The French?

Question

Do you like the French, if not why not..?Is it personal experience, or what you have read in the papers...

Thank you for the answers, on a personal note, I lived in Nice for 3 years, and made many friends, they have time for each other, and families, they tend to work 35 hours a week, not like us Brits..
It anoys me when I talk to people and mention I have lived there, some say Oh I hate the French, I then say do you know any, the answer is normally no, so how can they judge..
I feel it is what the press write, then you get the thick readers believing all what is written..
Although I think snails are crap

kl5000, As I stated I lived in France fot 3 years, like the people and way of life, and realise you can not judge until you know the people and realise what warm people they are, but as a visitor also realise we have to make an effort too.
But as for Frogs legs, I don't have a problem with what you eat, it is the way they are killed, the legs been sliced off with a sharp knife, then the remaining par discarded, and the animal can live upto half a day like this..and the foie gras, although I liked it , it was babaric what they did to the ducks . Before you say the UK has crueltey I agree too, we are no better....
Cest la vie

Answer 1

I was born French but raised in the States. (3-13)
Allow me to tell you a story on how I perceived French to be: rude.

I was in a cafe at monmartre and there was an American couple next to me. The garcon was running around summer heat trying to please all clients as fast he could, but apparently the man was not willing to wait, so he started snapping his fingers and dared a whistle.

The waiter, to no surprise not only ignored the man, but actually purposely served other clients without paying attention to him. To which the man got naturally angry and started shouting at the waiter that he was a client, and had to be treated with respect.

This is where I realized the most notable example of arrogance, and to my surprise I was proud of it. The waiter came up to the table and displayed us the following remarks:

I am sorry sir but could you please leave this cafe, you are making so much ruckus that you are spoiling the tranquility of our other clients.

To which the man naturally replied that he has been waiting for hours to get an order, to which the waiter calmly replied:

Yes sir, A deaf man could have heard you calling, but only a dog would have come to the snap of your fingers. You may be a customer, but that does not make me your servant.

There was a round of applause and cheering that accompanied his tirade, and while the amused spectators looked on the scene, myself included the guy started screaming to see the manager while his wife was becoming quite red.

The manager of course came out, and after briefly listening to the story spoke in a perfect English: Sir, if I could please ask you to leave this "cafe", we cannot tolerate lack of respect towards our employees, I am sorry if you have not met the standards you are accustomed to. (turning towards the wife) Madame, I am sorry to see this scene has affected you such, and give you my humble apologies.

This was my first lesson in French arrogance, and quite frankly, i Loved it, and so did everybody else. I can imagine however the story the way it was told by the guy going back home.

In my opinion, French are rude and arrogant only if you do something wrong. Having lived there from 14 to 22, I can say I never met a bunch of more cheerful and crazy people.

Most people that hate French are those who fell into the political mobbing of Rove, rummy and the team. Before Invading Iraq France asked for 30 more days for inspections to make sure Saddam had WMD Bush claimed. The latter, knowing there were no such things (now it is proven thank you) insisted on going to war right away, to which the French refused. The Bush admin spinned this into France said no to the US (as opposed to no to Bush) are cowards (did not want to start a war on baseless facts with consequences we see today) and started the famous French are anti-American, freedom friends, white flag jokes and the rest.

Personally I found everything quite pathetic, and most French I knew loved America, that is before the whole freedom fries thing. Now... its not hate, its pity. Call it arrogance.

Answer 2

I think it's too general of a question. I live in France right now and my husband is French. So I do like the French (otherwise I wouldn't have married one). But then again, there are instances when I really, really want to go back home

I love it how most French people that I've met have been so welcoming. I gave private English lessons here for a while, and for Christmas some of my students offered me presents because they felt bad for me (since I was so far away from my parents). I have to say I was extremely touched!

On the other hand random French people that I've met on the street can be rude, a lot ruder than in US (or at least in Northern California). Just today for example, a secretary in a doctor's office yelled at me because I didn't have the right paper (I called them beforehand asking if I needed this paper and they said "no"). I really felt like a bad student being patronized because she literally told me: "I don't care if someone told you "no", you should have had enough common sense to bring it". They would have never said that to me in the US.

Answer 3

I like your post. I have dual citizenship myself (French and American), and since I'm back in the US now, I hear the same stupid, ignorant comments about how the French are supposedly rude (often ironic when considering the source), unkempt, antisemitic, cowardly, arrogant, hateful towards Americans, etc. You're quite right to point out that it's generally people who've never been anywhere or met anyone from France who tend to feel that way the most. And I'd say that's true in general, not just where France is concerned: the less people know what they're talking about where other nationalities or cultures are concerned, the more derogatory comments they make. Luckily the France-bashing has subsided a bit here lately, after a surge immediately following France's refusal to support the war in Iraq.

Answer 4

I have only been to the South of France Marseilles and Nice. From my experience the country and the people are beautiful and very kind and helpful. Nice was gorgeous and the people where wonderful I fell in love with the city of Nice. I did enjoy Marseilles as well unfortunately the neighborhood that I stayed in was not to safe and my friend (he was living there at the time) did not let me experience the night life of the city we where in his apartment by 6 every night. So I am a bit partial to Nice vs Marseilles due to that.

I would love to move there at some point in my life.

Answer 5

I like them. In my several travels in France, I found most of the people I met quite cordial. They are very helpful when they think that you need some help. I thought it was sheer arrogance when I tried at first to ask some questions in English when I first went there, didn't know a French word then. Little did I realize that their having either ignored me or just looked at me was that they themselves couldn't understand a thing of what I was saying or speak the language I was using.

When I went back some years later, with their language learned and spoken albeit not fluently, the people were so pleasant and accommodating. Perhaps, they were glad that I as a stranger was trying at least to learn and use their language, after all I was there in their country.

I think we just need to show some common courtesy to our host wherever we go to as a visitor. Do we not expect of the same from them when they come to visit our land?

Answer 6

Some French think the American want to impose their culture on the rest of the world and some American think the French are arrogant and rude. To be conviced of such silly clichés is just the consequence of total ignorance. In every country you have both nice and stupid people. So what's the use of describing a whole people with a few adjectives? Everyone is unique !

Answer 7

Last year I took a bicycle trip through the midi pyrenees. (Cahors, St. Cirq Lapopie, Albi, Villefranche de rourque, Najac etc.) I had 20 years ago 3 years french at school but forgot all about it. But I had a great time. People were friendly and a lot of the communication went through sign language. Because I did the trip on a bicycle I went through a lot of small villages, but I met only friendly people. People always told me that the French refuse to speak English. But in my experience that's not through. If they don't speak English it's because they never learned it. I learned it on school.
So in my opinion they are just like other people on this world. It depends how you treat them how they react.

Answer 8

I can't be objective, I'm french, I have to admit that we are mostly proud and jingoist but it's game for us, we mostly love the other cultures.

Some try to put back to back France and english-speaking countries, this is nationnalists craps, most of the films we watch, most of the music we listen, most of artists we praise to the skies are english speaking.

Some try to make arrogant the love we have for our own culture (movies or musics).

Believe me, opposition of the cultures is an old way of protectionnism and is the weapon of the weaks.

Answer 9

What do I think of the French ? Well we are the best.

Well, in fact not really. We are good for a few things but suck at others. Nobody's perfect.

When I read these kind of questions, I always see the same answers from people who still reproach us from not going in Irak. God proved us we were quite right. Bus that's another topic.

And yes it is true we like eating frogs'leg. That's delicious.

Answer 10

I have nothing against the french. I was put in french schooling from the age of 6 till 18 and they are just like us ( I am not french by the way).