France
This year my family and I are traveling to France. My sister seems very excited, but I keep telling he that the French people can be quite haughty around Americans. Of course she doesn't believe me. For a while I have been wondering if all the stories I have heard about the French really creae a general synopsis. Just recently I heard on MPR these rumors of the French. It seems that, according to the traveler being interviewed, that the French in the Paris area fit the stereotypical domineering and arrogant French person, though I am sure there are others that are nice. However, this is only bad around Paris. In areas such as Normandy, where the blood of American soldiers still soak into the beaches, many French citizens respect Americans and are willing to help out any curious tourist. I found this promising. I guess with the French, they view America as gunslinging, hummer driving, fat, stubborn Bush supporters. Perhaps they should take a visit to the North!
posted by Anonymous @ 5/11/2006 09:31:00 AM
1 Comments:
I've been to France a couple of times. Both times I met people who were nice and people who were rude. One thing that I think always helps is to learn at least a few words of the language; hello, please, thank you, and "do you speak english" are usually easy enough to learn and can go a long way toward showing that you are interested in being more than just an "ugly American". Be understanding that things will be different than what you have grown up experiencing and that's ok. The point of visiting another country is to experience something new.
I would have to agree though that Parisians tend to think very highly of themselves and you are likely to find people are friendlier if you are in less touristy areas.
Oh, a couple of good sources for language lessons online are though podcasts available from iTunes and BBC Languages
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