I'm not sure if it's a stereotype, or simply outdated.
Much of what happened at the UN in its early decades was in French first, then English and the rest. I could see this happening at all levels within France, since it has such pride in its language. Unless that's an outdated notion, too.
It is most definitely not an out of date stereo type that (a looot of) French people are not particularly fond of English. Go to any university and you’d be surprised about the amount of students that don’t speak English, or can just muster a couple of words. It ingrained in the culture, from dubbing movies and series, having previously been the lingua franca of academics, culture etc, having a large part of the country in rural places, and (in some places) being seen as arrogant of you speak English or say English phrases.
Source: French girlfriend, French friends and having been there a lot.
Hi, source I’m an uni engineer in France, everyone in my 100+ lab speaks English.
What’s more is there’s a funny reversal occurring where people insert English phrases to be hip, eg in the middle of a French sentence, you hear a “yes” or a “let’s go” or a “in z pocket” (I never understood that last one)
