Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't know why, but the resentments are certainly shared by both parties.
I have a question. I play online games and we have european players that join games at odd hours( late at night here or early in the morning in the US). I pick up on feuding that goes on between them. British and french don't like one another much, but the french don't speak english so it's hard to know what they're saying. The british don't like the dutch at all, why is that? And the Fins/ norwegians are a little crazy and like to down everybody. ?? Maybe it's cabin fever from all that snow, but they are good players.
The french are sneaky cowards and like to snipe and backshoot, spanish players gang up on you, germans are suprisingly pretty bad players. The british are methodical and predictable, italians are a mix of the french and spanish, kinda sneaky, kinda bullies. Americans are rambos but are about as obnoxious as the Fins.
All this makes me think of how it is in the states. East coast and west coast don't get along, north and south don't get along, city and country don't get along, etc. I guess Europe and America have more in common than either would like to admit.
I know this probably would have been different if I had been dealing with non-Parisians, but I still can't help but think part of it can be chalked up to the different beliefs in "customer service" and politeness between the US and France.
I have witnessed this difference in customer service firsthand as well. I worked for a major software company a number of years ago and we had a large number of employees from all over the world working together in the same offices.
I was observing one of our most respected agents (French, btw) talking to a customer about a procedural issue they were having operating their software. They wanted to follow the same process they used prior to buying our software instead of the process the software is intended to follow for integrity reasons (financial database software).
After explaining to the customer the proper methodology, they again asked if they could continue to follow their old methods. I could not believe my ears when our agent told the customer that he "could certainly be an ass if so desired, but it would be stupid" and hung up on them.
I cannot imagine the trouble I would have gotten into if I had hung up on a multi-million dollar customer after calling them a "stupid Ass".
Our Canadian French employees did not have the same level of arrogance that our European French did, despite also coming from large metropolitan areas. They did, of course, suffer from the impression that Canada was superior to the US, but they were still young.
my personal suspicion is that american individualism/"self-entitlement"/"liberty"/"freedom" has a lot to do with many of america's impacts and ills. people tend to think for and about themselves and how to have as much for themselves as possible in the US (especially in the US, but also in europe - the US took some european models and went nuts with them, in my honest opinion). some of this goes back to columbus, pizarro, cortez and before (give me your gold, "indians", or else), while now americans have had a couple hundred years of nearly zero threat (like humans have had a couple hundred thousand years of relatively little threat), so the self-entitlement and limited world view often goes even deeper here. any criticism thereof, and some/many americans simply blow it off as "elitism" or manifest it as "liberty" and "self-entitled" hatred.
I don't know why, but the resentments are certainly shared by both parties.
I have a question. I play online games and we have european players that join games at odd hours( late at night here or early in the morning in the US). I pick up on feuding that goes on between them. British and french don't like one another much, but the french don't speak english so it's hard to know what they're saying. The british don't like the dutch at all, why is that? And the Fins/ norwegians are a little crazy and like to down everybody. ?? Maybe it's cabin fever from all that snow, but they are good players.
The french are sneaky cowards and like to snipe and backshoot, spanish players gang up on you, germans are suprisingly pretty bad players. The british are methodical and predictable, italians are a mix of the french and spanish, kinda sneaky, kinda bullies. Americans are rambos but are about as obnoxious as the Fins.
All this makes me think of how it is in the states. East coast and west coast don't get along, north and south don't get along, city and country don't get along, etc. I guess Europe and America have more in common than either would like to admit.
this is really interesting! does anyone else have anything to say about some of these other rivalries? to be honest, i didn't "know" it was an ethnic sentiment of scandinavians (fins and norsk anyhow) to want to "down" everyone.
I don't hate the French and I feel like I have to apologize for the whole "freedom fry" thing. I would really love to know more about France since me and my British husband and 3 kids are thinking of moving there in a few years. I've heard good things about Toulouse and Bordeaux for jobs, nice weather and good schools. What are your thoughts?
In the Toulouse area are many Americans who have formed a community. Their website is: Americansintoulouse.com. They have much helpful information on their site.
I shouldn't say the Fins want to "down" everyone, they just think themselves better( at least at gaming) than everyone. They are affable enough, not arrogant just overbearing.
this is really interesting! does anyone else have anything to say about some of these other rivalries? to be honest, i didn't "know" it was an ethnic sentiment of scandinavians (fins and norsk anyhow) to want to "down" everyone.
I lived in Germany for more than 18 years and noticed the rivalries among the Germans. Those in the north look upon the southern Germans as a bit uncultured. The southern Germans view those in the north as aloof and humorless. Many Germans regard the Bavarians as big and strong, but not very smart. Some Germans, when traveling to Bavaria, say they are going "out of the country". The people in the northern part of Bavaria (Frankenland) prefer to be called Franks, instead of Bavarians. In Bavaria is a minor political party that believes Bavaria should secede from Germany to be a separate country.
Shortly after the re-unification of East and West Germany, the people in the former German Democratic Republic felt they had been betrayed and were being mistreated as "second class" citizens. The west Germans often viewed those of the east as being ignorant of democracy and lazy. Many times, representatives from both sides of Germany were brought together for panel discussions on TV, where they could express their opinions to each other. These were not shouting matches, but there was a lot of intensive arguing and bickering.
During the summer, many Dutch spend their vacations in Germany, but they avoid contact with Germans.
About 20 years ago, Belgians were set to vote on the official language of their country. Some speak French, and others speak Flemish. Demonstrators hit the streets in such large numbers that riot police were deployed to prevent violence.
I do have some friends who refuse to say "French Fries", they still say "Freedom Fries". They also boycott any store that has French ties.
I've met people like that. It's easy to shut them up by asking things like when they propose to return the Statue of Liberty to France. (Mentioning something of Nth. American history vis a vis France helps too.)
France is a lovely country. The people are friendly in general, but naturally if someone is arrogant or in any way unfriendly towards them then they'll give as good as they get, same as in any country in the world.
I have been living in the United States since 1991. I lived in Columbus, Ohio and now I am in Los Angeles. Based on my personal experience, most of the Americans who disliked France and the French have never visited France or couldn't speak the language. On the other hand, absolutely every single American I have met who could put a few sentences together in French, absolutely liked the French and showed a rather strange but interest in me when they found out I was fluent in French. Of course, those Americans who speaks French fluently are simply in love with anything that is French: Movies, Music, Art, History etc.
So my conclusion was that part of the anti-French sentiments in the U.S came from the American ignorance about the rest of the world, and they like to combine that ignorance with an arrogance. How many times have I heard petty and ridiculous statements and comments such as" We saved France from the Nazis and without us, they would be speaking Germans".
I am sometimes amused and rarily irritated by this sort of superficial insight into world history, but each time i hear this from an American, I always calmly reply "But it's funny and strange that you don't mention than the French saved you from the British. Does the named Lafayette ring any bells? No? Well it should ring a bell to you because he was to the Americans what Patton was to the French. The French saved the Americans from the English because the French government loaned the Americans several millions of livres and that money helped finance the American Revolution. King Louis XVI gave an additional 6 million livres to the cause...So historically, you and the French are quits, because, arguably, without the French, you would have waited several other decades before gaining your independance. And don't forget that a large portion of the area of the United States of America was purchased from the French Republic in 1803. So it's not like France has never been a world superpower before... "
That sort of response earn me an occasional blank stare from Americans and sometimes, I have to suffer the inevitable" Then why are you here in the United States? Get the F-out of the country". Indeed, it's amusing how quickly some Americans can declare intellectual bankruptcy and could lack arguments to support or justify their contempt towars France. So like I said, the Americans contempt for the French could simply dismissed as the mechanism of ignorance, because, the majority of them don't know much about France. It seems they just repeat what they heard about the French and act in such contemptous fashion because it is a popular sentiment and believed to be cool and hip to hate the French these days. Americans say things like the French are rude, they don't shower, they smell bad etc, to which I remind them that 75 million people visit France every year, more than any other country on earth. Why so many tourists are eager to visit a country where supposedly people are rude and smell bad?
But when we talk about the French, let's not forget that we're talking about a nation and a culture that gave birth to the word chauvinism. So of course, the French are very proud of their culture, language, history, culture, and especially their cuisine. The United States is a chauvinistic country too, but the only difference is that part of American chauvinism is based on ignorance. Too many Americans simply don't know very much about world geography, history or the rest of the world. And the difference between France and the United States, though both country are full of very proud people, is that the U.S seems to have a stronger case of anti-intellectualism. I have noticed that most Americans feel compell to comment or talk about everything, even if it's a subject about something they absolutely know nothing about, but a the French I met will just stay quiet if they know nothing about a peticular subject.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
for mjewell
