this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
203 points (94.7% liked)

YUROP

1199 readers
2 users here now

A laid back community for good news, pictures and general discussions among people living in Europe.

Other European communities

Other casual communities:

Language communities

Cities

Countries

founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
203
Stumbled upon this from another community, do you agree? (lemmy.world)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
126 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Source post: https://lemmy.world/post/13376939 [email protected]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Wait those are necessary for social courtesy? Like you have to say, "hello" first?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

In case you're not joking, yes, the French are extremely formal, and starting any interaction without a "hi" will get you weird looks. Main reason Americans think the French are assholes, I guess

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Yeah... American here.. In my area, a greeting isn't necessary. It can be appreciated but isn't required. Even ending conversation without a closing is not uncommon. Spouse gets mad because people just hang up the phone when done instead of a proper goodbye.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Hahaha, the French sternness/politeness reminds me of over here in Czechia

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Absolutely, I think a lot of Americans don't realise that when going to France, and end up having a subpart experience because of it. From our perspective, you are the asshole if you don't greet people appropriately, which often means we'll answer in kind.

The basics, bonjour, excusez moi, s'il vous plaît, merci should get you through that. Not assuming people want or can speak English can also be important, so if you can ask them "parlez vous anglais ?" before switching it's not a bad call

There's also obviously some people who are assholes or simply having a bad day, that's a universal thing and France is no exception.