Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ihojman 1895 days ago
And it makes sense that it could be intentional. There is a ton of rivalry between France and The US, in cultural terms. French people have a contempt attitude towards US citizen manners, they think they are rude, loud, and often self-centered. When you go to France, don't you dare to speak to someone in English, they are gonna freak out.

I believe it is pretty clever to defy them by using a French word that sounds a little inappropriate in English, if that were the case. Totally legal. But if its not, why should we, non-US Citizens, have to bare linguistic and cultural impositions because some feel 'uncomfortable' with the way we express in our own languages? Totally non-sense.
1 comments
tasogare 1895 days ago
> When you go to France, don't you dare to speak to someone in English, they are gonna freak out

Please stop spreading bullshit. French don’t "freak out" for being spoken to in English. A lot of people in the older generation don’t have a good command of the language, that’s it. The situation is not very different from a lot of other countries.

link
ihojman 1894 days ago
ok, I expressed myself wrong. But the fact that tourism leads to tourist tend to speak in English first is outrageous for many locals, old and young, and not just in France.

This happened to me in Germany also, so I started approaching people by saluting them in Spanish, which is my main language, and they had a different reaction (a very positive one) than those who I said hi to in English.

It's not bullshit. Many people have an anti-american feeling in a cultural sense. (not saying I'm endorsing it)

link