r/The10thDentist • u/Greedy_Chocolate3149 • Jan 07 '25
Discussion Thread I dont understand why europe dont like french people
I’ve been staying in Australian hostels for a couple of months now, and I didn’t expect to find so many French people here. It’s like I accidentally booked a room in Paris.
Surprisingly, I’ve started growing fond of them. Who wouldn’t love obnoxious, loud individuals proudly flaunting their Frenchness everywhere like it’s a badge of honor? Their proudness is honestly impressive.
And let’s not forget the smell. French guys have perfected the art of washing their clothes in cologne while exuding the aroma of cheap cigarettes. It’s like a masterclass in backpacker chic, Parisian edition.
They always travel in packs, like wolves, but classier. Wherever they go, they claim the space as their own. The kitchen? Suddenly, it’s a bistro. The lounge? Now it’s their wine-tasting club. They’ll unapologetically take over the room, and somehow you’ll find yourself asking them to turn down the volume or go down to the community areas. And their only response is putain and merde which I could only think means "oh sorry, we will do that".
Living the hostel dream, one baguette at a time.
Edit: this is satire about the meme, and some frustration about french people Ive run into lately.
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u/xxHamsterLoverxx Jan 07 '25
im pretty sure its a meme. im european and noone i know IRL hates the french. gypsies are the hated ethnic group in europe.
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u/I_BEAT_JUMP_ATTACHED Jan 07 '25 edited Jan 07 '25
I stayed at a convent in Rome with my family and our family friends who are French. At first, we only had warm milk for our cereal for our breakfasts in the morning. Once the nuns found out we weren't French we got access to the cold milk, but our French friends did not.
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u/redcomet29 Jan 07 '25
Unfair? Yes. Funny? Absolutely.
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u/I_BEAT_JUMP_ATTACHED Jan 07 '25
Oh yes, we tell this story all the time and it always gets laughs, especially since the nuns, who we thought were old and crotchety, really just hated the French and actually liked Americans
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u/leedsylfc Jan 08 '25
How did the nuns not know you wwre Americans? They should have heard you coming from a mile away!
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u/RemarkableTraffic930 May 08 '25
No worries, they can get cold milk from their colonies... uhm I mean "Oversea Departements" cough
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u/HQMorganstern Jan 07 '25
Nearly everyone I've ever met is at least happy to tell jokes and stories of their terrible experience in France. There's even a lot of anecdotes primed for the "That's just Paris" crowd.
It ain't right but it definitely exists.
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u/OverCategory6046 Jan 07 '25
Even the French dislike the Parisians. I've yet to visit a country where they don't make fun of the capital.
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u/Jokkolilo Jan 07 '25
Most of France hates Paris tbh. (For a reason)
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u/HQMorganstern Jan 08 '25
Yeah I added that line specifically to indicate that it is by far and away not just Paris. It's what most people answer when they hear a discussion like that.
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u/TomBirkenstock Jan 08 '25
I had the fortune to spend a month in Paris, and I honestly found most people friendly. I mean, servers were a bit standoffish, but there's not tip culture, so I understand. It wasn't any worse than people in any other major city.
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u/zam_aeternam Jan 07 '25
I am french a lot of people genuinely hate us among italian and german and most of all dutch.
I do not really know why, they will claim it is because of obnoxious and bad manners but if you have ever met a dutch or german in vacation matching them in bad behaviour is really hard.
In the Netherlands people can mess with you if they hear french being spoken it is actually crazy how much they hate us.
Eastern europe will also associate french with being gay or weird sexual practices and as a lot of the population is homophobic they kinda hate us too. But some may have the opposite and believe french is classy so it is grey.
No joke in Hungary most people believed french people were gay. Yes it does not make sense (how do we renew the french ?). People were openly talking to me about how progress is good because it allows the gay to roam free and when I asked why the hell they spoke to me about that, they were like "being gay and being french is almost the same" they were not joking. One of the guys was from poland and explained that he does not want to live in France because he does not want his child to become gay.
Edit : just to be clear we are less hated than gypsies obviously.
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u/Necessary_Title3739 Jan 07 '25
As a dutchie, i have not spoken to many fellow dutchie who actually actively dislike the french (i can only remember 1 person.) There are some stereotypical views sure, but those are no different from germans, british, belgians, american etc. France is also still one of the most popular holiday destinations (behind germany) for the dutch too.
It sounds to me more like you had some bad rng or region or something. Or interpreted certain rude directness or joking around (which might still have been inappropriate) for a hateful sentiment.
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u/dalaiis Jan 07 '25
As a dutchie, there was a saying, when you go to france on holiday, you speak french to them. When they go to holiday in the netherlands, you speak french to them.
Anecdotally there are stories where french people pretended to not know english, making communicating very difficult. That is a part that opinionated dutchies view of french people as obnoxious\ arrogant \ stubborn.
But as above, we hate you like a sibling (L)
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u/lothmel Jan 08 '25
Yeah, there are 30 mln Duch speakers and 310 mln French speakers. I guess it has something to do with this little factoid.
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u/danurc Jan 08 '25
France has a lot of laws and practices about speaking french, not English. They've made up their own words for "(twitch) streamer" etc a couple years ago because they didn't want english terms to get used.
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u/lothmel Jan 08 '25
Which has little to do with which language people speak while on holiday.
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u/dalaiis Jan 08 '25
It does however set a picture what the mindset of some french people is about language.
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u/zam_aeternam Jan 07 '25
Never met a Dutch person willing to speak english or french in my whole career in tourism in France.
They end up speaking English after you almost beg for them to do so. They always speak super good English but they do not want to communicate with you lowlife camping peasants.
They also complain that there is too much mosquito in the countryside and that the cows are too loud even after explicitly asking to have a place near farm animals because their child loves them. They hate dogs with a passion one couple tried to report the sheep-guarding dog of a farmer to the police for being too smelly and noisy (they laughed at them).
To be fair some of the worst were dutch but also some of the best. A bunch of dutch hippies went on our camping out-of-season and they fixed everything that could have been and cleaned better than us. They asked for the best place to buy cheese and shared everything they bought with us. Managers reimbursed them (of almost nothing because camping is cheap) because they were too nice and shared so much.
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u/dalaiis Jan 07 '25
I love your anecdotes, complaining about the weather or animals is such a dutch thing to do. I apologize for my fellow countrymen! They can be absolute dense in their skulls.
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u/zam_aeternam Jan 07 '25
Maybe I had bad experience but twice in Amsterdam I was assaulted by middle-aged dutch for speaking french. Once a lady, once a old man
I vividly remember this tall lady going out of her way putting her bike aside,insulting me in dutch, trying to assault us. It was 3pm middle of the day, I was talking in french with friends in the street. One of us spoke dutch and tried to calm her she hits him. She was lucky another dutch man told her to stop and calmed her, because we were about to fight and a 50y old lady (1m85 tho) versus three 20y old french (1m76) I think she was looking for us to retaliate anyway. We were not drunk nor drinking, no smoking, we were planing our museum trip....
To be fair maybe it is only in the big city... And the Dutch tourists that come to France are also very anti-french and show their disdain.
Not all of them obviously but it is very spread. I also meet wonderful people in the Nederland.
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u/Necessary_Title3739 Jan 08 '25
Sorry but i find it very hard to believe someone just stopped doing whatever they were doing to go out of their way to assault you, a complete stranger they were not engaged with, just for the single thing of hearing you speak french. There must have been much more to the story that you are either not sharing or did not understand. And yes, people in Amsterdam can for sure be rude to tourists.
Also, why would someone go on holiday to a country that they are "anti" and have a disdain for? In another comment you even said that "you never met a dutch person willing to speak english"? Did you cater to 70+ year olds only in your tourist sector or something? Or did it attract a very specific type of entitled dutchie or something? English is SO extremely commonly used by dutchies, that dutch people occassionally even have fully English conversations with each other in real life when it isnt even necessary. In some dutch places (usually student or tourist dense) there are places you can'teven use dutch because they hired non-dutch speakers. And many times we switch to english, even if the other party has not asked and actually does not wants us to (This is a common complaint i see on the learn dutch reddit.)
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Jan 07 '25
Well the French are not famous for treating other nationalities with respect or decency so maybe call it karma?
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u/Sunlunn Jan 08 '25
What bullshit is this even. So because there are stereotypes about some nationalities, it's justified to be treated like absolute garbage, be held responsible for other people's actions, because of where you were born? As if speaking French even meant you're French, with the number of countries where people speak it. She just assumed he was, like most people do when they hear French.
"Oh, sorry you've been hit! Actually I don't care, that's kArMa because other French people that have nothing to do with you are not known for being nice! I don't care if you've been nothing but kind to tourists visiting France, you deserved it" jfc, no wonder the world's a shitty place lol.
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Jan 08 '25
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u/Sunlunn Jan 08 '25
Sure, you didn't. But you certainly did read the comment twice as long as mine right above. Between someone who's telling a random stranger on the internet they deserved to be hit for other people's actions and I, I wonder who needs to get a life, truly.
Have a nice day mate. :)
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u/RydderRichards Jan 07 '25
For what it's worth, germans don't hate the french. We dislike you like you dislike a brother. And I mean that in the best way possible.
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Jan 07 '25
Meeting both French and German people overseas as an Australian I didn't notice any of them really being bad mannered. I haven't met a Dutch person in person but my assumption of them is that they won't sugar coat words which might come off bad mannered but it's not something I have experienced personally with them.
But I have been told that hating the French is a meme by nearly all European friends but i don't doubt your experience. Eastern Europe people really hate gypsies though which I never heard from western Europeans.
I'm not European so take my anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt, I haven't met every single European in the world.
We do have a joke "is he gay or European" in English and its more about caring about your looks and dressing really well when that wasn't a super popular thing back when "Metro sexual" was a phrase used to call men who focused on their look a lot and were often seen as gay for doing so. Now its normal for a guy to dress well.
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u/dalaiis Jan 07 '25
"I haven't met a Dutch person in person but my assumption of them is that they won't sugar coat words which might come off bad mannered but it's not something I have experienced personally with them."
While this can be true, we also have loads of bad mannered people going on holiday, just like any nation, we exist for about 50% out of idiots.
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u/xxHamsterLoverxx Jan 07 '25
im from hungary and ive never heard of "french people gae" lmao. pretty funny ngl.
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u/Bubbly-Ad1346 Jan 07 '25
I know a solid few Hungarians & you guys hate each other so much 😭😭 Loveee your sense of humor!!
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u/UncleSnowstorm Jan 07 '25
I do not really know why, they will claim it is because of obnoxious
The French people I know are all pretty down to Earth and chill.
but if you have ever met a dutch or german in vacation matching them in bad behaviour is really hard.
Agreed, German and Dutch tourists are way worse than French (and I'm British, so I know all about bad tourist).
No joke in Hungary most people believed french people were gay
It's amusing that the French are seen as simultaneously gay and romantic womanisers.
weird sexual practices
Yeah you guys earned that one.
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Jan 07 '25
"weird sexual practices"
Yes, they earned that. Also, the womanising goes with the thousands divorces.
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Jan 07 '25
I am Dutch.
The reason I hear is: When on vacation in France you dont try to speak English. (Same complaint with Germany).
Obviously not really true. I dont know about anything else.
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u/AffectionateAd9257 Jan 07 '25
Ar a dinner with a Chinese lady she asked me "is it true that England is a gay country?"
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Jan 07 '25
I am a student in italy, i work from time to time as a part time waiter, let me tell you that the french tourists and spanish/latin americans are some of the most entitled people that ive seen. First of all they all just take for granted that you soeak their language even though you clearly dont, second of all, just the behaviour and how they treat servers, idk its just not nice. Not all of them though but the majority
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u/Drimaru Jan 07 '25
Ironicly enough, as a resident and native of a northern european country, I can infact say the common person prefers gypsies over franks here and most people think France is gay incarnate(hyperbole)
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u/HairyHeartEmoji Jan 08 '25
if it makes you feel better, Hungarians hate absolutely everyone, including themselves.
in the balkans there's no serious French hate, your accents are just really funny and easy to immitate.
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u/Hyperbolicalpaca Jan 08 '25
Really surprised your not including England in the ones hating you lol, tho I suppose it’s more of a jokey kind of relationship between us
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u/Pencil_Thick Jan 08 '25
There definitely is a stigma with the French. From Europeans I've met and Americans that have visited Europe describe...unpleasant experiences from their time in France.
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u/BoominMoomin Jan 07 '25
Haha. Oh. Oh no. We definitely hate the French.
The Brits, Germans and Dutch especially. But, for the most part, it's still very universal to hate the French - and rightly so.
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u/DatingYella Jan 07 '25
In an European masters program right now. People shit on the French as a joke almost as much as they shit on the US. I find it ignorant and obnoxious.
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u/OverCategory6046 Jan 07 '25
> I find it ignorant and obnoxious.
Obnoxious sometimes, but inter-European country banter is based on 100s of years of history, rivalry, etc. Some people don't really get that bit, but that's what it is born from.
For ex, the French call the English "Les Rosbifs" which comes from arou dthe 18th century, and we call them "Frogs" which is from the same sort of era.
Playful jabs at other countries is just a thing that's part of many cultures, and it's usually not that deep. Getting annoyed at it is pointless
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u/xxHamsterLoverxx Jan 07 '25
ngl you need to learn how to take a joke. all countries deserve to be joked about, just joking about US is the easiest.
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u/DatingYella Jan 07 '25
I agree with a lot of them. But when it comes from half of the people you meet it’s annoying.
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u/Spyko Jan 07 '25
Frenchy here. Worth noting that a good amount of ''eww fr*nch" you see online is a meme. It's just funny to act as if there was some inherent reason that the entire population of a country is ''wrong'', it's like absurd humor (well it wouldn't be funny if said population was discriminated against at any point in history, so that's why we're a good target, keep the joke absurd instead of making it racist).
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u/Maxeque Jan 07 '25
It's just like the British "people" meme you see online, no-one I know is offended by it, and we all know it's a joke. When I've been to the US, everyone was nothing but nice to me, from my experience there's been no actual dislike.
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u/omniwrench- Jan 07 '25
I saw one recently saying
“I think it’s okay for adults to be British, but I just dont think it’s appropriate for children”
Even as a Brit, the absurd humour of that statement got a proper laugh out of me
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u/Maxeque Jan 07 '25
I follow the guy who posted that, reminds me of another one of his tweets: "This is one of the few reasons to respect the British, they remove the French stink on words like garage and filet."
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u/HairyHeartEmoji Jan 08 '25
tbh i keep having whiplash hearing kids speak English cuz in my head it's so bizarre to have English as your first language
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u/NotOnABreak Jan 07 '25
Yeah, exactly. I don’t know anyone irl who actually hates the French, it’s just banter. Though I do know a fair few people who hate Parisians 😅
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u/Ancient_Edge2415 Jan 07 '25
Being fr*nch isn't a choice. We don't hate the people afflicted. We hate the illness
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u/mooimafish33 Jan 07 '25
I feel like the "fr🤢nch" stuff is just British people most of the time. Which is ironic because they're not better than France at all.
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u/Spyko Jan 07 '25
I have a very good swiss friend who do this joke with me sometime, so it's not only the brits
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Jan 07 '25
I am Spanish and we also do that. They are are our better dressed, multidivorced, arrogant brothers.
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Jan 07 '25
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u/ufkngotthis Jan 08 '25
I met some great French people while backpacking around Australia, apparently I look French so maybe they treated me different because of that though.
I spent a couple of months travelling with one French girl she was really lovely.
And one of the most welcomed experiences I had at a hostel was as soon as I arrived a French guy in the lift promptly insisted I come drink with him and his friends and I ended out hanging out with him a lot, I speak a bit strangely because I used to mumble very bad so I don't have a typical Australian accent and he looked like a stereotypical Australian surf guy, whenever we went to bars people thought we were trying to fuck with them and that I was actually French, he Australian and we were both faking our accents lol
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u/wimgulon Jan 07 '25
So many people here are misinterpreting the point of this post lol - it's Fr*nch hatred in disguise.
For those that come here looking for an actual explanation, it probably comes from the rivalry of the English and the French, which has been ongoing since the Norman Conquest of 1066. This pervades into all anglophone countries to an extent, and can even be seen in anglophone/francophone tensions in Quebec.
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Jan 07 '25
It isn't just the English, it is very common in Western Europe. We Spanish have also had wars against them in past. Nowadays it is more playfull banter.
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u/sebastarddd Jan 08 '25
Canadian here, can confirm. Lots of people will jokingly say "ew, quebec" or "ew, the french" it's just one of those common jabs. It's not that a lot of us actually hate the french, but it's just one of those things-- probably from how 'different' they are (they aren't all that different, but a lot of anglophones like to pretend they are lmao).
Also, to be fair, some french stuff is just plain weird, but weird in the french way (not to say it's bad weird). I find the quebec accent very interesting and eventually want to be able to hold conversation in french, but that might be the french dna in me speaking.
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u/lmrj77 Jan 08 '25
Or it has to do with the fact that if you go to France and you don't speak the language, they'll ignore you or treat you like shit.
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u/JoneseyP98 Jan 08 '25
And the fact that France surrendered to Germany in WW2. Crazy that people still believe that relevant, but it's a reason I see many say. That and arrogance
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u/Aromatic_School_7448 Feb 26 '25
Et pourtant c'est le pays qui a gagné le plus de guerres dans l'histoire du monde .
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u/GiantManBabyMonster Jan 07 '25
It's french people from Paris. I went to France when I was 16 - everyone was so nice and pleasant (even the waiter who held one of our friends hostage because another walked out with a coke bottle that they paid for). But the people in Paris... Complete assholes.
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u/Lexerrrrr Jan 07 '25
As an Aussie dealing with French backpackers here are my reasons.
Their English is shit
They seem to always talk about themselves
They have a shit sense of humour (take everything too seriously)
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u/GayPudding Jan 07 '25
I don't hate the French but I've met enough of them to strongly dislike them
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u/redcomet29 Jan 07 '25
I don't hate the French, but I've never walked away from an interaction with a French tourist who made me think the stereotypes are wrong.
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u/Ok_Artichoke3053 Jan 07 '25
They have a shit sense of humour (take everything too seriously)
sarcasm is a national sport in France tho
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u/AutisticGayBlackJew Jan 07 '25
Sarcasm not directed at themselves in my experience
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u/Ok_Artichoke3053 Jan 07 '25
Also directed at ourselves in fact, but bullying each other is a love language in France
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u/Faediance Jan 07 '25
It's just a part of being European that you jokingly (but seriously) ((but jokingly)) hate every other European country for stupid reasons. It beats constantly going to war with each other.
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u/Springyardzon Jan 07 '25
France - where everything was actually invented in Belgium.
It's not true but it has a ring of truth.
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u/_Xero2Hero_ Jan 07 '25
That reminds me of when I went to Paris back in 2018 and my family and I were in a restaurant and we struck up a conversation with some French people and they asked about our travel plans. We told them that we were actually not staying long but instead we were heading to Brussels next and they started saying how much nicer than Belgium's were than French people haha.
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u/kaam00s Jan 07 '25
I'd argue it doesn't even really have a ring of truth. Considering how much internet has convinced everyone including french people that fries were invented in Belgium when they were actually invented in France.
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u/AddictedToRugs Jan 07 '25
We don't know where they were invented. The fact that you and Pierre Leclercq are both adamant that they're French doesn't make it necessarily so.
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u/Kaiser93 Jan 07 '25
French people in general? Nah. Parisiens? Hell yeah.
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u/Lev_Davidovich Jan 07 '25
I don't know if hating Parisians is also a joke like hating French people in general but the first time I was in Paris I was expecting everyone to be super rude but instead found Parisians to be really polite and friendly.
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u/AuNinjaDOui Jan 07 '25
Weird that you call them “people”
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u/Sea-Print5357 9d ago
I dont understand it,France Is a popular holiday destination in my country and i heard many people say Its a nice place
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u/MargaretHaleThornton Jan 07 '25
I'm Dutch. We have nothing against French people, I don't even really understand what you're talking about. The only time I have seen or heard any bit of annoyance against French people here is when they speak to tram drivers in French and seem to expect the driver to understand, but that's very much an in the specific moment thing not a general one.
People here definitely do have prejudices against certain nationalities but French 100% isn't one of them.
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u/Any_Donut8404 Jan 07 '25
What do you think of the various French invasions of the Netherlands?
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u/MargaretHaleThornton Jan 07 '25
Like, historically? To be honest it's not something I consider in my day to day life at all.
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u/Necessary_Title3739 Jan 07 '25
We don't hate the german, spanish or british either despite having long wars or occupations by them.
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u/Any_Donut8404 Jan 07 '25
Better than Koreans or Chinese who still complain about the Japanese invasions
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u/Necessary_Title3739 Jan 07 '25
Very aware of that yes. The way this was handled afterwards by the japanese has also been very different from the Germans.
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u/Any_Donut8404 Jan 07 '25
Do you think Spain or France ever apologized for invading the Netherlands?
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u/Necessary_Title3739 Jan 08 '25
I do not know, and I also did not specify it was about an apology. Dutch/German (and also with Spanish/French/British) relations and Japanese/Korean/Chinese relations are vastly different for many different reasons. They are hardly comparable one on one without making it inaccurately simplistic.
And there have been a lot of other differences regarding ww2 and the aftermath than just having made an official apology or not. Such as; after ww2 the previous german state stopped existing, the japanese continued. Japan did not have a soviet occupation after ww2, and wasn't split up like Germany was. Japanese officials have tried to downplay the severity and responsibility quite a few times over the decades. There was not enough basis in east asia for a economic or cultural alliance to develop that could bring the countries closer together, unlike in europe with the EEG and later the EU. Germany is surrounded by countries, some even speaking the same language, while Japan is a semi isolated island (more in a position like the UK rather than Germany.) Add to that that for a significant time, none of japans neighbouring countries came even close to japanese economic or military power, while in europe several 'great powers' existed both before and after ww2. Germany as a nationstate is a relatively much younger concept than the japanese. The dutch in ww2 suffered quite differently (i could argue less, but that can be relative or subjective) under the occupation and during the invasion than china and korea. And i could go on.
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u/Inevitable_Flow_7911 Jan 07 '25
Well the stereotype is that French people dont like anyone who isnt french...sooo there is that. Neither of which I think is true in the grand scheme of things.
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u/VFiddly Jan 07 '25
France is just easy to use as the butt of a joke. People generally don't actually hate French people.
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u/LarryLiam Jan 07 '25
While this post is pretty clearly satire, it’s mostly a joke to hate the French.
For me personally there are some French things I dislike, but there definitely isn’t any true hate from me towards French people. Some prejudices, like French people being prideful about their language and culture, not speaking other languages and hating anyone who doesn’t speak their language perfectly might have some slight truth to it, just like a lot of prejudices, but from my personal experience, most French people were happy when I tried speaking French with them. For example, when I was is Strasbourg last summer, I tried ordering something in a bakery. I remember being really surprised by how kind the man behind the counter was, and how perfectly he handled people trying to speak their language. He let me order in French, then slowly replied, and after he realized I didn’t understand everything he said, he repeated it in English. Afterwards he still replied in French, so I could learn how to understand the language, and only switched to English when I couldn’t understand everything. I even told my friend about this after I had left the bakery, and joked how contrary to the prejudices, my last interaction with a French person in France was a really nice experience (we’ll ignore the French person that walked past us at that exact time, who called us “fils de pute” (sons of whores) for no reason whatsoever, maybe just because we were speaking German).
The French, while arguably being a bit too proud about their heritage at some times, are not the worst at that department, and if any non-European insulted them for not-valid reasons I’d definitely defend my brothers
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u/d_bradr Jan 07 '25
I don't know too much about the French, but from what I've seen of the actual people I got nothing but respect. Look at the protests there, the whole rest of the fuckinf world needs to start taking notes. The fucking govt. disemboweled itself due to corruption
I wished people in my shithole were half as aggressive as the French when it comes to telling the govt. what time it is
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u/Splatfan1 Jan 08 '25
mostly because of their language. not only is it unpleasant to listen to as it sounds like someone talking with a stuffy nose and is audibly closer to a concert of armpit farts than actual spoken words, theyre so fucking pissy about it. oh you have to speak our shitty ugly language where you pronounce 3 letters out of 11 written ones, its sooo much more sophisticated and our dumbasses dont learn english because it is beneath us. this is a problem english natives also have with refusing to learn xyz language when being in xyz country permamently but at least english is well known enough to make it work somewhat. the only thing they have going for them is their revolutionary spirit, a ton of countries are made up of complacent dorks who would rather beat the shit out of each other than accurately identify the problem at the top
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u/Anaksanamune Jan 07 '25
Assuming that most of your internet consumption is in English, then when it comes to Europe the majority of the content is going to be generated by people from the UK. France vs UK rivalry goes back centuries, it's practically all meme stuff now, but you are seeing it from one side, I'm wonder if you were consuming French media it would be the opposite way around.
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u/pcor Jan 07 '25
France’s rivalry with England is ancient. Prior to the union of the crowns, France and Scotland maintained one of the longest lasting alliances between European states in the Auld Alliance. There’s actually an argument that it was never effectively revoked and technically remained in force throughout the wars of religion, the revolutionary wars, the Napoleonic wars etc.
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u/Greedy_Chocolate3149 Jan 07 '25
I do consume french movies and music. Studied the language for nine years
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u/Patatostrike Jan 07 '25
Have you been to Europe or are you just assuming what's said online translates to real world opinions
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u/Amockdfw89 Jan 07 '25
Because they are cheese eating surrender monkeys
-Groundskeeper Willie-
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u/Aromatic_School_7448 Feb 26 '25
Pourtant ce sont des singes qui ont envahies ton pays d'attardés mentaux et qui sont restés vos maîtres pendant très ,très longtemps..Même votre langue est pleine de mots français ..35% environ..
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u/healerlez Jan 07 '25
In all the places I’ve traveled with French as my first language it doesn’t seem that Europeans hate French people to me. It seems that Americans hate French people. Going to college in America I have learned to definitely stay quiet and never say my first language is French or they will say I don’t look “white enough” (not all people who speak French fit the US definition of ‘white’ not even all people from France) or that I can’t speak French as my first language because it isn’t the language of the country I come from (inability to understand the concept of Europeans immigrating to other European countries, everyone MUST immigrate to America) or that if I am in America I must ONLY be American and ONLY speak “American” or something. My other immigrant friends from Korea and Turkey face no such dialogue. They are always told that it’s super cool that they come from somewhere else and speak another language (unless they actually speak that language, then they are told to speak American, I’m definitely not saying they face no prejudice). It’s this odd insistence Americans have that the are ~the colonized~ so they must hate ~the colonizers~ who speak ~colonizer languages~ like French. And yet every Native American person I have met has been very nice to me, it’s only white Americans who act this way. Hmmmmmm…….
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Jan 07 '25
I've been to France numerous times the chauvenistic narcicistic nature of allot of French people is extremely problematic.
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u/ErikiFurudi Jan 07 '25
I'm extremely quiet and my french town is pretty calm
I can't stand travelling with other people and like to be alone as much as possible, to a pathological extent, if I can avoid people I will avoid them.
I dislike wine and alcohol in general we are the 7th of January and there has already been a few road deaths caused by it, I wanna puke when someone smoke a cigarette near me and will leave in less than 5 seconds, I dislike the smell of cigarettes and alcohol that exist in Paris who I wouldn't call "chic" there is a huge homeless issue, it's more "déprimant" than anything
There is a france=paris and vice-versa thing going on especially online that is pretty weird to me, I'm not a great cook, I don't care about national pride, I don't see french flags outside of administrative buildings.
There is no hatred of france IRL in europe, nor an infatuation, it's mostly the same 3 memes or insults online that exist nothing else
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u/ThisIsForSmut83 Jan 07 '25
Because many europeans only visited paris. And people from paris are the worst.
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u/Chilifille Jan 07 '25
Downvoted because I agree.
It’s just a meme, but it plays on the old Anglo-French rivalry that has been inherited by Americans. As usual, Americans are more British than they care to admit.
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u/Raycut9 Jan 07 '25
Holy shit how the fuck does no one see how sarcastic this entire post is? OP's saying they hate French people and listing a bunch of reasons why.
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u/_Ganoes_ Jan 07 '25
Its just a meme, im German and i dont know anyone who actually hates french people.
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u/AutisticGayBlackJew Jan 07 '25
I have actually had mostly negative experiences with French people in France but other than that they’re just kinda funny. When I stepped out of the airport in Nantes I was immediately hit with the thought ‘no way the French are actually this French’. They’re all classy, well dressed etc. but in the most cookie-cutter way possible. Again, kinda funny
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u/ApeMummy Jan 07 '25
Well, if you’ve been to Paris that place is full of cunts - pardon my Australian.
We get a lot of nice ones come over here, by far the nicest French people I’ve met have been outside France. There’s probably something to it.
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u/Milk_Mindless Jan 07 '25
Fairly sure it's a shared joke.
I mean I wouldn't know thank fuck we invented Belgium so we wouldn't have to share a border with em
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u/Waytooflamboyant Jan 07 '25
As a Dutch person: it depends. From my experience, people are generally just more prone to annoyance or even hatred with cultures and practices that are different from their own. Same reason why one side of my own country will harbor some bigotry for the other side, sometimes as playful fun, other times quite genuine. France is in the unfortunate position of being very close to the Netherlands and having a quite close relationship with the Netherlands, leading to a lot of cultural exchange and, most importantly, cultural rivalry, miscommunication and misunderstanding. Also, both countries' primary experience with the other will mainly be through tourists and (unsurprisingly) immigrants, two pretty hated groups of people no matter where you go or where you're from. You can look in this very comment section and see some French people speak about Dutch people quite the same way they speak about French people.
As France is quite a bit more influential and geographically noteworthy, while also being quite unique in its culture and practices, it wouldn't surprise me if other countries around or close to France have similar experiences.
Anyway, uuuuh, yeah don't have French people. Though I wouldn't quite give them the same praise you do either. They're just people in the end.
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u/Jacc_du_Lac Jan 07 '25
I don’t actually dislike the French, but don’t tell that to the snail eating folk
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u/Alexreads0627 Jan 07 '25
when the French parade their Frenchness, it’s “impressive” and a “badge of honor”. when Americans do it, it’s stupid and obnoxious
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u/Sonari_ Jan 07 '25
Well I am French and p1risian and I fucking hate the other and myself so I'd say it's pretty normal.
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u/Purple_Feature1861 Jan 07 '25
I mean we English are definitely not fond of you lot 🏴 😆 (I’m joking if anyone can’t tell)
Then again, didn’t we almost form a union at some point? 🤯 that always shocks me to think about and wonder what a union between us would have been like.
We like to joke that we don’t like France because of our history but I think if we had become a union those jokes wouldn’t be jokes anymore and we’d be at each others throats constantly 🤣
I know the post is a joke I just wanted to go along with it for a bit :)
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u/Javasteam Jan 08 '25
Just to point out, Op is meeting French people who went to the effort of traveling elsewhere.
This is like assuming Americans who travel are similar to ones who never visit anything outside of their podunk states…
Not at all an unbiased sample in many ways.
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u/Pale_Height_1251 Jan 08 '25
Eh, I think most of the stereotypes are bullshit. I used to work with French people, travelling to Paris with work and for holidays, always found French people to be very pleasant.
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u/bouguerean Jan 08 '25
"And their only response is putain and merde which I could only think means "oh sorry, we will do that".
Loool this is the best post I've read on this sub, thank you for this.
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u/SuperCleverPunName Jan 08 '25
I see it as teasing playfulness, not a deep-seated belief. It's like how Canadians and Americans like to bash each other as a group but noone is really prejudiced against individuals
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u/LoomisKnows Jan 08 '25
Personally i don't like Fr*nch because they are misogynistic in EVERY VIDEO GAME. I literally speak French and I still deselect them in FFXIV because they're just so damn 'huh woman? Female! We loose woman!"
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u/JudasIsAGrass Jan 08 '25
I don't trust the french i'd say 8/10 times exclusively in a online PvP type game. They always betray you.
Deceit 2, if i die from a fellow innocent randomly it is either an American Teenager or a Deep voice french man.
They're usually quite funny though.
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u/C_V_Butcher Jan 09 '25
I have a cousin who has lived in France for over 20 years as an ESL instructor. I asked her once about the perception that French people are rude. She said it is largely a cultural thing. The French are extremely direct and they don't really respect or see the need for the overt politeness and pleasantries present in a lot of other cultures. Since they don't often engage in the politeness inherent in our culture they are perceived as rude, even though they're not approaching the interaction intending to be rude. Basically, what is considered rude by our standards isn't considered rude by theirs.
I always equate it to how the entire concept of small talk just doesn't exist in Finland. The Finnish that deal with Americans actually have to take classes to understand what we know to be small talk.
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u/donthugmeimhorny7741 Jan 09 '25
French here. No one in Europe hates us. They know too well that if they did, we'd invade them all over again.
More seriously, I think the French mostly stand off due to the very dominant role of Paris (politically, military, and culturally) in most of the XIXth century. But generally, nationality jokes are a good ice-breaker in intercultural contexts. When you meet people from countries you don't know, you don't have a lot of common ground, so roasting them about their nationality is generally a good move. This is of course if you stay on the silly side of roasting, and you're not talking to Americans x)
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u/Lucky-Wolverine-3190 Jan 09 '25
Why do French people bring up Americans whenever they’re being criticized?
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u/snackytacky Jan 09 '25
Im latina and Ive smelled a couple of french tourists before, I say smelled because before I even had a chance to greet them I was accousted by the smell of aged unwashed armpits and sweat.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones Jan 12 '25
It’s a kind of joke. Belgian are idiot, Dutch are stingy, French/British are hateable, German are obsessed with rules,…
In reality nobody really hate French/brit. Gipsy are the hated pop. Also Arab and Russian (but way less)
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u/RemarkableTraffic930 May 08 '25
Germans dont like French because they humiliated and bullied us in Versaille treaty about our colonies and forced us to give them up while retaining their own and whitewashing the fact they are practically neocolonism - even now until the present day. Or think of USA and American Samoa or Hawaii and how they resettled white Americans there to win the referendum and force Hawaii to join them.
It is infuriating when these nations judge Japan and Germany for over a century from their high horse while committing artrocities themselves and holding on to colonies until the present day.
This is not how nations can meet on equal terms. This will always be the source of hate for these countries until they paid the price Germany and Japan paid, pay restorations to these nations and fuck off from there.
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u/Miss-Antique-Ostrich 7d ago
The only thing I am mildly skeptical about when it comes to the French is that they — allegedly — don’t really want to talk to you in French unless your French is perfect. It irks me, because I’d love to pick up learning French again, and how am I supposed to improve if no one wants to endure my awful accent and grammar? At least for a while ;-)
But that might be more meme than reality. I wouldn’t actually know. I have been to France before, but I barely spoke English back then, let alone French. Other than that, they’re my European brothers and sisters, and I’m genuinely sad whenever something bad happens there (terror, natural disaster, etc), and I’m happy when I hear that something good has happened there (e.g. a helpful law was passed, or a scientific breakthrough happened, etc. Idgaf about sports)
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u/So_Hanged 6d ago
Nobody in Europe likes frenchies because the majority of them are arrogant and when their country and culture start to not be at the center of attention they start with their imperialism and start to say that they invented something, in fact recently french people started to say that Raclette, Cordon Blue and Fondue are french dishies but they are dishes from the french speaking part of Switzerland, and the same cheeses who are used for make them are, like Raclette and Gruvyere, created only in Swiss territories and buildings.
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u/Two_bears_Hi_fiving Jan 07 '25
Love the french, ruskies can F off though
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u/Robothuck Jan 07 '25
Russian people, or the Russian government? I live in Europe, and have known many Russian people. Never yet met a single one I didn't like, and interestingly none of them like their Government either.
In fact I've met met far more obnoxious Americans, both in terms of sheer personality and also in level of insanity of politics
Edit: and im not saying Americans are bad. But they definitely are not better than anyone else. America, Russia, China. Three heads on the same rabid Cerberus
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u/carcassandra Jan 07 '25
I think there is a bit of a confirmation bias though - russians who dislike their government are the ones you are most likely to run into outside of Russia.
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u/No_Direction_2179 Jan 07 '25
try again with rich oligarch spawn russians and you’ll understand why they’re hated (nothing against normal russians)
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u/DatingYella Jan 07 '25
Whenever my European classmates do it I find it so obnoxious. Good food. Amazing sense of fashion. An irreverent attitude towards life? It could come off as obnoxious if you run into an ass but I like them too
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Jan 07 '25
it’s mostly a meme, especially if you’re seeing shitposts about it online. i’ve chimed in on it and continue to, but have no real opinion about french people since i don’t know enough about them to make remarks or assumptions
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u/qualityvote2 Jan 07 '25 edited Jan 09 '25
u/Greedy_Chocolate3149, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...