American asking questions on whats polite
Hi! My friends and I are taking a trip to France later this year. The last thing I want, though, is for us to be a burden or annoyance on the people around us while we're there. So I've been trying to look up what's polite. I've come to these points
- bonjour to everyone you make eye contact with and whenever you enter a place
- au revoir when you leave a conversation or a place
- Americans are usually loud so we need to make an effort to be decently quiet in public.
And that's it :') my French is also dogwater, so I'm trying to at least get some basic phrases to not sound super clunky when I say them. What else should I keep in mind, though? Should I say salut to people I just pass on the street? Or bonjour? Or nothing at all? Or does it not matter all that much?
Also how do I hide that I'm American, because i have no idea what French-American relationships will be like in a few months. Our president is a volatile guy who likes to offend.