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C'mon guys, Frenchs are not rude to Americans because they are special or because they think of them in such or such way... Frenchs are rude to every other nation equally! They are not making an effort to be ruder with Americans Frenchs are also rude with themselves, but they don't even realise that they are being rude until they spend sometime abroad and realise that letting the world (and your customers) know you are having a bad day is not something that happens in any other country
C'mon guys, Frenchs are not rude to Americans because they are special or because they think of them in such or such way... Frenchs are rude to every other nation equally! They are not making an effort to be ruder with Americans Frenchs are also rude with themselves, but they don't even realise that they are being rude until they spend sometime abroad and realise that letting the world (and your customers) know you are having a bad day is not something that happens in any other country
You talking about Paris' waiters? lol.
And seriously I've never understood the customers thing. Since I'm on CD I've learned that some Americans seems to think that the customer service in France is bad, but the customer service isn't bad, well not for me at least and I guess for many other French people, we just don't work the same way as Americans and don't expect the same things.
You talking about Paris' waiters? lol.
And seriously I've never understood the customers thing. Since I'm on CD I've learned that some Americans seems to think that the customer service in France is bad, but the customer service isn't bad, well not for me at least and I guess for many other French people, we just don't work the same way as Americans and don't expect the same things.
Needed to say this.
I know that most French people do not understand this customer service thing. As I said before, French people do not realise this until they live abroad for some time and they realise how most Western societies treat customers in comparison to French culture.
But customer service in France (and especially in Paris) is bad. Sometimes it is awfully bad. It is so bad that when you find a waiter or a clerck who seems nice, takes care of you, is polite and smiley, you remember him/her and tell your friends!
Americans customer service might be on the other side of the scale, and it is maybe too much imho, sometimes working too much for a tip and faking it too much. Anyways I prefer a fake smile than a truthful disdain.
Just a comparison of "client is king" as a saying in the US vs. "le client n'est pas roi" gives you a feeling for the priorities in both places. In most French restaurants and bars you feel like you must be honoured to being seated in there and being served their fantastic food. It is their restaurant and you are just an invitee. In other countries, they understand you are the one paying their bills at the end of the month, and try to please you.
As to marrying foreigners:
Western European men tend to marry Asians, Latin Americans and women from developing countries.
Western European women tend to marry men from first world countries.
Of course, a gross aproximation.
I know that most French people do not understand this customer service thing. As I said before, French people do not realise this until they live abroad for some time and they realise how most Western societies treat customers in comparison to French culture.
But customer service in France (and especially in Paris) is bad. Sometimes it is awfully bad. It is so bad that when you find a waiter or a clerck who seems nice, takes care of you, is polite and smiley, you remember him/her and tell your friends! I think you're exagerating a great deal here.
Americans customer service might be on the other side of the scale, and it is maybe too much imho, sometimes working too much for a tip and faking it too much. Anyways I prefer a fake smile than a truthful disdain. Well that's our difference I guess, fake smiles are bad, it's hypocritical and TBH if I ever saw someone smilling too much at me, I'll just think s/he's mocking me or something. I don't know, I just think that the best is in between, not fake but not rude either, just honest and since I'm born I've never really met bad waiters or been disappointed with our customer service (see below) (for example, when I used to go shoppng with my mother, I was always happy when the staff there let us alone, doing our thing, if a person were to come to us and ask us repetedly if we needed something while smilling I'd probably have exited the shop. And also for the waiters thing, maybe people just go (and by people I mean tourists) to too touristy places, where waiters are maybe fed up of everything or maybe it's just that the customer wasn't himself or herself very polite and the waiter sensed it and decided to be a little less nice or I don't know. Or maybe like I said what for some people is concidered rude/inconciderate/bad customer service are for others just "normal" behavior.
Just a comparison of "client is king" as a saying in the US vs. "le client n'est pas roi" gives you a feeling for the priorities in both places. In most French restaurants and bars you feel like you must be honoured to being seated in there and being served their fantastic food. It is their restaurant and you are just an invitee. In other countries, they understand you are the one paying their bills at the end of the month, and try to please you. I think you're also exagerating a great deal here too. In French we have "le client est roi", I never heard of "le client n'est pas roi". I don't know what have been your experiences, if you had any or if you just heard about it but "in most French restaurants" it really isn't like you said, especially in smaller restaurants/bars. Maybe people are just going in the wrong places or attract the wrong persons/waiters. There is places like you said logically but it certainly isn't the majority. In my all life I've never met a bad waiter, I've met bad cashier and nasty hairdresser (in front of me the woman were all nice, smilling and friendly and then when she was with her collegue and thinking I wasn't listening, didn't hesitate to spit on my face -- I call this hypocrisy, not smilling-to-please-the-client customer service).
Sorry for the strange way of answering.
Last edited by Eden Morlevent; 09-22-2015 at 05:08 AM..
Truth is if just one French does't speak english, the whole group will speak french and english only when speaking to the english speaker. Unlike some other countries where everyone switch to English when there is even just one english speaker. It's kind of an unconscious thing. That's why if you live there, you really need to learn the language.
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That's an interesting observation! You're right that this behaviour differs by nationality. In some the conversation will be in the national language as you describe, in some a mix of the national language and English, and in some in English only even if there is only one English speaker.
It's a bit different in business settings of course (especially if the English speaker is from outside Quebec) but in social settings you can expect a lot of French to be spoken around you even if you don't speak it or understand it.
I think that's because American guys are too lame/not imaginative enough in bed for French girls. The other way around works, for obvious reasons.
I've always heard that French girls go for American guys and complain that French guys only want to go in through the back door and ignore the front door.
I've always heard that French girls go for American guys and complain that French guys only want to go in through the back door and ignore the front door.
I know. Every French girl I've known says the same thing. It was difficult to believe, even though I heard these French girls saying the very same.
Who am I to call them all liars?
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Frenchs are also rude with themselves, but they don't even realise that they are being rude until they spend sometime abroad and realise that letting the world (and your customers) know you are having a bad day is not something that happens in any other country
