Speak More Slowly Please

I'm English, this means I speak English, or at least a dialect of it... This mere fact has furnished me with the ability to communicate to a myriad of other people, of different nationalities and inclinations.

However, it completely alienates me from the French.

Well, a certain sub-set of French speakers, whom simply are rude... Now, I'm sorry, but these people exist, and good on them, they want to protect their beloved French language from the likes of me, coming along speaking it with a terrible rich British Midlands accent.

I accept that.

I'm not trying to compose poetry in French, I'm just trying to communicate with someone, so when I say:

"parlez plus lentement sil vous plais, je ne pas parlez Francais bon"

I think I'm asking them to speak more slowly please, as I don't speak French very well.  I don't expect them to stop the conversation completely, roll their eyes and then turn their back on me.  That's rude.

And this wasn't an isolated case, since the mid-90's it's happened a few times.  And every single time it annoys me more.

When a French person speaks to me with strongly accented and semantically incorrect English, I of course listen to them, I'll even take a stab at working out what they were intimating, I'll smile and maintain eye contact, reassure them they are okay to just try... Very much a "we'll get there together" feel to the conversation.

Some French speakers however... Just Rude.

There, I've said it, I'll leave this here....

This post also may give away why there's been a small break in posts for the last half month... No I've not been anywhere, but I have been extremely busy.