Our attitude problem is not something to be proud of, says Paris politician

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | October 10, 2004 | Kim Willsher

[MadIvan]

I guess this is progress of a sort.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[July 4th]

Someone in France bought a mirror. Wow.

[jimbo123]

F the french.

[BlindGuardian]

Parfois, le français utilise leurs cerveaux, parfois ils ne font pas. Quant à John Kerry. ..he n'a pas de cerveau.



You can go to a translator online and translate it if you want. I think it's good.

[Guillermo]

I wonder how they'll treat Kerry after he goes on vacation there after his election loss...

Will they consider him one of them?

[bikepacker67]

Someone in France bought a mirror. Wow.

ROFLMAO!

Now if they'd only breathe thru their nose!

[infidel29]

I`m not sure, not many people retreat TO France. Maybe if he walked in backwards...

[ken5050]

What's really the reaso the French are despondent is that the reason they're the number one tourist destination is...(wait for it)..

Euro-Disney!!!!!

[MisterRepublican]

The french are unbathed and cowardly bores who can embrassez mon âne Américain.

[libs_kma]

I still would never voluntarily spend my hard earned money in a country that doesn't even bother to hide it's didain for Americans. I've been through Charles Degaulle airport and its nothing special. I'd much rather take my family to the Grand Canyon in the US than Paris. If I never see the Eiffel tower I'n not going to feel that my life is somehow incomplete. I say lets the frogs reap what they've sown.

[Jackson Brown]

Only the French could screw up the experience of a Disneyland (Euro Disney).

You'd think that would have given them SOME clues many years ago.

[NewJerseyJoe]

"The Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians are instilled with a certain attitude very early in infant and primary schools that includes respect and listening to others. The French put more emphasis on performance,"

Reminds me of a certain presidential candidate with A Plan.

[PeteB570]

"The French put more emphasis on performance" WTF.

And their unemployment is???????

[briant]

France is still the world's number one tourist destination in terms of numbers. But the report concludes that this is meaningless as a considerable proportion are just passing through on their way somewhere else.

Pretty funny.

Laurent Monsaigneon, the director of ports in the Cote d'Azur, believes that the problems lie in cultural and social differences. "The Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians are instilled with a certain attitude very early in infant and primary schools that includes respect and listening to others. The French put more emphasis on performance," he said.

Now this on the other hand is just befuddling

[Owl558]

"The government was particularly alarmed by the 21 per cent drop in spending by US visitors"

I could have gone to Europe this year, but chose instead to go to Florida. The people will be happy to see me and my $$ going in to their economy will help them dig out from all the trouble.

[Ironclad]

The Frogs are not going to change at least 1,000 years, probably more, of surly behavior for any number of government reports. It's part of their culture to be rude and surly. I don't speak French, but have read a little of it. I have heard the way they talk to each other, and the way they turn a phrase, directly translated into English would disgust and embarrass virtually anyone in the English speaking world. But for them, it's just the way they talk - and think. The way we might view French is that it is like street Ebonics with some Gangsta thrown in. Because it has been around so long and used by so many people, it has taken on the imprimature of a cultured language. It's hopeless to expect them to change.

[MisterRepublican]

"The Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians are instilled with a certain attitude very early in infant and primary schools that includes respect and listening to others. The French put more emphasis on being prissy little assholes."

[Jackson Brown]

If I never see the Eiffel tower I'm not going to feel that my life is somehow incomplete. I say lets the frogs reap what they've sown.

My wife and I went to France, including a week in Paris, a few years ago. The TOURIST desks, with ALL the signs in English, was staffed by people who refused to speak English. The Resturants made eating at a Jr. High School cafeteria seem romantic.

At the Eiffel tower, I got in a fist fight with some German tourists (20's) who nearly trampled over my wife trying to get to the elevator.

In Germany, they are fine, but when they travel, the Germans make for MISERY...almost as bad as the French.

[Brilliant]

I've never understood why the French refuse to speak foreign languages. They are destroying their languages' usefulness by keeping it pure. One of the major reasons that English is so useful is that we steal words from other languages.