This is kind of interesting. People in various EU countries were asked what they thought of the French. They weren’t fed anything, they were simply asked to provide five adjectives that summed up the French.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as “chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless”. However, the French may be more shocked by the views of other nations.
For the Germans, the French are “pretentious, offhand and frivolous”. The Dutch describe them as “agitated, talkative and shallow.” The Spanish see them as “cold, distant, vain and impolite” and the Portuguese as “preaching”. In Italy they comes across as “snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed” and the Greeks find them “not very with it, egocentric bons vivants”.
Interestingly, the Swedes consider them “disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty”.
But the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll was conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just what they thought of them.
“Interviewees were simply asked an open question - what five adjectives sum up the French,” said Olivier Clodong, one of the study’s two authors and a professor of social and political communication at the Ecole Superieur de Commerce, in Paris. “The answers were overwhelmingly negative.”
Aw. Quel Dommage
May 17th, 2005 at 3:09 am
[...]
Inclusive language gets sillier Rev. Billy Graham: Another Lion in Winter EU loves France, hates the Frenc [...]
May 17th, 2005 at 10:14 am
Interesting. My suspicion is the reverse would happen if the same nation were polled about America and Americans. Individually, Americans would be classified as friendly, bumptious, naive, etc., while America itself would retain its title as Satan incarnate. BTW, I can’t say I disagree with those polled. Decades ago, a trip to France revealed a breathtakingly beautiful country populated with unusually rude people.
May 17th, 2005 at 10:46 am
Europeans Not Fond Of The French
Apparently it isn’t only George Bush who finds the French difficult company. According to an article in The Telegraph, Europe…
May 17th, 2005 at 11:12 am
I had a gentleman from Columbia tell me he found Americans to be “thick”. After some clarification, we found out he meant fat.
May 17th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
[...] erwhelmingly negative.” And who was surprised. Look at their President: Update: The Anchoress has some biting commentary on the French.
[...]
May 17th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
Hate the French
TheY have been enemies of the British so many times they distrust the British almost as much as they distrust America, but they have the delusion they are the most important nation on the Continent, or at least should be.
May 17th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
That is funny, but not surprising. You can only be so sniffily pompous so often before people begin to resent it.