Paris Syndrom
No, not Paris Hilton…
Even though I’ve never been to France, the infamous rudeness of its citizens, especially those who live in Paris, has prepared me to encounter the worst. Apparently, there’s such thing as Paris Syndrom that many Japanese suffer when visiting Paris for the first time… The only place I’ve visited that’s even remotely close to the “allegedly” rudeness of Parisians is, surprise, another French-speaking city, Montreal!
Related PostsA Trip to the Sin City
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:48 am
sorry - not following - where are you going w/ this?
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:45 pm
… that maybe Asians are too damn polite?
Rude people suck!
December 24th, 2006 at 9:42 am
From my experience, the friendliness of the Parisiens depends on how good you speak their language.
I, too, was prepared for the worst beforce my first visit to Paris. Especially because there are still bad feelings against Germans here and there in France (WWII).
I was surprised about how friendly the people were when I spoke to them in French! So, like in every country, it’s good to at least know the beginning of a sentence in French.
And the younger French people also speak English.
December 24th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Yes, I’ve heard that before too. But I don’t think “being nice” should be dependent on how well someone speaks your language if s/he’s the guest of your country, no? I mean, French is one of the more difficult languages to learn (to the best of my understanding) — how can they expect anyone just visiting to be fluent? It’s like expecting the French people visiting Taiwan or Thailand to be fluent in Mandarin (or, god forbid, Taiwanese) or in Thai!? Ridiculous. I have yet to meet ONE French who’s fluent in either (though I am sure many do).
If anything, most people in most countries (that I’ve visited) try to be even more helpful if you can’t speak their language. But then again, I’ve never visited France. So I better save the ranting after I have!