In 1972, I was in Paris for a couple of days with my Mom, on the way home from a trip to Israel.
I attempted to communicate with a shopkeeper in extremely limited one-term high school French. In return, I got a pained smile, and he said "Thank you, monseiur, but I would prefer to speak English than hear what you are doing to my beloved language". <haha> Bet if I hadn't at least _tried_ to start with French, he would have been hostile that I assumed he spoke English. A little respect for others, and an attempt to learn something about their culture, goes a long way... -Ben > I lived in France for 8 months and saw some nasty attitudes towards tourists > among the French. But I also saw ignorant American tourists become angry > when the people in the country they were visiting did not speak English, and > I had the impression this was a not uncommon occurence. I don't like it, but > it is understandable that people develop a bad attitude when they have been > burned. I guess this whole attitude thing is another manifestation of the > xenophobic and racist side of the French, which it is true is present. On > the other hand when we start to generalize we immediately are doing the same > kind of thing, in my opinion. Like any other individual or collectivity, > they have their demons to wrestle with... > > Patrick > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Beth F [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Friday, October 11, 2002 1:29 PM > > To: CF-Community > > Subject: Re: France? > > > > > > > Can you give some examples of that? And I don't mean examples of > > > specific special interest groups not respecting the US > > (that is what you > > > mean by us, right?), but the mainstream French. > > > > > > Parisians are pretty unpleasant to Americans travelling to France. I > > realize parisians are not the total population. > > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
