never say never I guess.
So I got to the class early and the prof explained how to set up the bike. I hadn't done any classes with this guy before and as soon as he realised that I'm not French, he started speaking to me in English.
Just before the class started he said to the whole class how he was going to speak in both French and English during the class - just for me! I was pretty embarrassed and it was completely unnecessary as I do understand perfectly but it was nice of him to try to help me out.
What I didn't expect was the looks of outrage on half the people in the class. They we're like, 'no, pourquoi' and one stupid cow said, 'on est en France, on parle francais ici!'. It didn't really bother me at the time so I just said to him to speak in French and he did for the most part.
Thinking about it after, I got really pissed off. He was just trying to be nice, to include me, and she was being a bitch about it. It's not like she said it as a joke, she was seriously annoyed.
Yeah, we are in France and I should speak French and I do speak French, albeit not very well. But what seemed to escape her is that he was being nice. Some people seem to have forgotten what that means.
As for the class, it was great. It wasn't as difficult as I remembered. I'm obviously much fitter now than I was then. I'll be doing it again for sure.
5 comments:
Hey Andrea!
Glad you tried the Spin class and liked it! It's my fav!! You are invited to come to my gym in the campagne and spin/work out with me sometime!! You would like my gym a lot.. Everyone is super nice... Every once in a while the spin instructor will utter a word or phrase in English... but just for him/herself since no one there really knows I speak Eng... I have to say, BITCH lady!! That was rude, but I can see someone at my gym in San Diego making a wisecrack like that just to be a "smart ass.!" So, whatever for that person who said it ... obviously, she's NOT very cultured OR worldly!!! I think it's cool for people to speak diff. languages and expose others to that.. How cool and it WAS very nice of the instructor to suggest that... He was being cool... You know, EVEN though my French is pretty good... In the spin classes I go to.. I can BARELY understand WHAT the heck they are saying... It's all soooo murbled with the microphone and music being loud and all.. I sometimes had trouble hearing in English at my gym in San Diego.. So, I just watch and follow what the instructor does in class.. I can make out a few words.. but not too many.... Good spin to you!!
Leese
Me too, I don't always understand due to the music etc, I just follow the instructor.
I was doing the fit boxing class for around a year before I realised the prof was saying 'upper cut' which he was pronouncing like, 'ooper coot', lol. I still laugh every time he says that.
Oh, and I can never understand what they are saying during the pilates class, even though all the names of the moves are in English.
We should definitely do a spinning class together some time soon!
What a total bitch! I'd keep going just to annoy her. Maybe her reaction was based on her insecurity about her own English which is probably very poor? Or...she's just a grumpy bitch.I really hate it when people make those kinds of statements. I remember at a party once when my French was a lot worse than it was now so I was feeling so isolated and one of Christophe's friends barged into a conversation I was having in English and loudly said that he didn't want to hear any English tonight. He later repeated the statement.
They probably think they're being funny but instead it just comes across as rude and annoying.
I used to feel quite bad about speaking English here, like I wasn't making enough effort to fit in but now I couldn't care less.
If someone speaks English better than I speak French, it makes sense to converse in English. Anyone who doesn't like that can piss off!
Hey there,
I've just moved back to France (am FR) for my Aussie partner's job, and I can't believe how rude they can be. I've almost become so British and therefore PC too I guess, after 14 years in the UK. Still, there are good things to take in this county. Hope you enjoy the good sides :-)
Take care
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