had hired a retired Princeton french professor years ago to teach me as I wanted to work in France. I went to her house twice per week and she made me read French stuff and write a essay. I would only chose le miroir du cyclisme, l'equipe or something on wine. If I was spending huge money on french journals and the effort to obtain them, I wanted to at least enjoy it. One day she lost it on me.....I should read more intellectual stuff. That I did not care about the mind. Only the body. So, she shifted to having me watch movies and that was really hard. The slang was impossible and there were no subtitles. When I applied for my Residency permit and work permit, I had to indicate my ability with the language. I asked her if I was a low intermediate. She nearly passed out.....she was so insulted and she pouted and really told me how she felt. I give her credit, she put her heart into it. She'd give me some French philosophy crap to read that I hated, we eventually compromised on newspapers and news magazines with limited sports stuff, food and wine. It has been 30+ years and I forget almost all of it. The funniest part, the French would tell me I speak like a Japanese but with a good accent....whatever that means but I heard it a lot.
What I found helps when approaching a french person is to be very polite (smile, Bon Jour Madame, etc) and first to apologize for butchering their language. I say it has been 30 or 40 years and I am old. Please excuse me. Lower your eyes a bit. Then, get into whatever it is. I think it is still expected to say Bon Jour Madame as one enters a patisserie to clean out the shelves. I had a french colleague who said I was not so rude for an American. LOL