Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,822
- Reaction score
- 12,338
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
Goodness, is everyone in a bad mood? Is this sarcasm directed at me?
Yes, indeed there seems to be a stereotype that French waiters and retail staff are rude. It is particularly prevalent in English speaking countries, which is suggestive in and of itself. Perhaps your experiences and those of your friends reinforce that stereotype in your mind...fair enough.
Does that mean that those of us who have not experienced anything other than the occasional rudeness, which can happen anywhere, are not entitled to relate our own experiences and feelings about the matter? Why does that necessitate a snide, passive aggressive response? Unless you prefer to discuss things only in an echo chamber?
I thought, mistakenly, it seems, that one could have a rational discussion of why certain people have better experiences than others...why, perhaps, people from certain countries might be treated differently, which could partly be due to the fact that the French think stereotypically themselves, and have negative stereotypes about people from Britain or the other English speaking countries, for example. Or negative stereotypes about neighbors like the Belgians, for example, who they notoriously ridicule as being country bumpkins who speak a decidedly sub-par French.
I also thought it might be interesting to speculate that people from similar cultures, who behave and speak in similar ways and have similar values, might have a more pleasant experience. Without ever being rude or boorish, a tourist who thinks that finding airplane food highly objectionable makes one a "food snob", might be apt to transmit that rather condescending, dismissive attitude, which would hardly be likely to endear him or her to the natives.
Also, although I couldn't be further from a New Age type, I do think you get back a lot of what you put out. If you project openness and friendliness, you're much more likely to get it back, in my experience.
As for cheerfulness, I don't believe I ever said that I find the French to be a particularly cheerful bunch. In fact, without giving offense I hope, I posted somewhere a famous quote to the effect that the French could be seen as Italians who are in a perpetual bad mood. I personally find their affect bracing and stimulating, but to each their own.
Finally, I am more than *tired* of this *tired* stereotype of how little the French work compared to the Germans, for example. People should look up the statistics instead of relying on the same old ideas. Last time I checked, the whole continent is on a thirty five hour work week, and takes incredibly long vacations. When I have had occasion to call the French or the Germans or the Italians on business during what I consider normal working hours, (five thirty or six o'clock their time, say on a week-night), they are ALL long gone, and I'm not talking about union employees, or government workers...I'm talking about attorneys, marketing people etc. You wouldn't go far here if you scooted out the door at 5PM. North America is an entirely different universe in this regard. The British were usually around when you needed them too, and people from the far east as well.
