Are French people generally assholes?

Chazz Michael Michaels · 24-02-2014 10:58AM

orangesoda wrote: »

You have the french to thank for your national flag

We are forever in their debt...........

No Pants · 24-02-2014 11:00AM

My missus told me about this. I thought that it was hilarious that someone might need to be hospitalised due to rudeness.

24-02-2014 11:06AM

Potatoeman wrote: »

Do you speak French? I have heard if you make even a small effort they appreciate it but if you start speaking English straight away they consider that rude.

No, the waiters just switch back to English anyway. Even if you're not a native English speaker.

You're not good enough to speak our language, peasant!

That's probably just waiters, though, supposed to be notorious for that kinda thing

Czarcasm · 24-02-2014 11:23AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I held a door open for a Frenchman once and he never even said thanks!

Merci?

Either that, or the onions around his neck gave it away

EDIT: Forgot to add my own anecdotal evidence that 65 million people are fcuking amazing -

French girl in the club one night, wouldn't come back to mine, said we'd go back to hers instead, a fcuking tent in a camping park! I said to myself to hell with it she's ridiculously hot, into the tent anyway and well of course we had sex.

She disappeared outside for a minute afterwards and I wasn't sure what was going on, I was getting my clothes back on when her friend arrived at the entrance to the tent. Her friend wasn't so hot so there was a bit of "Non, must go, allez vite!" (I genuinely DID have a train to catch that morning), so I'm crawling out of the tent on all fours, and suddenly I feel my hands in a wet patch on the ground...

Yeah, then I remembered she'd gone out for a minute, she was after pissing on the ground outside the tent! "The dirty..." I thought to myself, but damn she was good, so on balance I'd have to say the French aren't the most hygienic, but damn they're intense in tents!

syklops · 24-02-2014 11:26AM

Not had much trouble with the French, however, don't get me started on father-in-laws.

For Forks Sake · 24-02-2014 11:34AM

syklops wrote: »

Not had much trouble with the French, however, don't get me started on father-in-laws.

...and taxi drivers

Legs.Eleven · 24-02-2014 11:36AM

bluewolf wrote: »

No, the waiters just switch back to English anyway. Even if you're not a native English speaker.
You're not good enough to speak our language, peasant!

That's probably just waiters, though, supposed to be notorious for that kinda thing

Waiters in most continental countries, ime, are often quite rude but they're also often underpaid and perhaps justifiably feel they don't get paid enough to put up with the ****e they have to put up with very often.

I've never met a French person I didn't like. Great conversationalists too. I'm a total sucker for their style and sophistication as well; almost everything about that country is just so. Beautiful. I even admire the arrogance of the Parisians; they even do arrogance with panache. I'd love to live there for even a year to pick up a bit of the lingo and experience the lifestyle there.

Very disappointed about the increasing popularity of the National Front party there though.

Greenmachine · 24-02-2014 11:44AM

I have had two french bosses over the years. They were both very serious but certainly not rude.

Dublinpato · 24-02-2014 11:44AM

In all my years of internet and the outside world i have never came across a french person who wasn't a complete bag of douche, I have friends from Poland,India,America,Canada,Russia,UK,Lithuania but the French not a chance it's like they hate everyone.

sszz · 24-02-2014 11:57AM

blacklilly wrote: »

Personally I don't like generalisation and particularly generalisations based upon such a small sample size.

Good for you, I like them.

Mousewar · 24-02-2014 12:00PM

Definitely not rude. They just don't say 'thank you' seven million times like Irish people or start and end every sentence with 'sorry'.
Anything less than that usually seems rude to us Irish.

keithclancy · 24-02-2014 12:10PM

coolemon wrote: »

They are extremely nice in France. Cycled through France twice and they were always very helpful.

Before I went I had a preconceived notion that they are arrogant, rude and didnt make any attempt to speak English. I couldnt have been more wrong.

Now if I were to generalise -> id say the Basques were the rudest people iv ever encountered. And the Croats are most like the Irish.

Almost everyone in the world is rude to an Irish person.

A nation of people that never say what we mean and are constantly saying "Sorry" all the time for no good reason.

Drives other nationalities mad.

Legs.Eleven · 24-02-2014 12:15PM

Almost everyone in the world is rude to an Irish person.

I think most people agreed they're NOT rude though, so not sure what you're getting that idea.

A nation of people that never say what we mean and are constantly saying "Sorry" all the time for no good reason.

Sorry is a synonym for "excuse me" or "pardon" in Ireland. It doesn't mean sorry in the strict sense of the word (apologising). I presume you're Irish so you should know that already.

Drives other nationalities mad.

No it doesn't. It might confuse some of them if they don't realise what we're trying to express when we say sorry i.e. not apologising.

24-02-2014 12:21PM

I thought canadians had the monopoly on that
Sure they changed their law to make sure "sorry" isn't an admission of liability :pac:

The Diabolical Monocle · 24-02-2014 12:25PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I held a door open for a Frenchman once and he never even said thanks!

A good deed is its own reward.

keithclancy · 24-02-2014 12:30PM

Legs.Eleven wrote: »

I think most people agreed they're NOT rude though, so not sure what you're getting that idea.

Sorry is a synonym for "excuse me" or "pardon" in Ireland. It doesn't mean sorry in the strict sense of the word (apologising). I presume you're Irish so you should know that already.

No it doesn't. It might confuse some of them if they don't realise what we're trying to express when we say sorry i.e. not apologising.

Germans and Dutch do not know this, or it doesn't make any sense to them. They end up saying "But you did nothing wrong, why are you apologising"

Yes, it drives them mad, I've been living outside of Ireland for the past 6 years and have heard endless stories of people who worked and lived in Ireland that had some situation where the Irish person agreed to something they didn't really want to agree to and then complained about it for an age afterwards.

ArnieSilvia · 24-02-2014 12:30PM

Actually been in France for few weeks on a round trip (Calais-LeMans-LaRochelle-Limoges-Annecy-Nancy), met quite a lot of people and generalisations are unfair. Overall, I was very impressed.

Our trip was a mix of campsites at ocean and large lake plus lots of sightseeing.

I met a wonderful granddad from Paris with his granddaughter who actually were first to talk with us. And lots of others.

But there was also that lady, owner of the restaurant, quite direct so could be "rude" by Irish standards. I quite understood her, seeing that she was still in the restaurant when I was going to bed and there were fresh baguettes made in the morning by the time we got up. She must have had 4 hrs sleep a night over whole summer. No wonder she'd get upset with another moron looking for something that had nothing to do with her business .

From talking with average French I figured out that their life is much much harder than I thought, lots of stress and hardship. We have a free ride in Ireland, I thought.

To summarise, there's lots of rude people in every country.

Legs.Eleven · 24-02-2014 12:34PM

Germans and Dutch do not know this, or it doesn't make any sense to them. They end up saying "But you did nothing wrong, why are you apologising"

They don't understand the nuances of the word in Ireland then. Their problem, not ours. I've met Spaniards who think Germans are rude when the Spanish are very direct themselves.

It's a case of lost in translation much like the judgement some people make on the French, for example. Us Europeans have very different ideas of manners and it varies from country country. Lots of miscommunication and lost in translation.

The Spanish don't like the French as they find them arrogant and rude yet many people find the Spanish abrupt and rude. You have to spend some time in a country to understand their ways.

Yes, it drives them mad, I've been living outside of Ireland for the past 6 years and have heard endless stories of people who worked and lived in Ireland that had some situation where the Irish person agreed to something they didn't really want to agree to and then complained about it for an age afterwards.

But that's a totally different issue though? What's that got to do with the word sorry? I've lived outside Ireland for 10 years and have never heard complaints about how it drove them mad.

clumsyklutz · 24-02-2014 12:40PM

Have been to both the South of France and Paris, I really loved the south, people seemed much more relaxed and friendly, whereas Paris (although it was really beautiful), any people I came accross (bar hotel staff) seemed a little more abrupt and rude, that was until I started speaking French to them, their attitude completely changed so maybe it has something to do with that....:P

24-02-2014 12:47PM

My Dad has lived in France for 22 years. He thinks "The French" are a shower of ****. But by that I think he means a certain class of people of over there. And the government. Or something.. He has loads of French friends who are lovely people.

I think they're grand. Same as anywhere else really.

fricatus · 24-02-2014 01:03PM

I've lived in France, speak French and must admit I've long been a Francophile. They're certainly not all smiles by any means, but I think they just have a particular interpretation of what constitutes manners, and they behave pretty icily to anyone who doesn't conform to that.

One good example is how in Ireland, if you're blocking the corridor, you're expected to get out of the way for anyone walking, and the "walker" is not expected to say anything (except "sorry"

if they don't see you). In France, you can't just do that - you have to say "excusez-moi".

My brother got a bit thick over there one time when a clutch of people blocking the hotel lobby didn't just part for him, but I just said that the next time, he should just try the magic words, and lo and behold, problem solved! He quite enjoyed putting on the accent and saying "excusez-moi" after that!

I'm not defending that way of "putting manners on people" like that, but that's what it is, as opposed to plain rudeness or being an a55hole. Certainly once you get beyond the rules people are expected to follow in public, and begin to know people as individuals, you find they're just the same as everyone else - 90% sound, with what they refer to as the "10% de cons, qu'il y a partout" (10% of pricks that you find everywhere).

Part of the reason why we think this of the French is the disgraceful portrayal that they get on US TV shows. You routinely hear all this sh1t like they're rude, smell of garlic, don't shower, women don't shave their armpits, cheat on one another, scratch their holes all day in work. John Kerry's ability to speak French is seen as a handicap, rather than an asset, FFS! :eek: If they said the same things about Africans or Jews, there would be an outcry.

I think the reason is that it's the one country that makes a point of not following the Americans like a little Tony Blair lapdog, and they just don't like that, which is why you get these little digs all the time. Good luck to them!

24-02-2014 01:09PM

OP banned.

Generalisations thread closed.

Merci.

Are French people generally assholes?

Comments