I confess, I do not understand the French at all. I've never been there, but my relatives who have travelled in France report that it was very uncomfortable. The French just don't seem to like Americans.
In over three years of working there and traveling throughout the country, I honestly never experienced that.
Before going I dreaded all kinds of problems from hearing the kinds of stories you relate, but it just didn't happen, it was a non problem. When you go live abroad you discover that generally "everything you know is wrong", including such preconceived notions as "The French all hate Americans".
It's a PITA to get up to speed with the language, but that's true in any country, people I know here in the US who came from abroad and learned English on the fly as adults tell me it was really hard, only little kids do it painlessly.
This diplomatic business of Chirac and others in French government wanting to en découdre avec les États Unis is nothing new and stems largely from a desire to feel self important since the country was at a time at the leading edge and a world colonial power. There's the old story about the difference between a Frenchman and an American. If an American sees someone in a luxury car, he dreams of how he'll make enough money to own one himself one day. The Frenchman dreams of the day the idiot behind the wheel will be out walking comme tout le monde. Hope springs eternal that Americans will soon be out walking, and any time some problem crops up the gleeful editorials appear on how this time it's the end of American democracy or some such nonsense. I had my dose during the Klintoon and Starr soap opera. Having lived through Watergate which was far, far more grave, it was difficult to take that seriously.
I really think the French should be taken less seriously rather than venting too much, and I'd never pour out my bottles of cognac and champagne over this latest quarrel. Why bite off my nose out of spite ?
I'm somewhat surprised at the fact that nobody seems too concerned about that fringe benefit of the Gulf War, that Iraq's nuclear arms program was derailed, quite possibly for good. It either took a rare stupidity for France to supply a regime like that with a reactor under the pretext that the country was going to produce electricity with it, or else they wanted to atone for supplying Israel with the technology, I don't know. But with the risks of proliferation, that was incredibly irresponsible at the least. |
