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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: 5dave22 who wrote (136161)4/10/2001 11:39:37 PM
From: tejek  Read Replies (1) of 1584540
 
I'm not trashing my country, just making a very true observation. It's mostly the Americans who find the Parisians rude.

Dave, that's 'cause a lot of them are........true story. Summer after my junior year..I am in Europe. I know the French get p*ssed with Americans speaking English so here I am armed with my 3 years of hi school French. I am lost and I see this guy walking towards me. I asked the man in French the directions to Isle de Cité. He stopped, looked at me annoyingly and said "Please speak in English, you are ruining my language". That could well have been true but he could have given me credit for the effort. Parisians are much like New Yorkers...when they are good, they can be very good. When they are bad, they can be very bad.

That same summer I met two girls who were back packing their way thru...they were incredibly crazed and had the stories to prove it. But the one I liked the best had to do with back home in NYC. This was their second trip to Europe...on the first one, they had gotten trashed in France and not just by the Parisians. So when they got back to NYC, anytime a French person asked for directions on the subway they would give them directions that would have them end up either in Harlem, or Bedford Stuy. in Brooklyn or the S. Bronx.....hell hath no fury like a New Yorker woman scorned. :~))

Then again on a trip from Paris to Munich there was an older American couple who were ordering food on the dining car...in English. The attendant apparently did not know English at all. When it was clear to them that he did not understand their request, they repeated it only this time louder. When he still did not get it, they repeated it again still louder...by now their request could be heard reverberating throughout the dining car into the other cars on the train. Embarrassed for this couple, myself and my country, I ordered their food for them...and no one complained about my French.

Next time I will tell you how I almost lost all my teeth after spending a month in France..essentially living on bread and chocolate and some fruit....I never knew choc and bread could be so good together. Of course it has to be French bread and Swiss chocolate. And its true..some of my teeth were loose by the end of the month.

ted
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