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Cywr
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Topic: What do Europeans have in common? Posted: 17-May-2005 at 21:50 |
None of them like the French apparently.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as
"chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". However, the French
may be more shocked by the views of other nations.
For
the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The
Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish
see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as
"preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant,
flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them
"not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".
Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty".
But
the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll was
conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just
what they thought of them.
"Interviewees were
simply asked an open question - what five adjectives sum up the
French," said Olivier Clodong, one of the study's two authors and a
professor of social and political communication at the Ecole Superieur
de Commerce, in Paris. "The answers were overwhelmingly negative."
According
to Mr Clodong, the old adage that France is wonderful, it's just the
French who are the problem, is shared across Europe.
"We are admired for our trains, the Airbus and Michelin tyres. But the buck stops there," he said.
Another section of the study deals with how the French see the rest of Europe.
"Believe
it or not, the English and the French use almost exactly the same
adjectives to describe each other - bar the word 'insular'," Mr Coldong
said. "So the feelings are mutual." |
Newslink
Maybe not liking the French could be made a requirement for EU entry. Is Turkey up for the test
And for the French forumers, a big
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ArmenianSurvival
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 05:44 |
They are all heavily influenced by the Roman Empire, and Roman
culture is still present in all of their nations. The alphabet is just one
of the main entities that Roman culture has affected. All of the
nations except for Greece, but Greece is really more of an extension of
the middle east than it is part of Europe. Culturally, anyway.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Resistance
Քիչ ենք բայց Հայ ենք։
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Yiannis
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 05:45 |
Well, I'll come to the defence of the French and say that most people when they come accross such questions, they tend to bring forward all their stereotypes and respond negativelly. Let's not forget that the vast majority of the people who responded have never met a French person in their lives.
I have and can only say that both of them were very nice, warm and fun people. Generalizing is a bad way of judging people!
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The basis of a democratic state is liberty. Aristotle, Politics
Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
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Exarchus
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 06:08 |
Well, we are a large nation (land wise) and a crossroad. So basicly
this kind of attitude (that I got confirmed by my personnal experience)
isn't unexpected.
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Vae victis!
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Guests
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 07:24 |
Many Dutch often complain about the fact that the French don't speak foreign languages.
Most people who complain about that don't speak French themselves.
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Thegeneral
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 07:30 |
Well I'm just gonna sit on the side lines and watch the EU beat themselves into oblivian becuase of racism. That would be kinda funny. (although, so would Bush beating up Kerry, which is the equivalent of EU beating itself up)
And i will refrain from any jokes right now! Good luck to the French!
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Exarchus
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 11:42 |
Originally posted by Mixcoatl
Many Dutch often complain about the fact that the French don't speak foreign languages.
Most people who complain about that don't speak French themselves.
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Most people who complain about that came in France for vacantion, saw
hot girls all around on the beach, and went back home alone because
they expected them to speak English.
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Vae victis!
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tzar
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 13:08 |
Originally posted by Mixcoatl
Many Dutch often complain about the fact that the French don't speak foreign languages. Most people who complain about that don't speak French themselves.
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Yeah and these who speak it have an awful accent! My english also is not fluent, but their is ******
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Everybody listen only this which understands.
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Cywr
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 14:03 |
You love us really
Europeans believe the French to be
arrogant, disobedient, rude and promiscuous, according to a new study.
All true, says Agns Poirier. And we Gauls wouldn't have it any other
way
Wednesday May 18, 2005
The Guardian
t's like
the Proms. It comes back every year, nobody remembers when it actually
started (as it has always been here), and the programme is more or less
the same with a few new variations each time: I solemnly declare the
French-bashing season open! A new study would have us believe that
Europeans loathe the French. And to make it look more serious, this
report has been compiled by two Frenchmen. Ooh la la! As a true
European, citizen of the world, French-born and British resident, let
me rise to the defence of my countrymen and try to explain what may lie
below the surface.
So, what do we learn in this study? When
asked how they view the French, every nationality in the panel has a
different answer. Yet there are recurrent and common grudges. Simply
put - since indeed only five adjectives to describe the French were
asked of those questioned - they are viewed as: "arrogant, pretentious,
rude, promiscuous, disobedient."
Arrogance, first. The French
arrogant? Yes, they are. Of course, they are. How could they not be
arrogant? Have you ever been to France? A country where trains arrive
on the dot, the health system is still the best in the world, girls are
beautiful (and thin), best friends of 20 years fall out over the
European referendum and grammatical issues, people kiss endlessly
almost everywhere, take to the streets at the slightest whim, discuss
for hours the way to cook coq au vin, cry when they read Voltaire. How
can they not be arrogant when they have so many reasons to be proud of
their country?
Also, their arrogance is not like any arrogance,
it's pretty straightforward, pretty childlike. In other words,
endearing. It says, "We are the best", while deep down they know very
well they are not. Their arrogance is like that of a barking poodle.
Annoying, perhaps, but of no great consequence for the world. Nothing
like British arrogance, which is of the ultimate kind. British
arrogance never says "we are the best" as it goes without saying.
That's why the British are so polite to foreigners. Foreigners will
never threaten their superiority, as it is far beyond anybody's reach.
Pretentious?
Yes, definitely. It goes hand in hand with arrogance and frivolity.
French pretentiousness comes mainly from two things: their sense of
aesthetics and their love of their language. In France, style is the
norm, while abroad, style is deemed as unnecessary, ultimately vain,
and therefore pretentious. In France, it is normal to take care of how
one looks, walks, talks, of how one might be perceived by others.
Looking at others and being looked at is quintessentially French. It's
not really a game or a code; the French are born like this, that's how
they relate to each other. Their love for their mother tongue,
meanwhile, has been universally underestimated by foreigners who have
long admitted defeat and bowed to the new lingua franca, namely the
English language. The French will be the last to bow. Their attitude
looks undoubtedly conceited, thus pretentious, but frankly isn't it
quite also admirable?
Rude? Yes, indeed, they are very rude. And
they are not sorry for it. However, rest assured that they are the
first victims of their own rudeness. Never believe that taxi drivers
and Parisian waiters are only rude to foreigners. They are rude to
everybody. As for more everyday rudeness, others would call it
straightforwardness. The French are no hypocrites, they don't apologise
before insulting you. They don't warn before striking the first blow.
They are not civilised that way, unlike their British friends.
Promiscuous?
Yes, I guess they are. But no more so than their European neighbours.
Stories about politicians leading double lives, with a wife/husband, a
mistress/lover and children from both beds, will never make the
headlines in France for it's - almost - everybody's daily bread. And
why should this mean that you can't do your job properly - as is always
thought in countries like Britain? Having a mistress or a lover means
you're likely to cheat on your country or your employer? How ridiculous.
Disobedient?
Er, yes, again. It would be difficult to hide the fact that the French
are often on strike or plainly fighting against this and that. Tourists
and business people know it all too well. The French are unruly, a real
pain to govern. And when they are angry, well, heads roll. But again,
don't you find their anger charming? Admit it, you love it.
There
are yet more grudges borne by Europeans. But what they actually reveal
has less to do with the French than with their own persona. The British
find the French "humourless". How do you compare both senses of humour?
And just because you don't understand somebody else's humour doesn't
mean it doesn't exist. Have you ever heard a German joke? French humour
is very much based on the language: puns, jeux de mots et d'esprit .
French wit, one of the most refined (remember Ridicule? Remember
Cyrano?), is based on language games. So go back to your French
schoolbooks.
The Swedes, it is claimed, find the French
"disorganised and neo-colonialist", which sounds like the complaint of
distraught and unhappy rivals. The Spaniards see the French as "cold
and distant" - the lament of a long-spurned lover. The Dutch describe
the French as "talkative and shallow": do they mean lively and
beautiful to look at? Italians think the French are "carnal, righteous
and self-obsessed". I guess those Italian questioned thought they had
to find adjectives to describe their fellow countrymen. Greeks dismiss
the French as "out-of-touch and egocentric": sweet words coming from a
country whose greatest achievements came two-and-a-half thousand years
ago.
There are many ways of describing the French but if there
is one thing this study proves is that the French don't leave anybody
lost for words. Another way of looking at it is to remember the old
French saying: qui aime bien, chtie bien (He who loves well, criticises
well). At this point the conclusion becomes obvious: Europeans are
secretly in love with the French. And as in all love stories, the
French drive their lover crazy. But then, of course, you will just say
that it's the arrogant romantic foolish French in me.
Les
Nouveaux Anglais, revisited clichs, by Agns Poirier, will be released
in English by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on April 24 2006. |
The Gaurdian
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cattus
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Posted: 18-May-2005 at 14:22 |
Well, he started off good. I find this Agns Poirier who wrote the article for the Gaurdian as arrogant.
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Frederick Roger
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Posted: 19-May-2005 at 08:54 |
We dislike the French because they founded Portugal, but then came back to trash it, and we haven't recovered since...
Edited by Frederick Roger
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Exarchus
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Posted: 19-May-2005 at 09:06 |
BTW, most of what is said in this article is true. And basicly, the
anti French feeling accross europe (which is a reality) will turn some
people against the EU constitution (I already know some who will vote
against it because of the anti French propaganda is some countries
newpapers because they think it will affect politic). Some other will
vote no for other reasons.
I think it always existed, but the easier communication between countries made it more visible to us.
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Vae victis!
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Spartakus
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Posted: 19-May-2005 at 12:48 |
What they have in common?They live in the same old continent.
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Exarchus
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Posted: 19-May-2005 at 13:33 |
You could argue Eurasia is a single continent.
It's not really a geographic thing, it's more a common culture despice
having differences. We're still closer between us than with the asians
or north african IMO.
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Kentuckian
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Posted: 21-May-2005 at 02:43 |
well the language thing i can understand there an old joke here in the U.S. that goes "Someone who know 3 languages is trilingual, someone who knows 2 languages is bilingual, someone who knows only 1 language is obviously American"
and the French shouldn't spurned just because their last victory was Austerlitz.
as a matter of fact i was the US had the same level of national pride that the French do...(we lost ours in the late 1960's or sometime around then)
you (and us too since we are made of Europeans mostly over here) hold in common religion (mostly), common government (Republics and the like), and ancestors (yes even the French share the same wonderful ethnic background with the rest of us.......they just got a little off track somewhere along the line )
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Mosquito
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Posted: 27-May-2005 at 17:23 |
Well, in Poland since the times of french revolution and Napoleon the French were rather liked. Recently the feelings toward France and the French has changed but it is only the foult of the French and especially of the president Chirac who lost the chance to be quiet and said about Poland some things that he shouldnt have said. The second thing which in Poland people dont like is the recet love of France towards Russia. So now, maybe for the first time in history people like Germans more than French.
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Thegeneral
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Posted: 27-May-2005 at 17:59 |
The first time in history that the Germans are more liked than the French? Lol, sure ! I think the Germans were more liked in WWII than the French. After all, the Nazis did help us to defeat them. Thank you Hitler....
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