Re: Ask a frenchman
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Is the Dreyfus affair still a big deal over there? Do old guys get pissed off when they talk about it?
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No, not really. But it's still taught at school. It happended during the 1890s and there are almsot no survivors from that era.
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what are some of the biggest concerns and most polarizing issues in France today?
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- Unemployement has been the main issue for 30 years.
- Crime in poor suburburan areas.
- Immigration from north africa and eastern europe.
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What do you think of the reforms Sarkozy is trying to push through regarding the labour market? Do they have a high chance of success? What do normal civilians think of them?
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Well I don't feel too much concerned about them personally, being a professional poker player I don't really fit into the french workforce. However, while I do not agree with Sarkozy on some issues like immigration or crime, I think his motto "work more, earn more" is not a bad thing at all. Middle-class french people are very concerned about two things: keeping their conformtable lifestyles and their social advantages, like free social secutiry, unemployement insurance, paid vacations etc. However, sometimes it becomes very contradictory, and when I look at how other countries are doing, I see that they are getting a lot more things done with a lot more enthusiasm.
The idea is very popular within the population, after all Sarkozy was elected mostly because of it (along with his crime & immigration solutions). Unions and leftists are not opposing it very vigorously. We're still waiting to see how it all unfolds.
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How are labor unions viewed?
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While very powerful until the 1970s they have been declining a lot and now have little power overall, except in some areas like transportation or schools.
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How about the civil service?
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Civil servants have a reputation of being:
- too many for too little work
- lazy and unefficient
- with a lot of social advantages
In reality, this is all a little true but mostly, the french administration and its services work quite well.
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Will the Cecilia divorce impact opinions of Sarkozy?
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No, I don't think it will. If it does anything it will help him because it will draw even more sympathy from all the divorced people. The french generally don't care too much about their politican's marital/sex lives. We are obviously curious but we really don't care if a politician cheats on his wife or has several mistresses or whatever.
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Alizee. Discuss please.
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Definitely hot but also wayyy too young. Her first two or three songs were huge successes like 6-7 years ago. She's mostly forgotten now.
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Your English is very good. Did you learn English as you grew up, or as a requirement for a career or what? How common is it that a Frenchman will be fluent in English?
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Thank you. I learnt it first in gamebooks when I was a nerd-child, then at school (though german was my first language like about 10% of the kids here). Then at 16/17 I started travelling around the world playing Magic:the gathering so I had to practice fairly regularly. Then I was fortunate enough to have an american girlfriend for a couple of years, and that brought me to the level of english that I have today.
IT's certainly not the case for most french people. We all speak and understand a little english but we are still far behind other nations like Germany, Norway etc. People in the countryside speak no english at all.
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What are the drug laws/policies in France?
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All drugs and other addictive substances are prohibited (except for cigarettes which are going to be banned from all public areas starting in 2008). There's a vague popular movement for liberalizing weed, but the authorities are far from going that path.
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