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I wish the British were more like the French

Totally anecdotal and from a very small sample, but while attending a school with a relatively significant international representation (given the enrollment size), I can't imagine why anyone would want to be more like the French. Between the Germans, Brits, Ausssies, Italians, etc, etc, the French topped the list as humorless pricks. The Aussies and Swedes by far the most friendly. The three Brits I met drank too much, and the Germans mostly kept to themselves and spoke their native language constantly even though English was a requirement for attendance.
 
Many years ago I attended a two week company technical class at the companies education centre just outside of Brussels. The attendees were from all Euorpean countries, but there were no French attendees - at the end of the course the general agreement was that the class had been remarkably useful and enjoyable without any nationalistic agro. Then several of the attendees speculated that this might of been because of the absence of any French attendees.
 
That does sound like a small unrepresentative sample Marky. My experience: Parisian French are quite different to the country people. But there's all sorts some cold, some warrm. That's life.

I remember feeling quite awkward in a meeting of German telecoms engineers in Franfurt. They all spoke English because I was there, even amongst themselves.
 
Minio said:
That does sound like a small unrepresentative sample Marky. My experience: Parisian French are quite different to the country people. But there's all sorts some cold, some warrm. That's life.

I remember feeling quite awkward in a meeting of German telecoms engineers in Franfurt. They all spoke English because I was there, even amongst themselves.
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Yeah, I don't want to tar the whole lot, and that's surely how I wrote it. There was one very friendly French guy, always upbeat and supportive of others. I guess that's why I recall him so vividly. Still, the experience didn't leave a generally positive feeling for the French or Germans. But all of them were very far from home and on their own. However, they were still mostly humorless pricks :)
 
In my local community in Brittany the locals have never been anything but friendly, open and amicable. They have gone out of their way to help me on many occasions and their hospitality knows no bounds. I have spent many evenings roaring with laughter in their company as we tease each other mercilessly.
 
I once spent an hilarious evening sat opposite a Frenchman at a Thai restaurant in Paris sharing our mutual love for Peter Sellers amongst other things.
"You know back at the Academy they used to call me the Pavlova of the parallel bars..."
Cheers Frank wherever you are.
 
I spend most of my life working with a huge range of nations and there are twats in all of them, just as in many threads on here. However, the vast majority are lovely. Some (like the French) usually take a little while to get warmed up to strangers but often once you reach accord (do you see what I did there) they are the best company. I spent an amazing day or two recently in a Chateauform with a bunch of French colleagues and have not eaten, drank and laughed so much for years.

I agree that some nations like Americans, Swedes, Aussies and many Eastern Europeans are very friendly right away and that in itself can make some folks wary who are not used to that. Germans and the English tend to be slower to warm up and I often find myself talking to Germans at multi national events as culturally we are very similar in many ways IME.
 
I find the Dutch and Danes very easy to get on with. The Danes are basically the same as Brits (surprise!) and the Dutch are generally a nicer version of English people. Even Dutch football supporters are nice! "Yes, hello, yesterday we watched the football, it was good! Tomorrow, we will watch the football also. But today we are drinking beer! Come and have a beer with us! I am Gert, this is Hans and Miriam...what kind of beer do you like?" So it goes on.
 
Bob McC said:
In my local community in Brittany the locals have never been anything but friendly, open and amicable. They have gone out of their way to help me on many occasions and their hospitality knows no bounds. I have spent many evenings roaring with laughter in their company as we tease each other mercilessly.
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No downsides at all to France in your life, eh Bob. It's all perfect innit.
 
Marky-Mark said:
Totally anecdotal and from a very small sample, but while attending a school with a relatively significant international representation (given the enrollment size), I can't imagine why anyone would want to be more like the French. Between the Germans, Brits, Ausssies, Italians, etc, etc, the French topped the list as humorless pricks. The Aussies and Swedes by far the most friendly. The three Brits I met drank too much, and the Germans mostly kept to themselves and spoke their native language constantly even though English was a requirement for attendance.
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Unfortunately to live here requires much booze, as can be seen from the current state of affairs, the only way to cope with this shit is being permanently half cut.
 
Bob McC said:
In my local community in Brittany the locals have never been anything but friendly, open and amicable. They have gone out of their way to help me on many occasions and their hospitality knows no bounds. I have spent many evenings roaring with laughter in their company as we tease each other mercilessly.
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This is exactly my experience in Franche-Comte Last summer, at our annual street party,my immediate neighbor was asking if we could take down six of the trees that were planted between us - I'm still not sure if they are our boundary or his - or possibly shared. Anyway, last winter a group of four neighbors set about the task across a couple of weekends. Lot's of shared laughter and cursing and beer. I got most of the resulting logs though so perhaps they were all helping with my task.
 
Minio said:
My experience: Parisian French are quite different to the country people
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Quite so. Parisians are widely known as not representing the French nation as a whole. Maybe it's the same in London where the French contingent was (and maybe still is) one of the largest EU influx or skilled workers.

matt j said:
the only way to cope with this shit is being permanently half cut.
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They say that the last cut is the deepest. :)
 
Mike Reed said:
Quite so. Parisians are widely known as not representing the French nation as a whole. Maybe it's the same in London where the French contingent was (and maybe still is) one of the largest EU influx or skilled workers.
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If all the French living in London became one city it would be something like the 5th biggest French city!
 
Derek Wright said:
Many years ago I attended a two week company technical class at the companies education centre just outside of Brussels. The attendees were from all Euorpean countries, but there were no French attendees - at the end of the course the general agreement was that the class had been remarkably useful and enjoyable without any nationalistic agro. Then several of the attendees speculated that this might of been because of the absence of any French attendees.
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Many years ago we visited Bruges, and the tour guide was explaining the differences between the French-speaking Belgians and the Flemish-speaking Belgians. We asked him which of the two groups he preferred. He shrugged and said 'Me, I'm from Luxembourg. We hate everyone'.
 
All French citizens in northern part of Europe comprise a constituency and vote in elections. They have a representative in the National Assembly. Londoners comprise the largest group in the constituency.
 
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