Posted on 07/26/2012 7:43:45 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
French admit they are 'rude, stroppy, and slothful'
The French have admitted they are "rude, stroppy, and slothful" in a new survey about what they think of their own behaviour.
The poll revealed 97 per cent of Paris public transport users believed fellow travellers were "ill-mannered" and lacked civility.
The biggest gripe was people forcing their way onto trains before other passengers had got off.
Other irritations were passengers talking too loudly on mobile phones, and people sprawling over two seats in packed carriages.
Also included in the list of annoyances were queue-jumping at ticket counters, leaping over barriers without paying, putting feet up on seats, eating in public with one's mouth open and leaving litter behind.
The finding of the study by Paris transport company RATP has prompted travel bosses to launch a campaign urging their customers to be more polite.
Posters displayed on buses and the Paris metro and rail network show a hen squarking into a mobile phone, a buffalo fighting its way onto a busy train and a sloth lounging over two train seats.
Sociologist Julien Damon, who helped carry out the RATP survey, said: "These types of bad behaviour have always existed, but what has changed is that we are less prepared to tolerate them.
"Our behaviour is more and more geared towards cleanliness and hygiene, like spitting on the ground or smoking in a restaurant now both very frowned upon, and less about common courtesies like simply being polite and nice to each other."
A follow-up survey found 63 per cent of people said the poster campaign had made them stop and think about their own behaviour, and that they would try and be better-mannered in future.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Sloath-ful: A lazy creature on the Paris Metro advert to encourage passengers to be more considerate
Stop clucking: This ad, featuring a woman who looks like a hen, jabbering on her mobile
What an ass: A donkey spits chewing gum on the platform - a practice bosses hope Parisians won't repeat
Hop it! A frog jumps over the barriers to the dismay of his fellow passengers
Just as I have always said.
The French are pigs (pronounced “peegs”).
“French Swine” is just another way to insult pigs.
And have little concept of the olfactory benefits of a bath or a shower.
.....but what annoys the French most of all are those who do not surrender fast enough and reject cheese eating.
Brits have been publishing hundreds of negatives against us for months, too: mostly bizarre crime stories about the USA.
Belongs in breaking news.
Oh well, nobody’s perfect.
Myeh. What’s to argue?
Well, we’re better than everybody else, it goes without saying, so there!
I think we need the pic of “belly girl” in this thread!
I almost got to be French. It’s a long story for another time, another place.
Close but no cigar. There is a WW II style poster with a beautiful young lady putting the French in their rightful place.
I’ve been in Paris twice on trips almost 25 years apart. The first time riding the Metro was about the only charming thing about the city. A musician, who looked much like Roger Miller, serenaded us during a long train ride, making it more bearable.
On the second visit, we were gratified that the streets no longer smelled like an open sewer (which they had been years before, draining into the Seine). A nighttime tour really showed off the unmatched beauty of the city. However, the Metro rides were crowded and as the article indicates, full of the ever rude French. One fellow even gave me wrong directions on purpose (and I speak passable French). After he pointed me in the wrong direction, his buddy asked him something I didn’t hear and he replied,...”because he’s a foreigner”. After we rode several miles in the wrong direction I knew why he said, “because he’s a foreigner”. They don’t like us one bit, but I did find more friendly folks among Algerians and other non-french French.
I was in Paris for a month this past April and rode the metro or a train outside the city every day.
I found the French to be polite and welcoming to Americans, on the trains and everywhere else.
And practically everyone speaks some English.
I don’t get all the French hate.
No wonder my Sister In Law and her two daughters are in Paris .... except with their sizes...they each likely TAKE up nearly two seats on the Metro.
"hundreds of negatives against us for months"
This type of reporting has the opposite effect to what 'you' would expect. :)
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