Why do the French get so much stick for their putative hostility towards and poor levels of English?

[Tooting Carmen]

In truth, most EU surveys show that there is a higher level of knowledge of English in France than in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Romania and no doubt quite a few other countries. Yet somehow the French are both criticised and stereotyped as being the most resistant to the English language of all, and of not 'going with the flow' of just adopting English for utilitarian reasons instead of trying to promote their own language. Why is this?

[farke1]

Probably because they lag far behind the rest of Northwestern Europe, I'd guess. Due to France's geographical location, people seem to automatically expect French people to be near-fluent in English, ignoring the fact that most of their neighbours speak languages that are more closely related to English and thus have an easier time.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

In truth, most EU surveys show that there is a higher level of knowledge of English in France than in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Romania and no doubt quite a few other countries. Yet somehow the French are both criticised and stereotyped as being the most resistant to the English language of all, and of not 'going with the flow' of just adopting English for utilitarian reasons instead of trying to promote their own language. Why is this?

Their English proficiency levels are not higher than those of Portugal at least in most charts I have seen.

[Kamal900]

Simply because of their accent that is the most distinct in the west which can give the impression that they're less proficient in the English language. No offence but British English is one of the most unintelligible form of English.

[Cristiano viejo]

Their English proficiency levels are not higher than those of Portugal at least in most charts I have seen.

Stop licking the English boots. Not knowing English is not something bad, after all is not the language of a country.

[Kamal900]

Stop licking the English boots. Not knowing English is not something bad, after all is not the language of a country.

Obviously. I myself get annoyed whenever I hear Arabs here talking with each other in English rather than in their native tongue. I mean, it can destroy the linguistic richness of local languages of a native nation by an outside language.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Stop licking the English boots. Not knowing English is not something bad, after all is not the language of a country.

Where was I "licking" someone's boots? I was just rectifying him.

[Cristiano viejo]

Obviously. I myself get annoyed whenever I hear Arabs here talking with each other in English rather than in their native tongue. I mean, it can destroy the linguistic richness of local languages of a native nation by an outside language.

In fact it destroys the linguistic richness of local languages. Anglicism come everyday to the Spanish language, and I guess this happens in other languages too, it is a shame.

Where was I "licking" someone's boots? I was just rectifying him.

You seem very proud (not the first time that you do) claiming Portuguese are masters speaking English.
Believe me, if 100% of Spaniards spoke English to the perfection, I would be very sad with this.

[Kamal900]

In fact it destroys the linguistic richness of local languages. Anglicism come everyday to the Spanish language, and I guess this happens in other languages too, it is a shame.

You can blame that on the past colonial empires that made the English and French to be unofficial lingua franca in many countries of the world. I mean, I understand why Spanish is the first language for all the Spanish speaking peoples of the Americas due to the cultural assimilation via paternal mixture with the natives which is true for the Arabs, but the English language is a language that is used by many countries of the world to do business and etc due to globalism which is bad for the local languages to be step sided.

[Óttar]

Because France has been washed up since the 19th century. They long for a bygone era when France was the leading player in international politics. Not anymore. The Anglosphere won out.