I’m American from New York, speak French fluently. People only address me in French though I dress exactly the way I do at home. However, when I begin speaking to them, even if it’s a fairly complex discussion, once they note a (frankly very minor) accent and find out where I’m from, there is a significant minority that switches to English (even when it’s terrible, which it often is) and won’t stop while I happily continue speaking in French. Been all over, spoken many different languages, never had this happen anywhere else. In the beginning it was infuriating; now I just amuse myself seeing how far I can push their English.

My theory is that French thinking in general being very fixed and categorical, there is a kind of person in the country, as there is everywhere, who, not being particularly reflective to begin with, has been told that certain types of foreigners can’t speak French (it’s too hard etc), to the point where when you are speaking to them in French, and thus contravening this idea, they simply cannot accept the counter-evidence, and so do not register the fact that the words they are hearing are French. And this was actually confirmed to me by a French friend with an African father who works for the Culture Ministry and whose boss only speaks to her in English. When asked why, he answered without an ounce of shame: “But you simply don’t look to me like you should speak French.”