Ask a frenchman

[manub]

Ask me anything about France, French people, french culture & history, French/U.S. relations and anything french-related. I'll answer to the best of my abilities.

[Elevens]

Shouldn't you be more grateful to Americans that you're not speaking German?

[manub]

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Shouldn't you be more grateful to Americans that you're not speaking German?

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I was expecting that one [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

A typical frenchman would respond "Well shouldn't you be more grateful to the french that you're not an english colony anymore?", but I'll try a more diplomatic approach to the question.

Actually, the french people are very grateful for the US help during WWII and most of us acknowledge that the US saved our butt. However, it was a very hard time for us, and a huge blow to the nation's ego. After WWII, we tried hard to save face and rebuild a nation that could stand on its own. You see, France has a very long and violent political and military history. We are a proud nation. And we were so badly defeated during WWII that we tried very hard to stay independant and regain some of that pride. There lies, I think, most of the tension between our countries for the past 50 years. Gratefulness and pride don't mix very well.

[iron81]

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I was expecting that one [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Are American's really that predictable?

[manub]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I was expecting that one [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Are American's really that predictable?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm afraid that on that specific matter, they are. But anyway, it's better to get all the cliché questions out of the way at the beginning. :-)

[Ray Zee]

except for not being the slightest bit courtiest about blowing smoke in your direction, i find the french very nice people. especially the country folk. but in the u.s. the city dewllers are not as friendly here as well.

how do the french and other europeans manage to keep their public transportation running right on time. when the u.s. cant even get it close.

[The Bus Driver]

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how do the french and other europeans manage to keep their public transportation running right on time. when the u.s. cant even get it close.

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A follow-up question: What do you do when those clowns go on strike all the time and none of your public services are running at all?

[The Bus Driver]

Also, with all the controversy and criticism here in the US about illegal immigration (mostly from Mexico), do you care to comment on France's own immigration clusterfk? It seems the French attitude and treatment of North African immigrants is worse than the Mexican experience in the US. Can we tack this one up to pride as well? Is this basically the French being French, like "Manny being Manny"?

[manub]

[ QUOTE ]
except for not being the slightest bit courtiest about blowing smoke in your direction, i find the french very nice people. especially the country folk. but in the u.s. the city dewllers are not as friendly here as well.

how do the french and other europeans manage to keep their public transportation running right on time. when the u.s. cant even get it close.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are right about country people being nicer and more welcoming than city people. This is particularly true when you compare parisians with non-parisians.

About public transportation: I once read a theory about France's "Inefficient Efficency". It says that basically we are a lot less obsessed about performance targets than anglo-saxon cultures (mostly because we know we will miss them). It's a paradox, but it makes us more efficient in some areas like public transportation.

The author gives an example: he takes a train in the U.S. from NY to Boston planning to stop somewhere in between. However, a mechanical problem arises. The US train company will more likely decide not to stop before Boston at all so it doesn't miss its performance target ("being in Boston on time"), so if you wanted to drop off before Boston, you're screwed. In France, the train would run a little late but it would still stop at all the required stops so nobody complains too much.

I don't know if that explains it, really. To me, the real question is not "why are french trains on time?" after all that's the way it's supposed to work - but rather "why are U.S. trains always late?". To that quesiton, I have no answer.

[manub]

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A follow-up question: What do you do when those clowns go on strike all the time and none of your public services are running at all?

[/ QUOTE ]

Several solutions: car pooling, bikes, taxis, work from home, and the best solutions of all: not going to work that day!

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Also, with all the controversy and criticism here in the US about illegal immigration (mostly from Mexico), do you care to comment on France's own immigration clusterfk? It seems the French attitude and treatment of North African immigrants is worse than the Mexican experience in the US. Can we tack this one up to pride as well? Is this basically the French being French, like "Manny being Manny"?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not very familiar with the U.S. immigration policy, but I think it's pretty similar to ours. Immigrants are not welcome here, unless they are something the country needs or are political refugees. Illegal immigrants are being deported back to their country. There have been quite a few scandals about that: young kids, or elderly people who've been in France for decades, who were being deported. Our new president and immigration minister have a very strict, zero-tolerance policy in mind and they clearly want to enforce it.

For example we have a law that we call the "rapprochement familial" ("bring families together"), which allows legal immigrants to have family members enter France and stay. Since some families were using this to allow non-relatives to enter the country, the conservative government wants to instigate DNA tests to ensure that these people are indeed related. It caused an uproar amongst liberals.

EDIT: I'm going to bed (3:30am here), please keep posting your questions and I'll answer them tommorrow. G'night all.