I have nothing against French people individually... but France... now that's different... Along with a lot of Brits, I have the problem that comes from being part of a subject race... since 1066 England has been ruled byfirst Normans (who were Frechified Vikings) then the French themselves, then "Welsh" Frenchmen, then "Scottish" Frenchmen, then Germans of French origin.... Since the conquest, our very Englishness has been denied, and we hasve been made to feel second class, a situation that persists to this day.... animals are English, but meat is French... most of the upper class are not of "English descent... we are not even supposed to be proud of being English, except when it suits the powers that be, for instance when they want us to fight to keep them in power... English beer is seen as somehow inferior to French wine.... the French language is held to be "superior", as are French manners, French cars, french food... even the form of English held to be "best" is the one most heavily influenced by French, that of the South East where the invading Kings placed their capital in case they needed to run away in a hurry... many of our Kings held themselves to be kings of France, and thought that a better thing than being King of England... Scotland too has suffered to an extent, and Wales too, the latter becoming a non-country, and not even having their nation included in our Flag....and on that subject, we are not even allowed one of our own, native saints as patron... that begins to explain why the British, and especially the English dislike France.... add to that there woeful record fighting on "our"side in two world wars... refusing to support our units in 1914-18, rebelling against their commanders and refusing to fight, and in 1939-45 not even knowing whose side they were on... at least Romania and Italy only supported one side at a time... we had the Free french supposedly helping us, while pilots of the Vichy airforce bombed us, and the French Foreign Legion was on both sides in the Desert.... halfway through the war the Free French were ready to give up, saying France under Hitler was better than no France at all.... and never forget these guys killed over 100,000 Jews, Communists and other "undesirables" in their own concentration camps...
Plus after the war, we got stuck in the mess they'd made of Indo China.... the French were so useless we ended up releasing japanese POWs to use a s a peacekeeping force... when we left, the French took it all back and messed it up so bad you'd have thought the Yanks would have had more sense than to go in themselves.... then there was suez... and the EEC as was.... the French wouldn't let us in, until they saw a chance of profitting from our oil, and ruining EFTA into the bargain.... under NATO the French made sure they were exempt from military obligations... which meant we had to send troops if they got invaded, but thety didn't have to send troops if us or Germany fell foul of invaders.... and they burned our sheep and beat up our lorry drivers because their farm system was in disarray, while forcing us to buy their produce at inflated prices.... when we were having a lot of trouble with terrorism they didn't bother sending suspects back to us, and refused to let us fly over their airspace... they inconvenience our holidaymakers just for fun by closing airports, until recently they didn't need any form of ID to enter our country, due to EU regs, but we needed a passport to get into France.... oh, and they wear berets....
“They're unappreciative. If it wasn't for Britain and America they'd be speaking german.”
And that was 60 years ago!!! None of us here were alive back then or did anything or did Not do anything.
But if we’re to look at the past, I’ll just say: Claude Monet, Debussy, Alexander Dumas, Montgolfier, Louis Pasteur, Marie and Pierre Curie, Henri Becquerel, and Gustave Eiffel! To name a few.
The French people I know I obviously like.
“The French hate us, so I hate them. The feeling is mutual.” A statement like that is just plain stupid. How do YOU know that the French even care about YOU.
And that the French like and protect their language (which btw is spoken in Quebec, Algiers, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Haiti, Laos, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Vietnam etc. etc etc, some 25 countries I think) is not equal to feeling superior. Insisting that a group of people SHOULD learn to speak the language YOU speak is feeling superior. You could learn French, hey, it never hurts to speak more than one language.
Originally posted by The Omega
[B
And that the French like and protect their language (which btw is spoken in Quebec, Algiers, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Haiti, Laos, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Vietnam etc. etc etc, some 25 countries I think) is not equal to feeling superior. Insisting that a group of people SHOULD learn to speak the language YOU speak is feeling superior. You could learn French, hey, it never hurts to speak more than one language. [/B]
I have nothing against the French protecting their language, and to be honest, they have never said their language is better... but we have been told that ours is inferior for centuries by the French overlords.... so much so in fact that it is seen as right and proper to teach Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic in schools, and to bring in lessons in Kernau and Manx, but Old English is mainly brushed aside... we are still taught in schools that until French customs etc crossed the channel we lived in an uncivilized Dark Age, despite the saxon times, especially under Alfred and the Viking Cnut, being more enlightened than the two centuries after the conquest... our native mythology is held to be not as good as classical mythology, simply down to our not speaking a variant of latin... centuries of resentment of our french overlords, stirred up deliberately by those overlords themselves when they needed us to invade \france, are bound to rise up somehow... and this manifests in a general English, and to some extent British, dislike of the French.... not the fault of the French, so much, as of our rulers and the way the English have been treated over time....
Good Lord, I have seen precious little more ignorance on this site than BGK's xenophobic and inaccurate ramblings. Don't blame the French just because you have been taught crap history. No decent historian would call the two centuries before the Norman invasion a 'Dark Age'- the Dark Ages were the centuries before THAT period, after the fall of Rome. What happened a thousand damn years ago makes us not a subject race in the slightest- our proud heritage comes as much from then as anything beforehand.
And I dunno what this crap about English being seen as 'inferior' is, it being the dominant world language and all. I am actually happy that the English are not so anal about things as to desire to learn some crappy form of Old English in schools.
There is a very simple reason why the UK and France have not historically got on- they are next to each other. You will find in hitory that has often been the main reason for discontent. You pick on the cloest one you can see.
Originally posted by random task
they refuse to discover soap and shaving.
But even then, hell, I play Dungeons&Dragons. Like I havn't been exposed to people with poor hygene and who talk with atrocious accents..
So still I'd have to say I have nothing personaly against The French, I know France as a whole cannot be heald responsible for a few *******'s comments and thier backward goverment's policies about how to think of my country. I know there's bound to be alot of French people that just want to hang out and maybe help me get Bran-Bran. They are supposed to be the country of love..
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Good Lord, I have seen precious little more ignorance on this site than BGK's xenophobic and inaccurate ramblings. Don't blame the French just because you have been taught crap history. No decent historian would call the two centuries before the Norman invasion a 'Dark Age'- the Dark Ages were the centuries before THAT period, after the fall of Rome. What happened a thousand damn years ago makes us not a subject race in the slightest- our proud heritage comes as much from then as anything beforehand.And I dunno what this crap about English being seen as 'inferior' is, it being the dominant world language and all. I am actually happy that the English are not so anal about things as to desire to learn some crappy form of Old English in schools.
There is a very simple reason why the UK and France have not historically got on- they are next to each other. You will find in hitory that has often been the main reason for discontent. You pick on the cloest one you can see.
A post from Ushgarak 😱 I agree with!!
I can't believe how much some of you defend France, though. Like you're all good buddy-buddy pals with the freakin' French!
If you've ever been to Paris (and I have), or even Quebec (been there, too), you know that French people and French Canadians are just straight-up rude to Americans. Even the police gave us the wrong directions ON PURPOSE because we were American tourists. French people have lost my respect.
And the smell.
Originally posted by Morgoths_Wrath
I can't believe how much some of you defend France, though. Like you're all good buddy-buddy pals with the freakin' French!If you've ever been to Paris (and I have), or even Quebec (been there, too), you know that French people and French Canadians are just straight-up rude to Americans. Even the police gave us the wrong directions ON PURPOSE because we were American tourists. French people have lost my respect.
And the smell.
Thats why half the major roads in Paris are named after Americans and English - AC is right its about individuals - however, its also about generality and experience. Generally most French people I have met and worked with have been OK thats not true of your experiences so your perceptions are different.