There’s a big difference between being an occasional tourist in a place and not speaking much of the language and being a citizen and not speaking it.
I go to France all the time, and if you’re simply polite and smile, and don’t clomp around looking like you’re going to the gym or going off to clean out the garage, people will generally treat you well. In fact, I’m usually treated very well — as is a friend of mine who can barely say “bonjour.”
My friend Pierre, a retired master woodcarver who’s 70 and grew up in Paris, tells the reverse of your friend’s little story. I once asked him how to say a particular thing correctly in French — I think it was the difference between “retourner” and “revenir,” to say to a salesgirl that I would come back to perhaps buy a particular item. No need to know, he quipped — all the salesgirls speak English. (Actually, not true, but many do — at least some.)
Pierre, by the way, who is one of the boys climbing the St. Sulpice fountain in the old Doisneau photograph, happens to speak no English. I work a little harder on my French every week so I can talk to him. Speak other languages abroad, you may learn something.
Encourage all Americans to at least be proficient in English — and Aaron is right that immersion is best — and it means that all Americans will be able to join our economy to the best of their ability.
