Europe unites in hatred of French

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/17/wfran17.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/05/17/ixportal.html

Language, history, cooking and support for rival football teams still divide Europe. But when everything else fails, one glue binds the continent together: hatred of the French.

Why the French are the worst company on the planet, a wry take on France by two of its citizens, dredges up all the usual evidence against them. They are crazy drivers, strangers to customer service, obsessed by sex and food and devoid of a sense of humour.

But it doesn't stop there, boasting a breakdown, nation by nation, of what in the French irritates them. For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".

But the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll was conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just what they thought of them.

[trumad]

1. Yeah, but you got to admit

They're not a bunch of lying scumbags like the U.S and the Brits when it comes to preemptive wars!

[truthisfreedom]

2. hey now. the French cook well.

really well.

i love French cuisine. more than sushi. well, a little more than sushi.

[ashling]

5. Sushi is not cuisine

it's bait!
:puke:

[BlueEyedSon]

10. Yup, to catch bigger, more delicious sushi!

[Dover]

3. More divisiveness. NOT helpful. But like the U.S. and others...

we're all just one big dysfunctional family who needs therapy so we can all just get along. And the ruling elite are currently fighting over the inheritance!

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. The timing of this news

seems a mite suspicious, to say the least, since the French looks as if they may shortly become the first nation to strike a blow against the juggernaut of globalisation. (I use the term "nation" in the proper, if unofficial sense, of the people, the inhabitants, and not the Government).

The French are shortly to vote in a referendum on the creation of a new constitution for the EU. Apparently, this would mean that French jobs would be more readily outsourced to the Turks, Chinese, whoever. And for some strange reason, the French are digging their heels in and seem to be yelling "NON"!

Ironically, with a totally different "take" on the likely consequences, i.e. fearing that they will be compelled to improve labour conditions for such jobs in the UK, as have not already been outsourced abroad or eliminated for the purposes of "rationalisation"! etc., the UK government would probably follow suit!

Alas! Alack! Oh what misery for our leaders, to be torn between fighting to preserve the most wretched and disgraceful conditions for our workforce, and fighting to intensify the globalisation of our jobs. What a cruel dispensation of Providence for them!

So, it seems that all is not always what it seems(!), when we read the media's latest apparently light-hearted outburst of xenophobia.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. It's not very often we get a French bashing thread so we need ...

to take advantage of it.

I agree with the Italian take on the French but I've also heard the same comments about northern Italians from Americans traveling overseas.

[Massachusetts]

6. ISN'T THIS THE CHRISTIAN COALITION / RETHUG PARTY?

"snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed, agitated, talkative and shallow, cold, distant, vain and impolite, pretentious, offhand and frivolous"

C'est Bon!

[spooky3]

79. that picture says only "OUCH!" to me

[Mass]

7. Nice piece of crap

Coming from a nutwing mewspaper. (guess that the Brits are not changing a bit).

In fact, it is funny when you know that they could have asked the same question about all other countries and got as bad an answer (even worse in some cases) as that.

[tabasco]

32. Exactly. I don't think they asked the Irish who they hated.

This is a piece of garbage from a garbage dump.

[Name removed]

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[Amonester]

71. Je suis d'accord. n/t

[Bridget Burke]

9. "Another section of the study ....

... deals with how the French see the rest of Europe.

"Believe it or not, the English and the French use almost exactly the same adjectives to describe each other - bar the word 'insular'," Mr Coldong said. "So the feelings are mutual."

I'm sure a survey about ANY nationality & would produce a fine group of slurs.

[patricia92243]

14. The English and French have been at each other's throats for so long that

anything they say about each other is hard to take seriously.

[Flagg]

11. We may be sub-humans but France emrges as the single country with the best

reputation abroad.



France emerged as the single country with the best reputation abroad.

The survey was carried out by polling group GlobeScan and the University of Maryland with some questions provided by the BBC World Service.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4413913.stm

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. A different perspective...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4538249.stm

[Flagg]

12. They hate us for our freedom.

LMAO

[BlueEyedSon]

15. Not to mention our liberty, which we have a statue of.

[Mizmoon]

13. The French are cantankerous bastards

That's what I like about them. :)

They can keep the snails though.

[JI7]

16. this is a Right Wing source

[newfaceinhell]

17. Telegraph- not fit for wrapping your freedom fries up in

[Cocottelle]

19. IT'S ENVY!

That's what it's all about. All this criticism of the French is based on Envy.

[DrZeeLit]

20. Sounds like a lotta envy to me.

I LOVE France. My favorite place to visit. In all my travels I have NOT EVER had a bad experience. In fact, I've had several wonderful, memorable experiences. Delightful people who helped me when I traveled alone. Kind strangers. Men who... Ah....

Meanwhile, I could make many comments about other countries. But what's the point? Are we just perpetuating stereotypes here? Why post something like this? Why does the news media continue to persue stories like this when so much REAL news needs to come to light?

So, what happens? A bunch of people who never set foot out of the US, who grouse about fur-in-ers (including Hispanics who settled California and Native Americans who own the land) -- a bunch of boobs, turn to each other over the drone of some reality t.v. show and say... "see, the French are idiots...blah, blah, blah."

Vive La France!

[bennywhale]

21. I love the French and i'm English. Perhaps it because

i'm not from the South who seem to have a neurotic hatred of the French.

I love them, they're miserable, cantankerous, and rude on the one hand
Then eccentric, friendly and rude on the other.

The thing i most like about them is the way they ignore there government.

Smoking was actually banned in all public places in France 15 years ago. The French didn't protest about this or complain, they just shrugged their shoulders and smoked wherever they liked. The ban was repealed a few years later.

They only obey the law if they agree with it. The French state is the French people, and if they don't like what the government is doing they just ignore them on mass.

Its also a great experience to be literally snarled at by a waiter in Paris for having the audacity to walk into the cafe and want a coffee when he is quite clearly having a ciggarette. Brilliant. It makes a refreshing and real change from some moron with a surgically implanted smil, who to be honest feels the same way about you but has been programmed not to show it.

The French couldn't give a shit, and thats what i like about them.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

23. Its also a great experience to be literally snarled at by a waiter in Pari

LOL

[aneerkoinos]

27. Greeks

have the same attitude to laws. There's an argument for free men living in Republic, instead loyal subjects of the Crown... ;)

Well, could have something to do with Levantine culture, in Germany nobody crosses street when light is red, even if it's night and there are no cars anywhere. And if someone does, bunch of angry Germans start yelling "Du muss nicht!"

[bennywhale]

48. You're right about the Germans, i was in Berlin last

year, and we found nothing funnier after a few beers than skirting past a crowd waiting to cross the road and waltzing over while it was on red. The shock on their faces was hilarious,

Must be something about following orders and authority. Quite a dangerous trait i'm sure you'll agree.

[Benhurst]

22. The Telegraph is a fascist rag. As for France, I'll choose it

any day over the United Kingdom. The Anglo-American "special relationship" is nothing more nor less the ruling classes of both nations combining to f*ck over their respective peoples.

Vive la France!

Little Tony "the Bridge" Blair's keeping his head stuck up Dubya's ass in no way makes him a friend of the American people, or his own, for that matter.

[stopbush]

55. Bingo! The "common language" we share with the Brits is about

the extent of that "special relationship."

If you're talking democracy & republic, we have much more in common with the French.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[VLC98]

24. I'm British and I love the French!

When I was 12 a gorgeous French boy called Olivier gave me my first French kiss. Admittedly he dumped me shortly afterward, but 26 years later I still remember that kiss!

[Hand]

38. Absolutely!

I mean, who but the French could have thought that one up? "I 'ave eet! Let us steeck our tongues een each ozzers' mout's when we keess!" No one else on the planet would have dreamed of it!

:toast: :applause:

[femmecahors]

25. Love it!!!!

At last, maybe the Brits, the Dutch, the Germans, will stop retiring in France.

I love my French neighbors. They are the nicest, wittiest, most progressive people I know. They bend over backwards to help me make my way in my new country.

The only thing wrong with where I live is that there are too many damn Dutch and British!

For a refugee from Bush's Amerika, I can't think of a better country than France in which to live.

[bennywhale]

52. Hey, generalisations and stereotypes on a progressive website

are quite a rare thing. "Damn British". Is that all British then You've met all 60 million of them?

I'm British and i'm a gentleman who also loves the French. This is a Souther centred bigoted Newspaper with a daily readership of less than a million.

The rest of generally don't make sweeping statements when talking of other nations, and when distinguishing between a government and a people.

Otherwise i would be saying, there's do many Damned Americans in France.

I don't however cos i take everyone at face value.

[Briar]

26. The Torygraph speaks only for its xenophobic self. n/t

[Decay]

28. Horseshit!

Smear article out of a British newspaper about French is as valid as smear article about British in a French newspaper. Most Americans are completely, absolutely unaware about the continuing rivalries and tensions, socially, that exists between these two countries. Anyone here watch BBC international newscasts? Well every day, no matter what goes on in the world, they squeeze in some absolutely irrelevant piece of information about about the French. For example:

headline #1: Tsunami kills 200,000!
headline #2: Car bomb in Iraq kills 40!
headline #3: French farmer rapes a goat!
headline #4: China declares war on Taiwan!

I might have embellished a little, but you get the idea.

[bennywhale]

49. You'll find its a loveable hatred

We don't actually despise eachother we're just such close neighbours of a similar size and power, and our histories are so intertwined. Its more like sibling rivalry. And, when middle class Brits retire they all seemingly retire to France.

We just try to outdo eachother in everything but have a grudging admiration for one another. Thats the way i see it anyway, but you'll probably find some Southerners who would be quite happy to declare war on them tomorrow.

In fact in WW1 the British Tommy would often wind up their french comrades saying that Britain had picked the wrong ally

[DARE to HOPE]

29. Liberté, égalité, fraternité!!!!!

They're all just jealous.

[DS1]

30. RULE BRITANNIA!

I've never thought much of France, it must be in my blood or something :D

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

31. Lo, it was written...

Heaven And Hell

Heaven Is Where...
The chefs are Italian
The lovers are French
The police are English
The mechanics are German
And the Swiss run things.

Hell Is Where...
The chefs are English
The lovers are Swiss
The police are German
The mechanics are French
And the Italians run things.

[RogueTrooper]

33. From the Guardian's newsblog

Two Frenchmen who asked people across Europe to come up with adjectives to describe the French received a string of negative epithets - chauvinistic, pretentious, vain, shallow and so on. Today's Telegraph (registration required) delightedly puts the story on its front page, observing impartially that "typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing monsters they are".

In fact the study, entitled "Why the French are the Worst Company on the Planet", reveals at least as much about the people surveyed as about the French. So while the (serious) Germans dismiss the French as frivolous, the (fiery) Spanish see them as "cold and distant", the (taciturn) Dutch find them "talkative" and the (punctilious, authority-obsessed) Swedes see them as "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty". The British, for the record, described the French as "chauvinistic, stubborn, nannied and humourless" - just the same words they chose to describe us

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/world_news/2005/05/17/french_fried.html

[EFerrari]

36. Nannied?! What does that mean? Spoiled? n/t

[bennywhale]

50. Nannied means everything is done

for them by the state. The nanny state being the state that intrudes into all parts of peoples lives "for their own good".

I don't agree with the analysis however, the French couldn't give a shit what their government say, they just ignore them if they don't agree with it.

[K8-EEE]

34. Every French Person I've Met In My Life Has Been....

lovely. I hate seeing a hate-mongering, stereotyping, bullshit article like this.

btw, a couple of weeks ago we met up with a French exchange student via DU to go to the Villaraigosa/Kerry rally and she couldn't have been sweeter, more polite or more intellegent.

[Number9Dream]

35. But then there's Sophie Marceau

I'm not thrilled with France (nuclear tests near Tahiti, blowing up the Greenpeace ship, etc.)... But then there's Sophie Marceau.

[Tinoire]

37. Tres bizarre

Not the fact that this is being peddled mostly by Rupert Murdoch's papers

Not the fact that I've heard much worse adjectives about the British in Europe (war-mongering, racist, stiff, humorless come to mind)

But the fact that for a study that stings French pride, I could only find one mention of it on google.fr news: http://news.google.fr/news?hl=fr&ned=fr&q=%22Olivier+Clodong%22 and it was on EuropePlusNet, a magazine launched "to reduce European divisions".

All tres bizarre.

I wonder who will conduct a poll about what Europeans and indeed the world think of the British. Specific attention paid to the disastrous legacy of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair would be nice. As would emphasis on the Bush/Blair UK memo scandal and the manufactured lies to lead the entire world into WWIII.

Just an idea in the interests of being fair and balanced.

I look forward to your next French-bashing post.

Thankfully in America ;)

[T_i_B]

74. It's actually NOT a Murdoch rag

It used to be owned by Conrad Black, now I think it's owned by the Barclay Brothers. It's actually more right-wing then the Murdoch press and is often nicknamed the "Torygraph" because of its staunch support of the British Conservative Party.

Despite all this, it usually has a higher standard of reporting then The Times (Murdoch's UK broadsheet), which is why I'll post Torygraph articles on here and not Times articles.

[DoNotRefill]

39. I HATE France.

Doesn't have anything to do with my experiences there, their politics, or anything like that. It's just that I'm genetically of German descent. We've been hating each other for millenia. They call us "Pigs", we call them "Frogs", and we now do it in a spirit of friendly co-operation (that whole World War hatred thing is SO 20th Century). To tell the truth, if I introduced myself in german to a French person, and that person DIDN'T call me a pig, I'd be concerned, and ask them if they were feeling OK, and if there was anything I could do to help them get back to normal.

:evilgrin:

BTW, if you're an old movie buff with an incredibly well stocked video store nearby, check out "Kameradeschaft"...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

43. You evil Pigfrog!

I'm a quarter Welsh. We hate all of you damned people. Hell, the Welsh language is just a practical joke we like to play on the English. Llyngthlyynbwffd, my ass!

[DoNotRefill]

44. Well, I'd hate you back.....

but I can't locate Welschland on the map...

:evilgrin:


(J/K)

[Decay]

40. British are not European anyway

I can guarantee you that a large percentage of Europeans think this. Heck, large chunk of British do not consider themselves European to begin with, unless they need help fighting a war, or need assistance from some German bank to bail out their eternally miserable economy or when it comes to matters of international business. Then they pretend to be bigger Europeans than anybody, spouting junk about "unity and European family". Case in point: Tony Blair.

[RogueTrooper]

46. some points

The British need the help of the Continental Europeans to fight wars? Who were these Europeans and what wars are you talking about?

I thought it was now Germany who was now the sick man of Europe? I have no recollection of the British economy every being bailed out by the Germans.

If you study the last couple of centuries of European history you will find that the British are quite heavily involved in continental Europe.

The British are European. And you will find ( If you bothered to look, rather than just bloviate ) that a majority of Britains do view themselves are European.

[hatrack]

41. Was there a memo I missed? Is this "Hate France Week"?

Oh, never mind - it's the Telegraph!

[Name removed]

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[bennywhale]

51. I take issue with that. I think its actually the Americans that are the

rudest people on earth particularly with comments like that.

I think the Brits are the most welcoming, helpful and hospitable people there are. They'll always buy you a drink, are good company and have a great sense of humour.

A lot of Americans however are greedy, self centred, individualistic pigs, who couldn't give a shit if you're in their way, and have an American-centrist arrogance about the world.

So fuck them too

[stopbush]

54. Americans are too stupid to know when they're being rude.

Brits, on the other hand, know exactly what they're doing.

Sorry if my post offended you. My opinion stems from my encounters travelling, mostly on business. It's my opinion, and as an arrogant Yank, I'm entitled to it.

[Name removed]

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[newfaceinhell]

78. That says more about the people you do business with.

And who'd have thought a British poster would get upset by your bigoted slam at his entire nation?

[aneerkoinos]

58. Well

There is the PR-factor of worst binge-drinking, publicly peeing and vomit decorating nation in the world (now outdoing even Scandinavians and Russians I think - well allmost ;)) and British "tourists" aka lager lads (and lasses) and other hooligans propping up the image. It has been brough to my attention that there is certain amount of rudeness involved in these phenomena... ;)

[Name removed]

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[aneerkoinos]

67. Hey

I'm a Finn and proud citizen of the Union, and a devoted vomits surfing, head banging binge drinker like all my countrymen. How very ungentlemannish and bigoted of you to even suspect that I'm Uhmerican, and I object to that insult most vehemently!

So unlike those damn Yankees, with citizenship comes the right to carry bigoted national prejudices against fellow EU citizens, however NICE you try to be about that! ;)

[bennywhale]

68. OK fair enough i'll accept any

amount of shit from my European brethren. Keep boozing my friend. We all built a civilisation on it.

[aneerkoinos]

69. Politeness

Truth be told, the brutish lager lad brits are nothing compared to the NICE and POLITE English GENTLEMEN. We had once an OxBridge friend staying for a week, and the nice politeness of every second word 'please' or 'sorry' was insufferable:

-- Uhmm, sorry to bother you but yada yada but could it be in and way be possible to yada yada please yada sorry yada ...

-- FOR CHRISSAKE STOP BLATHERING! YES YOU CAN USE THE LOO!

[Name removed]

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[newfaceinhell]

77. Yeah, those blasted rude Brits- wont even show our senate proper respect!

[T_i_B]

81. Well perhaps the shenanigans on this thread...

...are a useful antidote to what seems at times like a pro-Britain lovefest on the Galloway threads. Galloway is the exception in British politics, not the rule.

[newfaceinhell]

82. yes he is- but I don't see how that makes dumb generalisations ok...

(On edit- obviously my above post was also a dumb generalisation, but it was- I hope obviously- intended as a rather weak attempt at humor).

[BonjourUSA]

45. Quel français ???,

Breton ? Alsacien ? Normand ? Provençal ? Catalan ? Basque ? Auvergnat ? Savoyard ? Flamand ? Vendéen ? Bourguignon ? Lorrain? Champenois? Parisien ..............?

[RogueTrooper]

47. In all of this

has anybody noticed that the study was done by to Frenchmen? One could get the impression, by reading the comments on this thread, that this is some anti-French propaganda ginned up by perfidious albion.

[aneerkoinos]

60. Yup

Amazing how self-centered belly-button diggers suffering from severe inferiority complex those frogs are!!! ;)

[Jara sang]

56. Divide and conquer

BFEE credo. It will only be a short time before the British are as hated as the French in this country.

[aneerkoinos]

59. EU motto:

United in stereotypal bickering.

[fedsron2us]

61. 'That sweet enemy France'

was how the Elizabethan poet Philip Sydney described his nation's complex love-hate relationship with the French. It seems he might have spoken for much of the rest of Europe. I still love France and all its annoying, rude, pretentious, cantankerous, stubborn people, and I am British. So maybe nothing much has changed in four hundred years.

[Dirk39]

62. What kind of crap...

Hello from Germany,
it comes exactly from one of the worst Murdoch-Newspapers in a time, when most Europeans admire the French like never before, 'cause the French resist the neoliberal (counter-)reforms like no other country and shortly before the French might topple the coming neoliberal free-market-horror European Constitution.
Nonsense,
Dirk

[bennywhale]

64. The telegraph has nothing to do wioth Murdoch

and i think the analysis of Britains relationship with France is fairly accurate. Sibling rivalry, with the occasional war.

[BonjourUSA]

72. How I have to react ?

As a Frenchman, I should be very angry, but as a world citizen I must only laugh at so many bullshits.

If a day, I read same bullshits about British people in a French newspaper, surely, I'd ask myself about the mind health of my country.

[Briar]

73. What barely emerges from this Francophobic rant

is the fact that it was based on a survey which the French themselves conducted (and which like all surveys predicated the answers in the questions).

The Torygraph's slant is all its own, but sadly so common in middle Britain that few of its shire-county dwelling, Tory voting, middle class readers will even notice it (despite the fact that many will own or rent holiday villas in France). "Typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing monsters they are" is Eurosceptic editorialising, not reporting at all.

[T_i_B]

75. "Eurosceptic editorialising, not reporting at all."

Which is why this has gone from LBN to Editorials. Maybe the Telegraph should have put this in their opinion pages rather then the international news?

[Vektor]

76. Then why does all of Europe vacation there?

Every July and August, France is OVERRUN by tourists from other parts of Europe. I strongly suspect these naysayers are jealous of the French food and hot sex...

[spooky3]

80. Geez, this OP and thread sounds freeperish in places

with too much stereotyping and patting-one's-own-country-on-its-back.

I just wish I had the means and time to travel to all of the countries in the world.

[Moderator]

83. Locking

This discussion has turned into nation-bashing, and as such really doesn't display the tolerance and civility appropriate to DU.

DU Moderator