Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2021 7:08:31 GMT 1
Quote from a French guy on facebook:
"I’m French, only been back a year and I already regret leaving the uk… so I wonder, do you guys, foreigners, love it so much here cause you don’t always understand everything people say? Or is it because you come better prepared, psychologically, for the insane amounts of procedure, appalling customer service and general aggression?… i don’t understand why someone would willingly choose to stay and commit to this country without pre existing family ties…"
There are so many negative posts about the UK on forum that it's interesting to see what French in UK think. I was talking to a young lady at our bank and she had recently returned from the UK. She was of similar opinion and the only reason she returned to France was because of the UK weather!
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Post by Crystal on Aug 25, 2021 8:12:28 GMT 1
I don't think you can compare the views of a young French person with those of us oldies on here.
…and I would guess the reasons a young French person might find UK life attractive are exactly the same reasons we chose to leave.
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Aardvark
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Living in soggy 22 and still wondering what's going on.
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Post by Aardvark on Aug 25, 2021 9:32:24 GMT 1
Young French most likely to go to UK for work and a break from their usual "expected" routine lifestyle. They certainly don't go for the food or the NHS waiting lists, weather, roadside litter, racism, or anything else on a long list.
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exile
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Massif Central
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Post by exile on Aug 25, 2021 10:01:35 GMT 1
Young French most likely to go to UK for work and a break from their usual "expected" routine lifestyle. They certainly don't go for the food or the NHS waiting lists, weather, roadside litter, racism, or anything else on a long list. Ah the jaundiced monocular view. Food in the UK has improved immensely in the last 30 years. There are more Michelin starred restaurants in London (where many French go) than Paris. Waiting lists cut both ways - compare an appointment with an ophthalmic surgeon in France with nipping into Specsavers or Boots in the UK. Overall France is better off IMHO but it is not black and white. We don't tend to get empty drink bottles discarded on the roadside like the UK but we do have the piles of builders' debris "parked a few metres off the verge. Racism - you have to be joking. It is perhaps less overt but don't think it does not exist here. The grass is always greener and as was suggested above the reasons young French people will like the UK are precisely the reasons we prefer France. Yes there is all the additional paperwork - but I was trained in Germany where almost anything required an xx Schein (authorisation). |
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Post by tim17 on Aug 25, 2021 10:05:57 GMT 1
Roadside litter, racism and crap weather are alive and kicking here but I'll certainly give you the NHS waiting list whilst adding poor central government, traffic jams and the loss of FOM etc after Brexit.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2021 12:44:37 GMT 1
Quote from a French guy on facebook:
"I’m French … so I wonder, do you guys, foreigners, love it so much here cause you don’t always understand everything people say? …"
That's a curious - passive-aggressive? Certainly unpleasant - thing to say, isn't it? I wonder what his motives were.
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suein56
Member
Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,467
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Post by suein56 on Aug 25, 2021 13:19:49 GMT 1
Quote from a French guy on facebook: "I’m French … so I wonder, do you guys, foreigners, love it so much here cause you don’t always understand everything people say? …" That's a curious - passive-aggressive? Certainly unpleasant - thing to say, isn't it? I wonder what his motives were.
I don't read it like that, certainly direct but not unpleasant. Especially reading the part that follows.
His motives seem to be trying to find out why we foreigners love France so much we prefer it over an English life-style, when he prefers what we have chosen to leave behind. Why would you think there might be smthg else behind his words ?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2021 13:32:13 GMT 1
That's a curious - passive-aggressive? Certainly unpleasant - thing to say, isn't it? I wonder what his motives were.
I don't read it like that, certainly direct but not unpleasant. Especially reading the part that follows.
His motives seem to be trying to find out why we foreigners love France so much we prefer it over an English life-style, when he prefers what we have chosen to leave behind. Why would you think there might be smthg else behind his words ?
Well, I was wondering rather than asserting, though in editing my post I twisted things up a bit. I'd deleted "xenophobic", and perhaps I should have left it in.
He seems to be saying "You foreigners - you don't even understand the language and what people are saying to you - why are you here?"
I presume he was writing in French and we have the English translation. Remember, French people are often a lot more direct - and hide their feelings less - than Brittish people do!
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suein56
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Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,467
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Post by suein56 on Aug 25, 2021 13:58:32 GMT 1
He seems to be saying "You foreigners - you don't even understand the language and what people are saying to you - why are you here?"
I presume he was writing in French and we have the English translation. Remember, French people are often a lot more direct - and hide their feelings less - than Brittish people do!
Gosh .. I don't interpret this guy's words like that at all .. 😊 And why would you presume he had written in French ? Many young French people today speak and write excellent English. Certainly the students I used to talk with in English at the local IUT did a couple of years ago. And that was before they had gone off on a year's exchange in an English-speaking country. |
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exile
Member
Massif Central
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Post by exile on Aug 25, 2021 14:00:27 GMT 1
Well if we are going to be critical of the original post, is "cause" a word that a French national would use instead of "because"?
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suein56
Member
Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,467
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Post by suein56 on Aug 25, 2021 14:14:18 GMT 1
Well if we are going to be critical of the original post, is "cause" a word that a French national would use instead of "because"? I met this teaching 'perfecting your English' .. the class were astonished when I wrote 'cos on the whiteboard as an informal short form of because .. because they had all been taught 'cause'. Possibly because their High School teacher had spent his improving year in the US, I don't know. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2021 14:15:07 GMT 1
Comparing France with the UK is like comparing Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany, for example, as one entity, with England. Its just not a valid comparison.
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Post by pcpa on Aug 25, 2021 15:33:33 GMT 1
Assuming that its not simply a made up quote or a FB troll then the person will have been thinking in French, "vous, les étrangers..........." is a perfectly reasonable thing to say in the French language where thankfully people aren't yet having to make apologies for speaking in the way they have since childhood.
It's only xenophobic if you want it to be.
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Post by Dominic Best on Aug 25, 2021 17:26:34 GMT 1
I think that a lot of people enjoy experiencing things that are different to their familiar or normal. I really enjoyed my time living and working in Germany just as I continue enjoy my time living in France. I can understand why French people are attracted to the United Kingdom. For each of these individuals there are probably many many more who prefer to stick with the familiar beyond the occasional holiday in a foreign land.
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ibis
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Post by ibis on Aug 25, 2021 18:31:14 GMT 1
You have to remember or think of a french person your same age ( the average age of this site) is that once they had a job, it was pretty much for life. They did not want to "go up the ladder" to management or if they were, then that is where they stayed until old age.
The young have a different perspective - I want to advance in my working life.
I can remember a comment from my wife who works for a big american company here in Sofia antipolis - her team leader was getting to friendly with those below her - going out to dinner, invited to parties, etc.. The company stepped in and discouraged it.. In a normal situation ( UK or USA) these people under her wanted her job but the french employees were satisfied with what they had (sad but true)..
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