Are Parisians just rude?

[SeVeR]

I just read this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8500246.stm

 

It made me remember all the other times I have heard people mention the rude French. It is not mentioned in this article but I heard a lot about them being nasty towards people who speak very little or no French. Some of the things in this article are just plain nasty, and to someone who obviously speaks plenty of French. I hope their attitude damages their tourism.

 

I'm certainly put off ever going there. BOYCOTT PARIS!

[L.C.]

Yay! Down with Audry!

[Bak]

no tips = no (direct) incentive to be nice

[aquarius]

If someone needs an incentive to be nice, they're ugly. Inside.

[Audry]

wtf L.C. I'm not from France. Stop obsessing over me <_<

[BDwinsAlt]

wtf L.C. I'm not from France. Stop obsessing over me <_<

When I took French 1, we had phrases in our book that were mean. Someone didn't feel well and wanted someone to pick something up for them, the person replied that they can just eat whatever in the the fridge(With ! at the end).

 

My teacher said a lot of time the French sound rude. The book seems to agree.

[Audry]

Not at all, french is an amazing language! It sounds pretty good and sweet, just like spanish or italian.

 

It's not about the language itself if you ask me, its more about the french from france having a general bad attitude

[Hakaku]

Ah vraiment? Moi en tout cas, je trouve que les Québécois, à part p-ê les Montréalais, sont pas mal insolents envers les anglophones eux autres aussi. Ce n'est pas rien que les Français.

[»Xog]

Cursing someone out in french is like wiping your ass with silk

 

Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère

 

+2 for anyone that can guess the reference!

Edited February 9, 2010 by Xog

[BDwinsAlt]

Cursing someone out in french is like wiping your ass with silk

 

Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère

 

+2 for anyone that can guess the reference!

I actually understood that. I don't understand why the French use religion as cuss words. I lol'd at putain, my sister used to call Audry that a lot.

[Audry]

Hakaku, you can't be serious. Je vis dans la ville de Québec, ville francophone, et on est plus qu'accceuillant avec les anglophones. Au resto où je travail, des dames dans la 50aine, qui ne connaissent pas du tout l'anglais se forcent pour servir leurs client en anglais lorsqu'ils sont anglophones. Même chose dans les boutiques et hotels. Alors que les anglophones ne feront AUCUN effort dans la situation inverse, même si certain d'entre eux ont une base en français.

 

BTW root, all of these are mostly cussing from france... we dont really use these words here, we got our own slang and cuss words heh

 

(haha BD, funny coming from her )

[Dr Brain]

That quote came from one of the worst movies ever, the second Matrix movie.

[Hakaku]

Yeah, I'm dead serious Audry. You might like to think you're all ponies and pixie-dust perfect, but take a step off cloud nine and you might actually notice that your society has flaws too, one of the most cited ones being racism. It's nice that some people in Québec City "try" to accomodate anglophones. Hey, you're only the capital and Quebec's top tourism priority afterall. Maybe if you stopped sending English-only pamphlets to those who live outside of your province you'd be able to notice a difference. Or maybe if you would stop stigmatizing anglophones trying to speak French. Or maybe if you would actually teach them real conversational Canadian French as opposed to that fake unusable literary 'international' French. Or maybe if your politicians would stop acting so condecending on every single political occasion. And you wonder why people don't try? Si vous ne pouvez même pas cesser la discrimination contre les francophones qui ne vivent pas dans votre petit monde fermé, comment espérez-vous améliorer vos relations avec les autres? Tant que vous refuserez d'adresser de tels problèmes, les anglophones vont continuer de ne pas vouloir s'exercer en français. Y'a une raison pourquoi que l'espagnol fait fureur et non le français.

[Samapico]

I have nothing against anglophones who come here and at least try to speak French... But I'm annoyed when they act like WE should be speaking their language...

 

 

 

Cursing someone out in french is like wiping your ass with silk

 

Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère

 

+2 for anyone that can guess the reference!

I actually understood that. I don't understand why the French use religion as cuss words. I lol'd at putain, my sister used to call Audry that a lot.

The only reference to religion in that quote is 'Nom de Dieu', and that's about as much cuss as 'holy cow' or 'oh my god'. French from France actually don't use religion much for cussing... They tend to use the traditional sex-related words (putain, bordel, salope, enculer) We in Québec, however, turned just about every object in a church into a cuss word. Not sure when this started, but it probably has to do with when we were literally ruled by the Church here.

 

This article seems to explain it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity

[»Blocks]

I don't think Parisians are "just rude." It's a different culture. I had encounters with some nice people and some mean people there. Had more encounters with nice people when I spoke French to them. I won't judge, because most places in America, you'll get a lot of crap for not speaking or knowing English.

 

I think the bigger problem is the stupid chips on their credit cards, or the stupid lack of chips on our credit cards. It means you can't use American credit cards at any kiosks in France.

[»Xog]

I think French cussing was a more fun topic

 

 

We in Québec, however, turned just about every object in a church into a cuss word

 

What's a cuss for the holy cross? Or the holy grail? I'm actually interested :-p

Edited February 13, 2010 by Xog

[Samapico]

Check the wiki link I posted... it lists the most common ones. The words aren't really deformed to be cuss words... we just started using them as such. The pronunciation is a bit different, but someone not speaking the language would probably not notice. We write them differently too, for some reason... We just write them as we pronounce them, since there isn't a defined spelling for them.

Like 'christ' is pronounced/written 'crisse' (in French, the only difference is the 't' not pronounced at all in the cuss word)

[Hakaku]

There are no swear words in Canadian French that specifically come from the words 'cross' or 'holy grail', although câlisse ((holy) chalice) is close enough to the latter. The actual French word 'graal' (Holy Grail) is rare in common speech, which would explain why it never made it as a swear word. While 'croix' (cross) doesn't make it because it can't really be deformed any further, which may be partly due to competition with its homophone 'croire' (to believe); '(il) croit/cré'.

[Audry]

Yeah, I'm dead serious Audry. You might like to think you're all ponies and pixie-dust perfect, but take a step off cloud nine and you might actually notice that your society has flaws too, one of the most cited ones being racism. It's nice that some people in Québec City "try" to accomodate anglophones. Hey, you're only the capital and Quebec's top tourism priority afterall. Maybe if you stopped sending English-only pamphlets to those who live outside of your province you'd be able to notice a difference. Or maybe if you would stop stigmatizing anglophones trying to speak French. Or maybe if you would actually teach them real conversational Canadian French as opposed to that fake unusable literary 'international' French. Or maybe if your politicians would stop acting so condecending on every single political occasion. And you wonder why people don't try? Si vous ne pouvez même pas cesser la discrimination contre les francophones qui ne vivent pas dans votre petit monde fermé, comment espérez-vous améliorer vos relations avec les autres? Tant que vous refuserez d'adresser de tels problèmes, les anglophones vont continuer de ne pas vouloir s'exercer en français. Y'a une raison pourquoi que l'espagnol fait fureur et non le français.

 

 

It seems like you are judging the people here on how the politicians are acting... which is pretty retarded. They are trying to protect a language that is slowly dying in a province where it is suposed to be the first language. So indeed they attack (sometimes without reason) and act condescendant, but they are politicians, thats what they do.

 

You say stop sending english only pamphlets? Are you kidding me? Yeah lets make double-sized papers (which would cost more $) to make it bilangual to send to place where people actually do not speak french. That totally make sense to me. Actually i'd like to see the pamphlet you are talking about, cause on the few i seen before, it was clearly stated that Québec is a french province.

 

And for us to teach people real french? huh Come learn it here and that's what we'll do. You can't blame us for the fail of an educational system we have no words in

 

I'm not saying that there is no flaw here. Nor am i saying that there is absolutly no racism. But the general population is pretty indulgent with anglophones. I see it on a daily basis.

[Hakaku]

You say stop sending english only pamphlets? Are you kidding me? Yeah lets make double-sized papers (which would cost more $) to make it bilangual to send to place where people actually do not speak french. That totally make sense to me. Actually i'd like to see the pamphlet you are talking about, cause on the few i seen before, it was clearly stated that Québec is a french province.

Have you ever been outside of Québec? This seems to be a recurrent theme with you guys, you're not the only French Canadians in Canada you know. But fine, keep sending English pamphlets, but don't expect those with an interest in French to care about you, or for monolinguals to even care to recognize your language. You're only hurting your own situation more rather than remedying it.

 

Additionally, that's a pretty dumb comment about the money, since it's all the taxpayers of Canada who all pay for your pseudo "double-sized paper". I suppose you've never actually worked in a bilingual environment have you? Try visiting Ottawa one day. Apparently everything and everyone there are twice the size since two languages are clearly too much to bare.

 

And be my guest in continuing to promote the province of Quebec as an English-speaking paradise to the rest of the world, while increasing the number of disintegrated immigrants in your province who arrive with only passable English competency. Yes, this is your province.

 

And for us to teach people real french? huh Come learn it here and that's what we'll do. You can't blame us for the fail of an educational system we have no words in

Not everyone has the money to travel and live abroad. If you want anglophones to be willing to feel confident to understand and talk to you on their visits, then teach them the real language from the start, at their schools. Your province generates the teachers, you have the influence to move away from the French elitism of the fake standard.

 

It seems like you are judging the people here on how the politicians are acting... which is pretty retarded.

Your politicians merely reinforce negative sentiments to the rest of Canada. You can't assume that what goes on in your province, no matter how petty it seems, doesn't have negative repercussions elsewhere. Your politicians, laws, news, policies, and the such form your interprovincial and national image. You democratically elected your politicians, and as a people, you're morally responsible for how they conduct themselves.

 

I am not, however, judging you on your political image, I'm judging you based on your actions, your continued distortion of historical facts, day-to-day interactions with people from your province, etc. Those that are condecending are not merely your politicians. Those that are racist are not merely some radicals you see commenting on youtube videos. I'm not saying every Quebecer is a horrible person, there's lots of nice people, but you can't claim to be better than Parisians in any aspect whatsoever, especially in situations that deal with anglophones, and even moreso I would say with your alienation of francophones outside your province, for which you've already demonstrated your ignorance.

 

They are trying to protect a language that is slowly dying in a province where it is suposed to be the first language. So indeed they attack (sometimes without reason) and act condescendant, but they are politicians, thats what they do.

Slowly dying? Statistics or it never happened. The use of the French language in Canada has gone up over the last century, not down. Quebec might be experiencing a low birth rate at the moment, but birth rate is not the same thing as loss of language. Also, I'm not judging your politicians based on wanting to uphold the French language. That has nothing to do with anything. Being condecending towards people and actively enforcing a language are not the same thing.