posted
In France, i already said you that Media desinform us about what you are and what you really think. For example, i recall you the thread about the movie "Les choristes" and the warning on it for parents who are transform into "censure" by french media.
But i know it is identically in USA about Frenches. I heard some news in Fox news totally wrong.
So I have the idea to correct information you have about french, and to answer to all questions you may have. I'll try to answer it objectivelly.
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quote:But i know it is identically in USA about Frenches. I heard some news in Fox news totally wrong.
Foxnews is only slightly more reliable than the Drudge Report. Its really garbage a lot of the time.
So, what to ask a Frenchman...
Well I am always curious as to what kids in other countries learn in school. Can you tell me a little bit about how these topics were covered in your education?
1) World War II: Vichy France, French Liberation, that sort of thing. America's involvement?
2) American Revolution: Does your education cover it? The French involvement? The possible influence on the French Revolution?
3) The French Revolution: The Reign of Terror, Napoleon a hero?
That sort of thing interests me greatly .
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The real question: Is it true that French people don't eat corn on the cob?
I had a French professor tell us this was in fact true, however I was served corn on the cob in Switzerland-- but since that's not France...
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What is up with the Metro in Paris? The German and Austrian subway systems are so organized and easy to understand... and the Metro is completely comfusing. (It might be partly because I speak fluent German and not a word of French )
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I've always wanted to hear little kids from different non-English speaking countries imitating English speakers. What sounds do they hone in on as stereotypically English? Not that you can really answer this is a written format, but still.
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There's a book I read that includes excerpts from foreign textbooks about the history of the US. INteresting stuff, except that it was as dry as many textbooks are.
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I read that book, dean, I didn't think it was all that dry. My two favorite parts were anything taken from North Korean textbooks and the incredible variation in reports of the spanish-american war.
quote:Foxnews is only slightly more reliable than the Drudge Report. Its really garbage a lot of the time.
Please prove this.
Well obviously I can't prove this . Its my opinion that Foxnews is a pretty bad place to get your news. Every single story has the best possible spin on it for the Bush administration. To the point of inaccuracy in some cases.
One instance off the top of my head were the headlines coming out of the initial Iraq invasion. They would have these "breaking news" blurbs which half the time were either misleading, or just plain false.
I didn't take screenshots or anything, but it would go something like...
"Chemical Weapons Found!" The whole story comes out, and no, there were no chemical weapons found. Just some old storage tanks which are now empty.
"Mobile Chemical/Biological Weapons Labs Discovered!" The story comes out, and they were those hydrogen/helium labs.
At the time I was checking Foxnews every day, I supported the Iraq war because I had been convinced of Saddam's WMD capabilities. Each false headline angered me, and I came to the conclusion that they were not, in fact, reliable. They were downright misleading and sensational.
And while they are "commentary" shows, and not "news", almost every time I flip to there, its: Guy 1:"Bush is obviously right in this matter" Guy 2: "I disagree, its the Democrats who are obviously wrong" Guy 3: "You know, I can't believe there are even democrats left in the world" Guy 4: "Come on now guys, Bush was only 90% right on this matter at best" Guy 1,2,3: *shocked indignation*
I don't want to turn this into an argument, but the fact that they said something totally wrong about France (I will trust Choobak that they did) does not surprise me in the least, considering that France was the main country which opposed Bush's war.
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Thirdly : we eat corn on the cob. We produce many corn in fact.
Forthly : Frenches like peanuts butter, but prefer Nutella, just confiture (marmelade) or just real butter.
fifthly : The Metro is really good in Paris, but as it is old, it is not prepared for foreigners. But it is in renovation currently. The last ligne (the 14) is totally automatized and run very well !
sixthly : Waw ! I don't know exactly how respond to that ! When i was a child, i tried to speak sound like English singers. But i cannot describe that. We call that speak "yaourt".
Seventhly : Another hystory question. So, I follow a great part of the USA history during the cold war in highschool class (all young follow this lesson), The vietnam war (in the continuity of Indochine), the North korean and the south korean (about that i watched the movie frère d'arme or brother in arms (?) about this war : fabulously interesting !) the battle Kennedy vs krouchtchev, and Reagan vs Gorbadchev. But i must said, we don't really study the north vs South battle or the mexican war. Just the revolution.
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1) Why do you think it is that the French have a reputation for being mean to tourists? Is it just exageration? Is it only Parisians? My experience in Paris was so pleasant, but I know people who had just horrible times there.
2) How come my baguettes never turn out like the ones in Paris? Even when they turn out very well, they aren't as good as Parisian ones.
3) Do French men secretly obsess about how they look in a Speedo, or do they just not care? And...as a followup: Are all French men issued a Speedo at birth and expected to just grow into (or rather out of) it?
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Bob - you have to get a baguette pan with little holes punched in the bottom. Really. That's the secret.
But alas, I am not an expert French baker yet. I can't make a croissant or pain au chocolat ot save my life. The butter always gets all over, making it hard to roll, and they taste yeasty when I'm done.
Here's my question for Choobak, which is really just a random thing I was wondering about today: cadres. I know that a certain class of workers are called cadres, and I also know that it means "frame," but I never understood exactly what about the workers qualify them to be called cadres. Is it something about the amount of money they make, or their function in the company? Why do they have the name "frames?"
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1) I think it is sometime right, sometime wrong. Depend to who you meet. Personally, i like help tourists by piece of advices. But there are some people a little selfish. (sometime a lot).
2) Be french ! We don't use OGM What are your ingredients ? And how prepere your dough ?
3) what is a Speedo ?
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Annie, I am a Cadre. The best translation is manager, i think, Because we are people who lead team : Nous "encadrons des personnes dans leur travail". Are you understanding ?
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Ok ! So, Some guys be care of what they look in speedo, but not the major part. I'm not like this, fortunatelly,because i could depress with my little tummy (?) And no, we aren't born with one.
*edit* Right Annie. And we lash them.
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Trust me, neither did I. I just want people to stop passing their opinion off as fact. It's been happening a lot lately.
Choobak, I love that when I read your posts, I read them with a French accent. Especially when you say "Frenches," I love that.
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Is the Tour de France really a national event? I obsess about it here the entire time, and it really seems like all of France gets behind it. I was wondering what kind of coverage it actually gets in Frnace?
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quote:Foxnews is only slightly more reliable than the Drudge Report. Its really garbage a lot of the time.
Please prove this.
quote:A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in 2005 found that, in covering the Iraq War in 2004, 73% of FOX News stories included editorial opinions, compared to 29% on MSNBC and 2% on CNN. The same report found FOX less likely than CNN to present multiple points of view.
quote: A news article in October 2004 by Carl Cameron, chief political correspondent of FOX News, containing three fabricated quotes attributed to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The quotes included: "Women should like me! I do manicures," "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great?" and "I'm metrosexual [Bush's] a cowboy." FOX News retracted the story and apologized (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134166,00.html), citing a "jest" that became published through "fatigue and bad judgement, not malice".
quote: An opinion piece on the Hutton Inquiry decision, in which John Gibson said the BBC had "a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism that was obsessive, irrational and dishonest" and that the BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan, "insisted on air that the Iraqi Army was heroically repulsing an incompetent American Military" [19] (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109821,00.html). In reviewing viewer complaints, Ofcom (the United Kingdom's statutory broadcasting regulator) ruled that FOX News had breached the program code in three areas: "respect for truth", "opportunity to take part", and "personal view programmes opinions expressed must not rest upon false evidence". Fox News admitted that Gilligan had not actually said the words that John Gibson appeared to attribute to him; OfCom rejected the claim that it was intended to be a paraphrase. (see Ofcom complaint, response and ruling (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/prog_cb/pcb_11/upheld_cases)).
quote: Frank O'Donnell, a former employee of WTTG (a FOX affiliate), says: "We were stunned, because up until that point, we were allowed to do legitimate news. Suddenly, we were ordered from the top to carry [...] Republican, right-wing propaganda,"
quote: In a Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed published on May 20, 2005, London bureau chief Scott Norvell wrote: "Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly."
quote: Compared guests on FOX's Special Report with Brit Hume with those on CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports: white male Republican conservative Hume (FOX) 93% 91% 89% 71% Blitzer (CNN) 93% 86% 57% 32%
And as indirect evidence a recent study found that US residents who got their news primarily from FOX were more likely than the average citizen to believe common (pro-Bush) misconceptions about the Iraq war.
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posted
Is it true that the French will refuse to speak English with you even though they all studied it in school.
My experience in France suggests this is not true. We've met alot of friendly people who seem to go out of their way to communicate with us using hand gestures and the like but who don't seem to speak or understand any english.
Is it true that the French all spend at least 3 hours eating dinner or this just what happens in restaurants.
[ July 20, 2005, 12:38 PM: Message edited by: The Rabbit ]
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posted
Normally, I wouldn't say anything but you have said before tha you are trying to improve your English so I just thought I'd offer this one little correction. In in English we don't say 'Frenches' for plural, we say "The French". Frenches is a brand of mustard.
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posted
I like it too, but he has said he was interested in improving his English so I thought it might be rude not to say something.
And regarding the mustard, you can't expect me to spell it correctly if I never buy it. I prefer Grey Poupon.
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hum !!! Thanks for the correction. You are nice.
To respond to the new questions :
Firstly : The tour de France is really a national event. Sometime, a stage go in neighbouring countries as Belgium, Germany or Italy. But the race make always the turn of France and finish at Paris. It covered a great part of my country.
Secondly : About speaking in english, many French (and me sometime) have difficulties. It's not the habitual sound. I already explain that languages have a band of frequency and French is in a lower band than English. So the apprehension of English is a hard for us. And I think you may have some difficulties to speak french, no ? But French who can speak in english don't hesitate to use it with tourists. About eating, we spend i think 2 hours by day than three commonly. But in restaurant, we like take our time and for dîner we may spend two hours. Eating is something really important for us because it is a time to exchange idea and speak with friends. Uncommunication is the badness of our time. Don't forget this !
thirdly : Skillery, What do you say ? Speedo and baguettes what do you mean ? Explain your question !
Forthly : The only real mustard is the Dijon's mustard. For people who don't know Dijon is In Bourgogne on East of France.
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quote:The most famous of the great Dijon mustard firms was founded in 1777. Monsieur Grey, who had developed a secret recipe for a strong mustard made with white wine, formed a partnership with Monsieur Poupon, who supplied the financial backing to manufacture the product.
The extra scharf mustard I buy in germany is pretty tasty as well. It's got quite a kick.
Yellow Mustard is for pansies.
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Choobak, "badness" is more of a slang word derived from the use of "bad" to mean "cool" or "awesome." Most of the time it's fit into a sentence to replace "Highness." For example, "Now intorducing, the coolest person in the world! His Badness, scottneb!" See, it's just a silly word.
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