Why do so many Americans hate French people? (mover, new home)

[MovingForward]

[quote=Mooseketeer;1384627]

Originally Posted by Moth

to answer your question:

The US of 1939 was not the US of today. We had something like the 18th biggest military (Portugal was more powerful on paper). There was deep isolationist sentiment (you know, minding our own business) and we were technically neutral (funny how Switzerland and Sweden never get any grief for not fighting the Germans at all and indeed helping them).

Furthermore, the UK and France did not rush right in and challenge Hitler and Germany. Far from it. Rather than fight, you both sold Czeckoslovakia down the river and tried to appease Hitler. Puzzling how you lot always manage to leave that vital, little detail out.

QUOTE]

I find your answer so insulting to the memory of hundreds of thousands of people who died. "My lot" as it happened died escaping from Auschwitz (my great grand-father) and my great uncle spent 3 and a half years in death camps ( Buchenwald, Dachau and Auschwitz). Neither were Jewish but members of the French resistance. Real cowards indeed.

The French government was indeed despicable but to accuse French or British people as Nations of rolling over is an appalling slur. The rest of "my lot" by the way ( grand-parents and friends of my grand-parents spent the war picking up British and American airmen, hiding them and smuggling out to the UK).

Yes there were collaborators but most people like most human beings just tried to get on with their lives as best as possible.

My grand-mother saw her father and 2 of his students ( he was a Professor of English) dragged out by the Gestapo in Caen and that was the last she saw of him.

My great-aunt didn't even recognised her husband when he came home weighing less than a child of 10.

By the time "your lot" ( as we are on such a personal level) got there the whole of Europe had been put to the sword and millions had died whilst you "minded your own business". What would have happened to Europe if Pearl Harbor had not been bombed ?


My great-grand father had been mustard gas in the Trenches of Flanders during WW1 and could not join the army in WW2 so he joined the resistance and did what he could for his country.

Others lived the war the best way they could. Most were not collaborators and to imply this is not only insulting it is poor history.


Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after Hitler invaded Poland. And yes previous to that Czechoslovakia was dishonourably treated by the French and European governments.

It still doesn't really explain the two years for your lot to get over here. There would have been a lot less butchery on the beaches of Normandy perhaps if the US had entered the war at the onset, and certainly less deaths in concentration camps.

It wasn't our war until it became our war. Your attitude is typically European: if we intervene, we're arrogant interventionists; if we "mind our own business," we still get crap from you people. The same thing happened in Bosnia. A European friend of mine practically demanded to know why the U.S. had not saved the day. I told her that when the U.S. finally got involved she still wouldn't be happy. Truer words were never spoken.

[MovingForward]

P.S. That's it for my input on this thread (long thread, many responses on my part). Sorry if I upset anybody, because I certainly did not mean to be rude or insulting. It's just that I spent several years of my life studying French history, language and literature, and got into considerable debt to be able to live in France, and tried to give it my best (I spoke only French, I rented an apartment, I did NOT hang out with Americans exclusively or even primarily, and was friendly to everybody I met) and was shot down more often than not. I never would have believed it, but there you have it. Are there nice people in France? Of course! But my negative experiences with the French far outweighed the positives. If I had been there only 2 weeks, I probably would have left thinking it was great. Having lived there, however, my exposure was considerably longer, and the utter meanness of too many of the people just eventually wore me down.

[Mooseketeer]

I just give up, All French people are rude, arrogant, cowards, and hate Americans. Fine if that's what you want to believe.
I could come up with as many examples of rude American people as cited above but strangely in 3 years living there, and visiting every year I don't take it as all American being rude but as people being rude.
Never mind. The whole of France hates you all, it doesn't matter that I am French , that I know thousands of French people, that I travel there all time, all around France with a man that everybody thinks is American ( he is a Brit but they can't tell the by the accent) and the only place anyone has ever expressed any animosity towards America was in Paris amongst the more political classes. If Americans are so much hated , how come American companies do so well over there?
My partner is always treated with a lot of affection ( even though the majority believe he is American), curiosity and yes gratitude about the war. People always try to speak English with him and we have had so many free drinks, even a couple of meals bought for us, we've been invited for dinner, email addresses exchanged etc.. Being French but sounding completely English I have the great advantage of being able to see how differently we are treated as I too can pretend to be English or American. It seems I get better treated when I pretend to be American or British than when they realise I am French. But never mind obviously the French are full of hate and prejudice.
It obviously is a hell pit ...

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by MovingForward

P.S. That's it for my input on this thread (long thread, many responses on my part). Sorry if I upset anybody, because I certainly did not mean to be rude or insulting. It's just that I spent several years of my life studying French history, language and literature, and got into considerable debt to be able to live in France, and tried to give it my best (I spoke only French, I rented an apartment, I did NOT hang out with Americans exclusively or even primarily, and was friendly to everybody I met) and was shot down more often than not. I never would have believed it, but there you have it. Are there nice people in France? Of course! But my negative experiences with the French far outweighed the positives. If I had been there only 2 weeks, I probably would have left thinking it was great. Having lived there, however, my exposure was considerably longer, and the utter meanness of too many of the people just eventually wore me down.

I am genuinely puzzled by your experience.
My older son has previously spent two years in France; presently he just finished his third month. He had been in Brittany; right now he is living and working in Paris.
He is the only American in his office.
He too spent several years of his life majoring in French and French culture, as well as international relations.
The kid is 24, he is not a starry-eyed newbie in love with all things French.
He knows from experience that there are obnoxious people everywhere, including France. I am sure he has his own laundry list of anti-American anecdotes.
For him, the positives *far* outweigh any negatives, not only is he not worn down by meanness, he is quite content.
He has been and continues to be very, very happy living there.
He hopes to stay.
I hope to visit.

[Anna Maria]

Originally Posted by carolinajack

in my travels in france, the french were nice people in general, but were rude to Americans and Brits who did not speak or attempt to speak a bit of french. I think it is because the French are Nationalistic sort and proud of their country.

one area, in the Pyrenees was a bit xenophobic of outsiders--but by and large they are decent folk, the Parisians were a bit more into themselves(snooty)

I had the same problems with the french when i was there, if you dont speak the language they can be quite rude and wont speak Engish even if they can. I dont know of any nation that does this on purpose.

Also my experience has been that the french are a little tight( dont like to spend a lot of money)

[MovingForward]

Originally Posted by Mooseketeer

I just give up, All French people are rude, arrogant, cowards, and hate Americans. Fine if that's what you want to believe.
I could come up with as many examples of rude American people as cited above but strangely in 3 years living there, and visiting every year I don't take it as all American being rude but as people being rude.
Never mind. The whole of France hates you all, it doesn't matter that I am French , that I know thousands of French people, that I travel there all time, all around France with a man that everybody thinks is American ( he is a Brit but they can't tell the by the accent) and the only place anyone has ever expressed any animosity towards America was in Paris amongst the more political classes. If Americans are so much hated , how come American companies do so well over there?
My partner is always treated with a lot of affection ( even though the majority believe he is American), curiosity and yes gratitude about the war. People always try to speak English with him and we have had so many free drinks, even a couple of meals bought for us, we've been invited for dinner, email addresses exchanged etc.. Being French but sounding completely English I have the great advantage of being able to see how differently we are treated as I too can pretend to be English or American. It seems I get better treated when I pretend to be American or British than when they realise I am French. But never mind obviously the French are full of hate and prejudice.
It obviously is a hell pit ...

Look, you asked for reasons why some people feel the way they do towards the French. I gave you my responses, based on my experiences. I even shared the fact that my FRENCH friends are disturbed by the level of anti-Americanism in France. I don't know when you last lived in France, but if you don't want to believe it, fine. If you prefer to believe that I must somehow be the problem, fine. But please don't come on the forum and ask for people's experiencess/thoughts if you're going to just get all huffy when they don't converge with your own.

[MovingForward]

Originally Posted by cil

I am genuinely puzzled by your experience.
My older son has previously spent two years in France; presently he just finished his third month. He had been in Brittany; right now he is living and working in Paris.
He is the only American in his office.
He too spent several years of his life majoring in French and French culture, as well as international relations.
The kid is 24, he is not a starry-eyed newbie in love with all things French.
He knows from experience that there are obnoxious people everywhere, including France. I am sure he has his own laundry list of anti-American anecdotes.
For him, the positives *far* outweigh any negatives, not only is he not worn down by meanness, he is quite content.
He has been and continues to be very, very happy living there.
He hopes to stay.
I hope to visit.

Well, I'm very happy for your son. I never said that all French people were mean, or that all Americans in France were unhappy. But that doesn't mean that my experiences are negated or that I am wrong. As I've said numerous times, even my French friends are aware of the intense anti-American feelings in France, which surface often.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by MovingForward

As I've said numerous times, even my French friends are aware of the intense anti-American feelings in France, which surface often.

I guess they have not surfaced enough for my kid or his expat friends to care.
One of his bosses at his job this past summer, an African-American, has lived in France for years and years, and has no intention of returning to the USA because he is so happy.
I dunno. I really don't think my kid thinks the French are perfect, any more than Americans are--he is certainly aware of the issues with immigrant families in France.
Awhile back in this thread, someone said something to the effect that Americans and French can get each others' hackles up.
This rang true to me.

[MovingForward]

Originally Posted by cil

I guess they have not surfaced enough for my kid or his expat friends to care.
One of his bosses at his job this past summer, an African-American, has lived in France for years and years, and has no intention of returning to the USA because he is so happy.
I dunno. I really don't think my kid thinks the French are perfect, any more than Americans are--he is certainly aware of the issues with immigrant families in France.
Awhile back in this thread, someone said something to the effect that Americans and French can get each others' hackles up.
This rang true to me.

The fact is, I went to France perfectly ready to accept the people and the culture, and to try to adapt myself to a different culture. While I certainly did meet some nice French people--as evidenced by the fact that I have French friends and my godson is French--I was not prepared for the overwhelming negativity I encountered based merely on the fact that I am American. I'm not naive. I understand that wherever one travels, one can expect to find people who have preconceived notions of Americans (or of people of any nationality, for that matter), because people are people and that's just the way of the world. But my experiences of anti-Americanism in France were just overwhelming. The last time I was there, I was invited to a dinner party--bunch of academics--and I was there no longer than 10 minutes and began to be lectured by two of them on why American culture was inferior to French culture. I was very polite--as usual--and tried to explain the differences from my point of view. They would have none of it. All Americans are crude, we don't care about our families (as evidenced, according to them, by the fact that we move around a lot and don't really have the same village culture as they do--going home for lunch, family Sunday dinners, etc.), we want to impose our culture on everybody else, we don't speak other languages (never mind that most French people don't speak other languages), etc. Not one of these people had ever visited the U.S. And this was a TYPICAL experience for me. I went to a dinner party hoping to enjoy myself and--yet again--was subjected to this kind of nonsense. I cannot TELL you how many times this has happened to me. I will say, however, that--in my experience--this attitude is typical of the French who have never visited the U.S. The French people I know who HAVE visited the U.S. do NOT behave in this manner towards Americans. When my best friends came to visit me (and they stayed with me for 5 weeks), on the way to my house from the airport, one of them was very quiet. I asked him what he was thinking, and he replied: "I'm looking for a McDonald's and I don't see any." When he and his wife went to NYC for the weekend (I stayed home, happily, to babysit, so they could have a little honeymoon), they were amazed by how well they were treated. On two different occasions during that weekend--at a jazz club and at a museum--they were allowed to enter free once the person working the door found out they were French. By the end of the 5 weeks here--his first visit--his attitude towards Americans and the U.S. was very different. Before, he had not wanted to come, but since he and his wife both love me, and I love them, he went along with the plan.

I am merely relating my experiences. I cannot help that they do not converge with the experiences of others.

[They would say that]

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