Why Hate France??

[Crazed Rabbit]

Are you American ? You must be as don't understand the English language do you , I suppose it is the 30 years of education that does it .

Whoa, easy on the America-bashing there, Tribesy. J.A.G. is from Wales. And besides, you don't have a perfect understanding of English.

As for France, I think its a matter of arrogance and how it's easy to make fun of them for being 'cheese eating surrender monkeys'. Plus, recently they worked against the US and they have a history of trying to have it both ways and not fully backing their allies (cold war & Russia, middle east, Iraq & Iran).

Crazed Rabbit

[Slyspy]

William was the worst king we ever had, he was a ruthless bastard, litterally.

Bad things this Frenchman did:

Abolished elected monarchy,

Abolished Witan,

Abolished Thanes,

Killed off, relatively, nice English aristocracy,

Instituted oppressive feudal system.

Other reasons to hate France:

French revolution,

Metric, which is all fidley,

Inspiring America to revolt.

Totally undemocratic.

Oppressive regime.

Whereas before 1066 it was a land of milk and honey, like The Shire only with slightly taller people? Pah! Though he was ruthless, without a doubt.

[Ironside]

Actually, iirc, Sweden abolished slavery sometime in the 1300's...so that would've been the first modern European nation to abolish slavery.

Well, uhm

We did abolish slavery at the homefront early, but when it comes to African slaves, special rules were applied. Slavery were fully abolished 1848, quite late due to the fact that the small colony S:t Bartélemy only had slave-trade as the main income. The colony was never espcially successful in that aspect though.

[English assassin]

31-6. I need say no more.

[mystic brew]

oooh. french rap is fantastic!

another in the plus column.

also, free running!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YLO0EJ-V...e%20running%20

[Avicenna]

You find english pretty?

I always had a kind of scale for my respect for languages in terms of how they sound:

French
Proper English
Russian
American English
Japanese
Dutch
German
Farsi or other Arabic
Chinese
Trailer Park English
Spanish
Ebonics
Thai
Vietnamese

On the other hand, I have a different repect for languages based on my perspective of their difficulty to learn:

Any asian language
Any Arabic language
Russian
English
German or dutch
French
Spanish


I'm not a fan of Spanish, but I consider learning it one of my life's goals. It is a necessity in SW U.S. I would also like to learn French and German for pleasure, since there is no utility in it for me just yet.

Most people I know agree that English is the easiest language to learn. Not all Asian languages are the same. Korean and Indian shouldn't be so difficult.

[Louis VI the Fat]

“In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.” – Mark Twain

“Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything.” – Steve Martin

“Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Germans with good food.” – Fran Lebowitz

“There would come a time when, if I had compared my life to a cake, the sojourns in Paris would have presented the chocolate filling. The intervening layers were plain sponge.”
– A. J. Liebling

“All Good Americans when they die, go to Paris.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The French make two mistakes about me: They think I’m an intellectual because of my glasses. And they think I'm an artist because my films always lose money.” –Woody Allen

“It's all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory.” – French management saying

[Vladimir]

Someone help me with this paraphrase:

I love French food, women, and wine; but I hate the French. (modified for emotional impact).

I just look at them as feminized Germans. Although, the Germans have gotten pretty girly themselves. I can’t wait until they have to start paying for their own national defense.

End the American occupation! Liberate Germany!!!

[Kraxis]

You find english pretty?

I always had a kind of scale for my respect for languages in terms of how they sound:

French
Proper English
Russian
American English
Japanese
Dutch
German
Farsi or other Arabic
Chinese
Trailer Park English
Spanish
Ebonics
Thai
Vietnamese

On the other hand, I have a different repect for languages based on my perspective of their difficulty to learn:

Any asian language
Any Arabic language
Russian
English
German or dutch
French
Spanish


I'm not a fan of Spanish, but I consider learning it one of my life's goals. It is a necessity in SW U.S. I would also like to learn French and German for pleasure, since there is no utility in it for me just yet.

I feel insulted! Danish is about the most difficult language there is to learn. Not only do we speak in a different manner everybody else (more or less), our grammar is so filled with excemptions from the rules that we have in all reality abandoned it (thus forcing people to learn it by hearing and reading it), our spoken language is nothing like the written, even if you follow Danish rules of pronouncation. And finally the rate of change in the language is extremely fast, forcing changes of spelling and meanings in the dictionaries, despite the best efforts of various societies to slow this down to a more manageable level.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I don't hate France. But some things that irk me:

(1) If you do not speak French in France, you are virtually despised and ignored. (By comparison, if you come to the U.S. and speak french, we will try and help you. But also, Spanish is disgusting to me since it is destroying our English heritage.)

Not actually true, not in most of the places you go as a tourist anyway.

'Parlez-moi, excuse vous Anglais?'

I apologise on behalf of my country, that is about the only French i do know,

'Excuse-moi, parlez vous Anglais?'

See. I can just about manage that, asks for crepes; and the bill.

I tried to learn French and failed, I get most of the words but I can't string them together. :(.

Actually, national prejudice aside, I quite like France and French people; the rural ones anyway. Which reminds me, I'm going to Paris in a few weeks.

[BigTex]

Originally posted by Louis VI the Fat
Yeah, yeah, English, German, Sign language, Danish - crap, we're just very politely, in silent astonishment, waiting for that foreigner to finally figure out that French is the language of France.

Wait a moment, France doesnt speak German yet? They've been invaded, surrendered and occupied by them twice just in the last century. Hopefully they have learned to say "I surrender" in german at least. The sinking of the greenpeace vessel was certainly one of the greatest acts of the French in their history. Now if they'd only do it more regularly it make the world a much friendlier place, but that'd make them unfrench like.ridiculos

[Kraxis]

Louis, my point was not that French people don't speak English. I know that a lot do, sadly they don't tend to work the jobs where you meet a lot of new people apparently.
Or perhaps they do. But my point was that obviously it is possible to find a middleway even if we can't communicate in our first languages, or even in any spoken language.

I don't know French as a language, but enough of it to be able to communicate what it is I need (not always in French, but you get the point).
If people have an interest in serving a customer they will make an effort in trying to understand what it is they want. Because you perhaps don't understand the language is no excuse for being rude.

Do you really expect me to learn French to go to France? In that case, should I also begin to demand people speak Danish to me in Denmark, or else I will just not respond to their questions? Silliness.

I'm sorry to report that while I haven't experienced this in my skivacations (English normally go perfectly fine), it tend to be a serious problem in areas where tourism might not be the principal income.

Provence, Adeche and those areas failed in this quite horribly, even as late as a few years ago.
In Alsace people were at least grudgingly willing to speak German.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Louis, my point was not that French people don't speak English. I know that a lot do, sadly they don't tend to work the jobs where you meet a lot of new people apparently.

Aye, most people with a good command of English are of higher education - they don't have 10 euro an hour jobs serving tourists.

Oh well, for friendly, courteous behaviour, you need to be outside the Paris city centre. Hey, I went to New York once - I didn't exactly recieve any warm welcome. The only people I had any meaningful interaction with, were those I met in a relaxed, private surrounding.
The rest of the US was an entirely different matter. Great people everywhere.

[Louis VI the Fat]

The French government blew up a Greenpeace vessel in New Zealand not Australia. Which was a terrorist action, and it was planned to kill more of the crew then it did... only a birthday party kept the crew up... I think the terrorists got promotions and medals on the return to France...

But Papewaio, terrorists is what you call the small army, never the big one.

[Papewaio]

But Papewaio, terrorists is what you call the small army, never the big one.

Certainly. The one that is smaller in moral and morality is the French one.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Certainly. The one that is smaller in moral and morality is the French one.

Gah. Armies are measured by the size of their guns.

[Papewaio]

Gah. Armies are measured by the size of their guns.

Not if they are lying in the dirt or the bottom of a harbour...

[Papewaio]

Another reason in the "Why hate France"... because they murder anyone in the colonies who tries for independance.

[Louis VI the Fat]

That's all in the past. Currently, there is no-one in our colonies trying for independence anymore.

[Papewaio]

Not after the murders in the eighties... people get a little bit afraid of raising their hands to say they want to be independent if they are going to be snipered by gendarmes

[Louis VI the Fat]

That's what I meant. Currently, there is no-one in our colonies trying for independence anymore.

[Incongruous]

Well you blew up the Rainbow Warrior and gave medals and big payments to the men that commited that act of terrorism.
You had to be forced by NZ to stop letting off those Nukes in the Muroroa atol.
You never seem to be able to come up with any sunbstantial backing for you're claim that you're by far the best European country there is.

[Papewaio]

Wow, Bopa and I finally have a topic we agree on!

[Incongruous]

Pah!
Don't get too used to it.
Anyway I never did like the Fench!

[InsaneApache]

You don't get Empires and keep them by being Mr. Nice Guy.

Anyway France doesn't have colonies, they are regarded as part of metropolitan France. So murder would be accceptable.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

More reasons to dislike France!

Their flag sucks.

[Papewaio]

I know the colour scheme is terrible

Hang on



Hmm the colour scheme is all the same... so Kaiser you don't like stripes then?

[Incongruous]

The three right of the Stars and Strippers are all great!

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

To tell the truth, I hate all those flags. I suppose I can tolerate looking at the Union Jack, but the rest just hurt my eyes.

The personal standard of the Monarchy is much better.

[Papewaio]

Thats just because the Aussie and Kiwi one is going to be flying higher then any of the ones that form the UK at the Commonwealth games.