I feel hostile towards french looking people today

[Azul]

and I usually only feel this way about pigeons.

[RosieH]

is this people wearing a breton t-shirt or beret? or someone with a generally gallic air and faint whif of garlic?

[Brendan]

Sit on a still lit Gauloises on the way to work this morning Azul?

Or kept awake last night by your neighbour watching 'allo 'allo?

[snoozequeen1]

Comme ca? Entente cordiale

[HonaloochieB]

Sacre f@cking bleu.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Pourquoi?

[Brendan]

Perhaps you have been in England too long Azul and you are starting to catch it, the English that is. One of the first symptoms is an irrational dislike of French people.

Have you recently considered wearing a pink shirt or been preoccupied with the weather?

[????]

What's irrational about disliking the lazy, frog eating, garlic munching, tossers?

[Tony.London Suburbs]

At least they drive sensibly,especially round The Arc De Triomphe:(

[languagelounger]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What's irrational about disliking the lazy, frog

> eating, garlic munching, tossers?

1 EUR = 0.7877 GBP rira bien qui rira le dernier

[VeryBerryCherry]

I find it a little strange that after all the comments about not calling people "gippos" or that big long thread a few days back about the guy on the train being racist towards Muffintop, that we will quite happily sit here and make such remarks about the French?

What is the difference from those comments that were found offensive, and those above? What makes it "ok" to make these sorts of comment towards the French and not travellers or black people?

I can't say I am too enamoured with the Parisians myself, but is it fair to make such comments? :)

[Brendan]

The difference is the French don't care what the English call them. And likewise conversly.

[HonaloochieB]

I like P J O'Rourke on this one, I paraphrase from memory;

'It's not racist to dislike the French, they are not a race, they're a country, of people who speak French and eat bugs'

[????]

VBC=PC GONE MAD

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Nah! C'est Magnifigue!..C'est Fantastigue!

We share a mutual antipathy.Long Live The Not-So-Entente Cordiale:)-D

[RosieH]

I freakin love the cheese eating surrender monkeys and all the ways of the fromage.

The fabulous hauteur with which they regard us rosbifs negates any hint of racism. It's more like a london derby or lancashire v yorkshire on a scale plus grand.

And they have ze accent tres sexy. Zut alors, ah ave come overr quite unnecessaree...

[KiM]

After 8 years living in England and generally getting on with everybody I meet (Italian, German, Spanish, Big and Fat, jewish and muslims, and yes, quite a lot of English people also!), this is actually the first time that I come across such offensive comments against me because of where I was born, me that you have never met!

I wonder: Are you all being hypocrites or did I just find a thread shared among a minority of idiots in East Dulwich?

And ????, calling me a tosser, I would really like to meet you so you can say this to me face to face.

And no I am not a bitter woman; I do have humor and easily take the piss out of my own country. I don?t however hate a group of people just because of the place they come from.

And I am still going to like English people very much and love my English husband even though there are, obviously, some brainless specimens among them.

[Narnia]

Have to agree with you Kim. Even the 'subject' is idiotic. I'm neither English or French but it for reasons like this that Scots, Welsh and Irish find the English arrogant and they don't understand why! I suspect this is their way of dealing with an inferiority complex with regards to the French. Lets just insult them being the most childish way of dealing with it.

I'm surprised the Administrator allowed this thread to continue frankly. Who will be next to be picked on? I'm Irish. Anyone feeling hostile today?

PS Like you Kim I find the vast majority of English people are to be admired for many different reasons. I can't stand the rest though.

[tinagwee]

azul who started this thread is portuguese, not english. take from that what you will!.

he has spend alot of time in france recently working with guys who wont speak any language to him other than french although they most likely can speak other languages and he can offer english, spanish and portuguese and they absolutely refuse to converse a word in any other language to him (even though he is not being the typical english speaking prat (like myself) who doesnt know any language other than their own, in which case they would be justified in their stance).

I also think alot of the comments afterwards where tongue in cheek and not in any way meant in a harmful way but part of the banter of the forum. Although I can understand Kim why you would take offense, and if those comments had been made in a similar vein about the Irish I possible wouldn't have been too amused either so fair point but just wanted to point out that it was a portuguese guy being racist originally rather than an english one.

[tinagwee]

am a bit pissed so sorry for the bad grammer and spelling

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Zis is terrible!.Vous do not comprendre ze "tongue-dans-le-cheek" humour d'anglais..Non Messieurs/Madames?

Mon DieuB)

[tinagwee]

VeryBerryCherry Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> What is the difference from those comments that

> were found offensive, and those above? What makes

> it "ok" to make these sorts of comment towards the

> French and not travellers or black people?

>

>

> Not that I want to condone racism or culturalism against anyone on this earth, but I do think people feel more free to say things about a nation and its people in a jokey way, who are not marginalised, poor, or generally in any way under threat from any country and are not an ethnic minority, (and France, lets face it were themselves pretty good at the old colonialism as england in the past), that they are more up for being taken the piss out of in a mock argumentative way, the way the ozzies and english do to each other for example. Travellers are a very much marginalised and misunderstood group of people and black people are still experiencing genuine inequality across the globe meaning it is like kicking a man when he is down if you are taking the piss or being racist and therefore a lot more meaningful and dangerous and unacceptable. The French are not the underdogs in any arena I feel. It may be a small difference when using sarcastic humour but an important one I feel.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

tinagwee Wrote:

Not that I want to condone racism or culturalism

against anyone on this earth...itmay be a small difference

when using sarcastic humour but an important one I

feel.

Spot On!

[RosieH]

Quite so. As i have said on a couple of occasions, I am quite the francophile, but anyone who can come on here espousing the arrogance of the english at the expense of the pauvres francais is un petit peu, how do you say, doolally.

And I know we like personal experience on this forum, so let me say now, I have lived in France. I love the French. But come on, English arrogance, reallv?? When we are ze stupid rosbifs?? London derby, Manchester derby, sibling rivalry, Moliere, Shakespeare and all that car advert jazz

[Michael Palaeologus]

"The English are arrogant" - an easy and frankly lazy pop which is a great stand-by in the absence of any other angle; I believe the same thing is being trotted out by one Robert Mugabe. It does rather seem that making such comments about the English is allowed, reciprocation is racist.

There is a long history of (relatively) friendly barracking between the English and the French. Having said that, this should at least attempt to be witty and the term "Tosser" is not witty and is just abusive ... Should Try Harder.

The French get brickbats thrown at them BECAUSE (for the most part) they can take it and give it and have been for centuries. There isnt actually any history of systematic and current discrimination against them, unlike many of the other groups mentioned above.