"Sounds like a country ready for new businesses to provide service--at a premium rate. Though training local talent might be hard, Paris i full of Mideastern immigrants who don't share the culture of obnoxiousness....
Equality seems to be defined differently there... providing friendly service for money certainly doesn't make you inferior!"
Totally right. We might hear from people (Pascal?) who disagree about this viewpoint about the tone of service in Paris, I hope so. But nevertheless, there are people around the world who mistake pleasant service with being "under the boot", and I think it's odd. I was a receptionist for a few years back in the day, and I loved the job, and I loved being very polite and helpful to the staff and to the visitors. (Once at a company convention, I got a great round of applause when I stood up to give a little speech. I enjoyed it, so I said: "that was cool, I wanna try it again", sat down and stood up, and a second round at least as big.)
One of my friends is so much against any kind of hierarchy that she couldn't imagine working for anybody. But while I do love being my own boss these days because of the free schedule, I did not mind at all having one. I actually sometimes enjoyed calling him "boss", even though this is rarely done in Denmark, it being a very flat country both geographically and culturally. I did not find that being subservient in the workplace implied any kind of inequality between us as persons, it was just something we "played" for fun and because it makes the workplace function well, because I respected him, and because he paid me!
And he paid me well too, I rapidly got raises, simply because I was eager and able to do a good job. Those who strain with all their might to do as little as possible are missing a good trick for earning money!
Pascal said, amongst other things:
This is not an article, this is a poor stererotype-based pamphlet.
Otherwise, how come France remains the world's #1 travel destination for tourists?Maybe if the Brits allowed the tourists to take photos without getting arrested, they'd feel less inclined to jealous editorials disguised as news articles?.
Paris i full of Mideastern immigrants who don't share the culture of obnoxiousness....
ReplyDeleteThe immigrants are too busy rioting and causing trouble. They are the sole reason there is so much trouble in Paris. As usual they come to a better country and for some reason want things to be run the way they were in the shithole they came from. They are used to getting their way, of people bending over backwards so they don't get blown up by a suicide bomber. The French won't take that shit.
even though this is rarely done in Denmark, it being a very flat country both geographically and culturally.
And yet, the boss is still...the boss.
"And yet, the boss is still...the boss."
ReplyDeleteSure, but nobody forced you into his service. If you don't like taking his money and taking his orders, you are free to start your own biz.
Happy to oblige:
ReplyDelete"I disagree about this viewpoint!"
:-)
I'm sure you'll concur that rap-listening cabbies are not exactly a faithful sample of a whole population. (Are all New-Yorkers from India? ;-)
The same can be said in Lebanon, although the sometimes edgy mood of our cabbies has slightly different causes. (Gas prices are obscenely high, and they are way too many on the roads, making this competitive job a very ungrateful one.)
Sorry to have to state this obvious fact, but this BBC News article is just another classic example of british French-bashing. "Oi, I say, all Froggies are rude barbarians, they are!" As if rudeness was a monopole of France. Laughable. The whole tone of the article, from the first sentence, is already a confession. Sounds like a cheap Noir novel desperately trying to set a gloomy atmosphere. (As opposed to, say, happy sunny England, perhaps???)
This is not an article, this is a poor stererotype-based pamphlet.
Otherwise, how come France remains the world's #1 travel destination for tourists?
Maybe if the Brits allowed the tourists to take photos without getting arrested, they'd feel less inclined to jealous editorials disguised as news articles?...
Try going to Egypt, where basic human rights are trampled routinely (homosexuals executed, christians oppressed and lynched, women genitally mutilated...) and you stand a good chance of getting your Western arse bombed. I'm sure you won't write a negative review about THAT country. Unless you come back alive, of course.
Naturally, rude people can be found anywhere, and it's not by far impossible in France! Especially if you focus on the less educated ones... But my life experience is that, quite often, unpleasant people tend to perceive the whole of the world as being the ones unpleasant. A few chosen examples here and there, and in the immortal words of Rodney Dangerfield, "I don't get no respect!".
Perhaps sometimes, just sometimes, it comes from the person's attitude in the first place, putting people off?
A single second can be all it takes to spot a narcissic neurotic full of him/herself.
A person who bothers to write about a whole nation being "rude and unpleasant" strikes me as a likely candidate. Just like the TYPICAL lebanese woman driver. They're a national joke topic over here. Because, alas, the typical ones are many. As I once explained. Not entirely THEIR fault, either. :-(
After somehow honestly acknowledging that you can meet in France some people both honest and VERY obliging (I've noticed them myself too, and was quite impressed), that "reporter" feels the need to "conclude" her so-called report with yet another random negative example or low-class rudeness. Just to give the last word to her undemonstrated "argument". I'm surprised she didn't mention getting insulted for her lack of generosity by a street hobo!
Articles about both how helpful and how rude local people can be, are just as easy to write "down here" in Lebanon. All you need, is to pick the perspective, the right point of view, that backs your intended conclusion.
I could easily tell you that "Lebanon is one of the world's nicest countries", and that it's "one of the most annoying countries". Both would be true. It depends how you look at it.
That look at French services? It's sadly biased.
"Bon appétit, messieurs, et bonsoir."
As Pascal says, any place is both the best and worst depending upon your POV.
ReplyDeleteNot many people visit the UK for the food! But that doesn't mean that there is no good or even great food--it does recognize that no one hears UK and thinks Let's eat.
If the French & British hadn't created such a huge animosity over the centuries, we all would be better off.
Which brings to mind a story...
A friend of my family from Wales once went with other friends to Burgundy to holiday.
One of the companions was a Welshman who would not, on principle, speak anything but Welsh.
One day, they were in a small shop, and the shopkeeper was approached by this man. The shopkeeper was one of those who would speak nothing but French.
After over an hour (while the rest of the party sat trying not to laugh,) they left the shop. The man didn't get what he wanted and the shopkeeper lost the sale.
"If the French & British hadn't created such a huge animosity over the centuries, we all would be better off."
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that you could say that about pretty much any two neighboring countries in the world!
True.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd go further: you could say it about nearly any two adjacent villages in the world....
We are at our best a species when we work together--and our worst when we fight.
Countries have been in great trouble ever since the Medici's learned that you could lend kings money to fight their neighbors, and end up owning both kingdoms.
As far as immigrants being the cause of trouble in Paris, seems to me that Paris has had troubles for centuries...
I can't believe that France is the #1 tourist destination. Most people seem to like to go to places like Mexico, Barbados, etc. Not France. I have nothing against France or the French, I just can't see it as being so much more popular than a lot of other European countries. Unless you're going to the riviera. If it's beaches you want though why not Brazil, where the women are hotter anyway?* ;-)
ReplyDelete*An asterix, because they have this weird thing in Brazil where they think that tan lines are sexy. Btw, hit the gym hard six months before going there if you're planning on a speedo. :)
The funny thing is that you could say that about pretty much any two neighboring countries in the world!
ReplyDeleteSure. I mean, what's Germany's problem? The English and French may hate each other, but Germany doesn't get along with anybody.
Sorry, asterisk. Was just recently reading Asterix in Britain. :-)
ReplyDelete