Those French!

Dans le message de
oups.com,
nancy1 a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :
wrote:

...will
they never get over WWII? They need to move on, already!

Well, they "got over" WWII enough not to roll over for Uncle Sugar
concerning more recent military actions.

Of course, that is very recent. But by "will they never get over
WWII?," I was asking if they will ever forgive themselves (and stop
resenting us) for needing our military power during WWII. It is one
thing not to have the ability to take a stand against the Germans, and
quite another, during peace-time, to take a stand against us
(especially in that their attitude about us and Iraq is rather
popular). The two really cannot be compared.

I believe that any tourist or visitor (for example, someone there on
an academic sabbatical) can cite more than one instance of the
arrogant French attitude of "I cannot understand your French," even
if it is perfect. Even Bob Roll's pronunciation of TDF is a reaction
related to his experience with that arrogance which is born of
resentment.

That's all I was trying to say. OTOH, I may be totally wrong.

It is wise to have that prepared as an alternative. Nothing you wrote made
any sense. Perhaps it's insecurity of being American, while that country is
under strong criticism from many others.

Do you think that : D de Villepinte was inaccurate or offensive in his
objection to the Amercian invasion of Iraq ? (And was he wrong ?)

Do you think the splended showing of Americans in the Tour was somehow
suspect to you ?

It's you own imaginations, plus old-fashioned propagands, not contemporary
reality, that seems to colour your views.
--
Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine
*******

La vie, c'est comme une bicyclette,
il faut avancer pour ne pas perdre l'équilibre.
-- Einstein, A.

Bob Martin wrote:

in 477103 20050728 180815 wrote:


Any French person who doesn't continually appreciate the fact that
thousands of kids from farms in Kansas or Georgia (who had hardly
a clue about France) died so they could
be free


Not to mention the kids from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa ...
and the millions from the Soviet Union ...

Dans le message de ,
h squared a réfléchi, et puis a
déclaré :
trg wrote:

The most common remark of friends and relatives when visiting me in
France is, "I don't know why people say the French are rude, I found
people here to be very nice and helpful."

when my bf was about 12, he was in france with his school class, and
they had this assignment of finding different kinds of shops by asking
people for help/directions. so he asked this one adult in french
where a baker was located, and the reply was "i'm sorry, i don't
speak english".

So when I say "No hablo espagnol" - that means I am fluent ? Sorry, I just
don't hablo. But I can get that much across. Then, it's time to find yet
another language in common.

While living in Moscow, I had a meeting with a Portuguese attorney. No luck
with English, French or Portuguese, but we were able to communicate
perfectly in Russian.

One extra note : you may notice, it is mostly anglophones who make the
complaints about being at sea with foreign languages. You may notice that
the world has kept pace with this linguistic gap by graciously learning
English (or American, or Australian ....) to accomodate those who spend so
little effort learning other languages, by mastering English, themselves.

One extra, extra note : while indebted as the far reaches of the world are
to the natives of the British Isles for bring their home beers and
surrounding pubs abroad, it does not surprise me that there are not many
(American) Budweiser beer halls overseas.

my bf doesn't hold it against the entire french country though (just
the story fits in well with both the "picking on children who are
trying to learn" theme and language snobbism, so i'm telling it

hh

What you told was that your "bf" can't grasp a foreign language. Did you
know that France has 21 native languages ? I don't have a clue in ch'ti !!

--
Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine
*******

La vie, c'est comme une bicyclette,
il faut avancer pour ne pas perdre l'équilibre.
-- Einstein, A.

Dans le message de ,
Ewoud Dronkert a réfléchi, et puis a
déclaré :
On 28 Jul 2005 09:42:19 -0700, Tom wrote:
Vive le France.

In this case, you can say 'la' ( "Vive la Tour de Lance").
Countries are female.

Often, only.
--
Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine
*******

La vie, c'est comme une bicyclette,
il faut avancer pour ne pas perdre l'équilibre.
-- Einstein, A.

Dans le message de ,
Jim Boyer a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :

That was my experience as well. Before going to France I had read
that every social interaction begins with a relaxed 'bon jour' or
some other greeting and ends with a thank-you or good-bye.

For those few (?) who may come, an inside hint to be even more appreciated :
Add to Bonjour either Madame, Monsieur or Mademoiselle. Gets you a
five-fold better reaction. Same for au revoir +
--
Bonne route !

Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine FR

Sandy wrote:

Dans le message de ,
Jim Boyer a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :


That was my experience as well. Before going to France I had read
that every social interaction begins with a relaxed 'bon jour' or
some other greeting and ends with a thank-you or good-bye.


For those few (?) who may come, an inside hint to be even more appreciated :
Add to Bonjour either Madame, Monsieur or Mademoiselle. Gets you a
five-fold better reaction. Same for au revoir +

Unless you guess wrong?

Steve

--
Mark & Steven Bornfeld DDS
http://www.dentaltwins.com
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-5001

Sandy wrote:

It is wise to have that prepared as an alternative. Nothing you wrote made
any sense. Perhaps it's insecurity of being American, while that country is
under strong criticism from many others.

Do you think that : D de Villepinte was inaccurate or offensive in his
objection to the Amercian invasion of Iraq ? (And was he wrong ?)


Dumbass -

No, he was not wrong.


Do you think the splended showing of Americans in the Tour was somehow
suspect to you ?


Nope.

Unlike the backwards Euros, we're not scared of putting cyclists into
wind tunnels. Even some Masters Fatties have been in the wind tunnel,
but not Jan Ullrich.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.

wrote:
wrote:
Andre wrote:
Which never happened before the Bush invasion. And yes the 20 thousand
dead are innocent. Insurgent is the word the media uses instead of the
resistance. It helps to dull the masses senses.

This is such steaming pile of bull**** that I'm not only embarrassed
for you at your outrageous display of ignorance, I'm embarrased for
your family. "Resistance" fighters do NOT, as a matter of policy, seek
out groups of inncocent women and children and blow them up. The
insurgents/terrorists DO.

Well, that seems questionable from what I've generally heard and read.
Seems like most of the insurgents' acts are aimed at those they would
probably consider collaborators- Iraqi police, army, recruits, the
puppet government, along with US forces. They don't seem to care much
about collateral damage that causes the deaths of innocents, but from a
policy (as opposed to the grunts who I think mostly do care a lot in
general) standpoint, I'm not sure that the US does either.

I'd suggest you talk to the folks who have served over there, as I
have, or at least take a look at some of the various military blogs on
the web....the problem for US soldiers is they care deeply about
collateral damage, and are intimately aware that if a single stray
bullet fired by a US soldier injures or kills an innocent, it is going
to be trumpeted on Al Jazeera and in the main stream media - meanwhile,
the terrorists are firing at soldiers from schools and mosques. And I
disagree with your characterization of the government - the Iraqi
people, 8 million of them, voted in the current members of the
government. The UN and other international observers said the election
was legit. If it's a puppet government, it's the first democratically
elected puppet government in history.


The question is, who is making more enemies faster in their approach to
the war, the US or the insurgents? Whoever it is, they will ultimately
lose the war.

Iraqis aren't stupid. They can clearly see the choice in front of them
- they know on the one hand that the US wants Iraq to have a
constitution and a representative democracy, and on the other hand they
know the terrorists want an oppressive wahabist theocracy. The Iraqis
made their preference known last january when 8 million of them voted
in the first free and fair elections in Iraq in 35 years. Iraqis want
democracy - or at least an arab version of it. Having lived under the
thumb of Saddam's murderous regime for more than 3 decades, it
certainly isn't difficult to see why.

mj

Dans le message de news:xmdGe.2847$1E.1859@trndny04,
Mark & Steven Bornfeld a réfléchi, et puis a
déclaré :
Sandy wrote:

Dans le message de ,
Jim Boyer a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :


That was my experience as well. Before going to France I had read
that every social interaction begins with a relaxed 'bon jour' or
some other greeting and ends with a thank-you or good-bye.


For those few (?) who may come, an inside hint to be even more
appreciated : Add to Bonjour either Madame, Monsieur or
Mademoiselle. Gets you a five-fold better reaction. Same for au
revoir +

Unless you guess wrong?

Steve

We do have a parade like Gay Pride all over Europe. Yes, could be a
problem.
Guessing at Mme or Mlle is not problematic - go for flattery.
--
Bonne route !

Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine FR

Sandy wrote:
Countries are female.

Often, only.

OK, I thought it was a rule, I remembered incorrectly. (Hey, les Pays-Bas!
(but la Hollande)).

E.