Summer Blog Post #2

During my stay in Paris this summer we decided to meet up with a friend of my brother who lived in the city. My brother had met her in America during one of her stays in the country as a foreign exchange student. So, after setting up as meeting place and time we set off on the metro to meet Alex.  Once we spotted her we went through quick introductions and then began our stroll along the Champs-Élysées. After doing some window shopping we decided that a Starbucks break was exactly what we needed to power through the rest of the day. Now this is where it gets a bit interesting. My family began placing their drink orders in English of course which was fine as the barista seemed to be quite fluent. When it came time for Alex to place her order she spoke in French to the barista. However, the barista replied and kept speaking to her in English. After repeatedly attempting to speak French to the barista and having him reply in English, Alex finally asked "Do you not speak French?". The barista replied that yes he did speak French and then it dawned on him that Alex was actually a native French speaker, not just some tourist wannabe.

Now this is a prime example of how we code switch according to our appraisal of a situation. The barista realized that we most likely did not speak French and therefore he switched to the common language of English in order to communicate with us in a more efficient manner. This ability to code switch is highly important in today's society. We often find ourselves having to alter our speech in accordance with who we're conversing with. However, as seen in this case we can sometimes make mistakes when making assumptions about people. Overall, I found it interesting how the barista was able to make assumptions in order to be more accommodating in this scenario.