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| Europe |
| Americans are not the only ones who hate the French |
| 2005-05-17 |
| Language, history, cooking and support for rival football teams still divide Europe. But when everything else fails, one glue binds the continent together: hatred of the French. Typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing monsters they are. Sounds like my mother-in-law. But now after the publication of a survey of their neighbours' opinions of them at least they no longer have any excuse for not knowing how unpopular they are. Why the French are the worst company on the planet, a wry take on France by two of its citizens, dredges up all the usual evidence against them. They are crazy drivers, strangers to customer service, obsessed by sex and food and devoid of a sense of humour. So, the UN is mostly Frenchmen then. But it doesn't stop there, boasting a breakdown, nation by nation, of what in the French irritates them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". However, the French may be more shocked by the views of other nations. For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants". Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty". But the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll was conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just what they thought of them. "Interviewees were simply asked an open question - what five adjectives sum up the French," said Olivier Clodong, one of the study's two authors and a professor of social and political communication at the Ecole Superieur de Commerce, in Paris. "The answers were overwhelmingly negative." According to Mr Clodong, the old adage that France is wonderful, it's just the French who are the problem, is shared across Europe. "We are admired for our trains, the Airbus and Michelin tyres. But the buck stops there," he said. Another section of the study deals with how the French see the rest of Europe. "Believe it or not, the English and the French use almost exactly the same adjectives to describe each other - bar the word 'insular'," Mr Coldong said. "So the feelings are mutual." Yes, the EU will work wonderfully because all the little countries get along, hold hands and sing Kumbia |
| Posted by:mmurray821 |
| #13 Frenchwomen: well-coiffed, well-dressed, good posture but very un-sexy (see "scrawny", above, and add physically unattractive). Almost the complete opposite of American women. |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-05-17 19:54 |
| #12 Scrawny, cerebral, argumentative, funny, cynical. |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-05-17 19:51 |
| #11 Is TGA in the house? I've often wondered what the Germans really say about the French when no outsiders are around. |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2005-05-17 19:31 |
| #10 Corrupt! |
| Posted by: Drew2715 2005-05-17 19:22 |
| #9 And the French are not the only ones who hate Americans. Baby! Skools out for Summer! Skools out for ever! |
| Posted by: Alice Cooperman 2005-05-17 17:17 |
| #8 Dunno, Chris W, maybe they had something other than sex on mind. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-17 15:18 |
| #7 We know we are not liked, most of us just don't give a shit. Pher our GDP and our military!! |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-05-17 15:03 |
| #6 Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty". How immoral do you have to be for the SWEDES to accuse you of it? |
| Posted by: Chris W. 2005-05-17 14:50 |
| #5 GE, in case ya missed it, this was about how delusional the French are about how other people see them. We know the rest of the world hates us, too. The two big differences between us and the French are: 1) we're aware of it instead of denying that it exists, and 2) we know that when the shit really hits the fan (as in the tsunami relief effort), the world doesn't rely on the French to help them out. They call us, knowing we will ignore all the stupid crap they just spewed in their media and will get the job done. Everyone knows the French will cruise by about a month later to criticize the natives' fashion sense and cuisine. Maybe....if they can get a ship out of port. Otherwise, all they'll be able to do is get Chirac to issue another ignorant public statement. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-05-17 14:00 |
| #4 And the French are not the only ones who hate Americans. |
| Posted by: Grearong Elmurong9235 2005-05-17 13:47 |
| #3 *snicker* "nannied" that's a new one for me. But... i like it! Very descriptive. (2b hitting add to vocabulary list) |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-05-17 13:41 |
| #2 What's wrong with the Phrench? Everything the other countries said. And then some. But to sum it up in one word - ARROGANCE. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-05-17 13:31 |
| #1 heh. Yeah, I really hate them too. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-05-17 13:15 |