My great grandfather paid his way to migrate here in 1892 as a pioneer from Loughton in Essex and built around 1/3 of the buildings in a small town in rural Western Australia that today has near 4,000 population.Jay wrote:
Here in America, blue bloods are very proud if they can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower. Is it the same for all of you in Oz if you can trace your lineage back to the very first prison ship?
partying too hard and charlie sheening on drugs is at least an over-exposure of fun. checking yourself into a psych ward and being on anti-depressants whilst dropping out of college is just fucking depressing. let's not even try and compare baseball cards. just please continue saying dumb shit.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-04-17 15:42:31)
Hahaha I guess your breakdown is a sore spot. Keep lecturing me on how my life sucks when you will always be a coke line away from needing in patient rehab. I didn't drop out of school.
you keep saying "you're not in it" with school anymore. you sound unmotivated and you're on medication. why are you casting aspersions? lol at deflecting my remarks whilst then returning the exact same shit.
I am unmotivated in school. What a kick in the teeth.
ok. i am the only person here who finds you strange and psychotic. don't worry macb. you're alright.
no irony at all in raising my 2 year old cocaine use, and saying i am "one line away from rehab", even though people are falling out of your apartment window on cocaine less than a month ago, right? you are a real wise guy. french too. a real special case.
no irony at all in raising my 2 year old cocaine use, and saying i am "one line away from rehab", even though people are falling out of your apartment window on cocaine less than a month ago, right? you are a real wise guy. french too. a real special case.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-04-17 15:59:47)
as in they've smelled. Every single french tourist I've interacted with has smelled. Its a simple observation. Where did I imply a whole culture was smelly? I specifically said 'my interaction'. A long time ago a coworker had some french people stay with his family (some sort of weird host arrangement or something). They were cool people, but they had bad manners, were rude, vulgar and smelled like they didn't shower.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
french are renowned for being snobby and very intemperate. very well mannered and proper in france. as for calling someone "smelly", i don't even know what that means. implying a whole culture/people are 'smelly' whilst crying about racism and "backwards thinking" people in other threads. yes, a national hygiene. well done.KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
french tourists here I've interacted with are overwhelmingly brash, vulgar, smelly and ill-mannered.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
"cool and different". you're talking to a european. we're going down this silly route again where americans feel some sort of pride about being associated with a country they've never visited. france hates america, it thinks it is vulgarian, brash, and unsophisticated. stop relying on some tenuous sperm-link to ennoble yourself.
I am not ashamed of my post or people falling out of my window. I make jokes about myself more than anyone. You are the one going to war with everyone who says something marginally not nice to you. Please continue bringing up stuff I unashamedly mentioned here.
you didn't say anything 'not nice' to me. you made a cocky remark about personality diagnoses, which is quite funny, with you being probably the only member here to actually undergo a personality diagnosis or such-like treatment of any sort. it's ironic. what did you say about me that was 'unkind' to trigger that remark? nothing. you just made a cocky remark because i said your "cool french" roots were funny.
Since Ken started on about stereotypes: Most Indian men I have met are very rude. Indian women or very polite but Indian guys don't even say thank you for open doors. In my experience. When I say Indian men I mean the ones from India. U.S. born ones are just like us in terms of manners.
Last edited by Macbeth (2013-04-17 16:13:00)
i think americans need to learn the difference between "rude" and "have different social mores and customs of interaction". i would never say a french person is rude. short-tempered and fussy/particular, sure. "rudeness" implies a sort of willed negativity. that's kind of dumb. not every culture in the world has the same customs and decorum as america.
not to mention french people were probably short with americans because of their innate disregard for 'america' and what it represents in the french imagination. it's like two people headbutting in the dark, pointing fingers at one another.
not to mention french people were probably short with americans because of their innate disregard for 'america' and what it represents in the french imagination. it's like two people headbutting in the dark, pointing fingers at one another.
They hated america so much. I saw them scowling when we were riding rollercoasters together at 6 flags. They fucking loved california. No, the tourists were rude. I have a pretty good idea what constitutes rude. Like the rude french waiter when I was in france who wouldn't let my brother speak french when ordering.
See I could have said I've been to france and all french people suck but I didn't because that would be stupid. I forgot that only europeans are allowed to provide insight on different social mores and cultural interactions. Not like I make it a point and take pride in traveling internationally and getting down with the locals every where I go or anything. Tell me more about how dumb we americans are.
See I could have said I've been to france and all french people suck but I didn't because that would be stupid. I forgot that only europeans are allowed to provide insight on different social mores and cultural interactions. Not like I make it a point and take pride in traveling internationally and getting down with the locals every where I go or anything. Tell me more about how dumb we americans are.
nope, french are just very particular about their language. you have to understand french culture to 'get' it. the french language to them is something as sacred as the american constitution - extremely formal, an embodiment of national culture. french is a verbal culture and their language is their prized possession. if an american tourist tries to butcher french, conjugating verbs wrong, speaking in the wrong tense, etc. then yes, many (native) french will be particular about it and rather prefer you just speak english (as they are undoubtedly better at english than you are at french). however, i lived with a french guy, sharing a flat, throughout my masters degree, and in the UK he was more than happy and enthusiastic to help me on my own french. again: you just don't understand the culture. not everyone is automatically clapping their hands because 'you are trying'. korea is a country where they will basically shower you with fake praise and amazement if you even attempt one word; insincere and fake, versus the french's sincere indifference - up to you what you prefer, i guess.
and i never said you were dumb. i just said your first remark about french being "smelly" was like jay's. also, your justification that "it was just my experience", relying on a few spare personal anecdotes/particulars, is the exact same reasoning as jay used about his arab terrorism thing. just a little dissonant.
and i never said you were dumb. i just said your first remark about french being "smelly" was like jay's. also, your justification that "it was just my experience", relying on a few spare personal anecdotes/particulars, is the exact same reasoning as jay used about his arab terrorism thing. just a little dissonant.
Except I didn't say french are smelly. I specifically said "the french tourists I interacted with". It was an anecdote, that's it. It wasn't an anecdote used to make a generalization about a whole culture.
My brother used to speak french fluently. Not native but good enough to not mis-conjugate verbs and speak broken french. This was right after we both got out of high school so it was still fresh for him. He just didn't speak it formally enough I guess. Still came across as snobbish to me.
My brother used to speak french fluently. Not native but good enough to not mis-conjugate verbs and speak broken french. This was right after we both got out of high school so it was still fresh for him. He just didn't speak it formally enough I guess. Still came across as snobbish to me.
snobbish to you because you were the one being affronted. i know 10+ friends who all spent a year exchange studying french in paris, at the most snooty school of all (the sorbonne, via the university of london institute in paris), and none of them have ever reported problems to me with french people shutting them down on the language. french is very important on grammar and pronunciation. they heard your brother bastardizing their language in an american drawl and insisted in their curt way on doing the exchange in english. doesn't make them a rude or intolerant people. no more than it would be rude and intolerant for an american to get assy over the constitution... oh wait.
Again, I never once said they were a rude or intolerable people. Fuck man, comprehension. Are you high right now or something?
you and macbeth should get together to put on berets and put your creative minds together on some more remotely drug-based insults.
honestly i think with his psychiatric record and your lost early adulthood, you could write some actually decent material.
anyway sorry, you used the word rude twice about french people
honestly i think with his psychiatric record and your lost early adulthood, you could write some actually decent material.
anyway sorry, you used the word rude twice about french people
A long time ago a coworker had some french people stay with his family (some sort of weird host arrangement or something). They were cool people, but they had bad manners, were rude, vulgar and smelled like they didn't shower.
the second time in a 'gone native' example to show it's not just 'the french abroad'. so i'm rebutting your use of the word rude in the particular. let's not get into lectures about reading comprehension.Like the rude french waiter when I was in france who wouldn't let my brother speak french when ordering.
i just found out two people from my class are from brazil. nice people.
It is interesting to hear remarks of your culture from those on the outside, however, you'll often hear something that just makes you go "What? No, it's not at all like that." One of my friends is student teaching in France after graduating and writes about her experiences. As you'd expect, she's reported that her students and some adults alike have brought up the usual American stereotypes of being overweight, owning guns, living off fast food, etc. Yet there's some stuff that just makes you facepalm (evidently an older couple, upon learning she was American remarked with "but you're so thin!")
The waiter does seem kind of prickish for not even letting Ken's bro try (as many people I know who've gone abroad have reported people are usually patient enough to let you try or even help you), but there are numerous other factors that could be responsible for that.
The waiter does seem kind of prickish for not even letting Ken's bro try (as many people I know who've gone abroad have reported people are usually patient enough to let you try or even help you), but there are numerous other factors that could be responsible for that.
well, second to the french's pride in their language/culture is their pride in their food and care taken about ingredients/diet. that's more of something that comes from the south of europe, generally, but france has a very fussy food culture - of course everyone knows this. so the stereotype about americans being overweight and in rude health isn't altogether unfounded from a french perspective. the french relationship to ingredients and food sourcing is completely inimical to the american walmart style that the majority shop at. ditto their relationship to meat and how to cook/eat it.
it's not exactly an ugly stereotype to be surprised an american isn't fat. aren't like 40% of all adult americans clinically obese? you couldn't really find a stat saying 40% of all french people smell bad.
it's not exactly an ugly stereotype to be surprised an american isn't fat. aren't like 40% of all adult americans clinically obese? you couldn't really find a stat saying 40% of all french people smell bad.
french food is the best. seriously, the best food.
i guess that's down to personal taste. one thing that is for sure is that the french's relationship to food is the best. on every street in paris you will find a bunch of individual, small, artisanal stores, each specializing in bread/meat/confectionary/vegetables/wine-merchants/tabacs etc. no giant chain-stores or generic corporates. very few 'super-markets' that are actually used for buying cooking materials from. they keep it local sourced and they have very high quality control on everything. i definitely think they put more value on that sort of thing.
again, though, is in an acquired taste. not everyone can appreciate an extremely rare slice of horse-meat floating around in its own juices. that's a certain type of french culinary jouissance.
again, though, is in an acquired taste. not everyone can appreciate an extremely rare slice of horse-meat floating around in its own juices. that's a certain type of french culinary jouissance.
I've not really heard about this "relationship to meat and how to cook/eat it" before and am intrigued.
I'm placated enough with "it's different" in that sort of argument. I'm not in a position to say one countrys way of doing things is inherently better. What I do know is that the French and Americans would get along swimmingly with their ideas of exceptionalism. A guy I know who's quite intelligent shocked me recently by making the claim the the US is the best country of the world, whereas in my mind I was questioning "Seriously? By what metric?" Then I just think back to my Cold War Europe history course I took and France with DeGaulle at the helm trying to be the leader for Europe and dismissing the US/UK.
Lolwut. This is the Aussie politics thread
I'm placated enough with "it's different" in that sort of argument. I'm not in a position to say one countrys way of doing things is inherently better. What I do know is that the French and Americans would get along swimmingly with their ideas of exceptionalism. A guy I know who's quite intelligent shocked me recently by making the claim the the US is the best country of the world, whereas in my mind I was questioning "Seriously? By what metric?" Then I just think back to my Cold War Europe history course I took and France with DeGaulle at the helm trying to be the leader for Europe and dismissing the US/UK.
Lolwut. This is the Aussie politics thread
american exceptionalism is generally arrogant, unilateral, chauvinist, braggadocio. the sort of attitude that comes with economic and military eminence.
french 'exceptionalism' (a term i don't agree with) generally comes from their small-man napoleon syndrome. they've never lost their sense of stature or imperial calling since those days. it's a sort of pessimistic, easily affronted, extremely fussy and elitist form of exceptionalism, mostly manifesting itself in cultural snobbery. it's a country trying to deal with the fact it isn't even the most eminent in europe anymore, let alone the world. paris still trades on its 'world capitol of culture' celebration, even though it was last relevant in 1907.
french 'exceptionalism' (a term i don't agree with) generally comes from their small-man napoleon syndrome. they've never lost their sense of stature or imperial calling since those days. it's a sort of pessimistic, easily affronted, extremely fussy and elitist form of exceptionalism, mostly manifesting itself in cultural snobbery. it's a country trying to deal with the fact it isn't even the most eminent in europe anymore, let alone the world. paris still trades on its 'world capitol of culture' celebration, even though it was last relevant in 1907.