Spyke

Syndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.

View original on piefed.world

212 replies

discuss.tchncs.de

The French don't mind, cause they don't understand any language except French.

207
lemmy.zip

the impression I get is that they're pretending not to understand, but they do, they just don't give a flying fuck what other people think of them because everyone keeps buying their cheese, wine, and fashion so they're busy counting money, getting laid, and smoking like chimneys lol

86
grranibalreply
lemmy.zip

Can confirm, their cheese if fucking awesome

35

Is it like NYC bagels where there's a noticeable difference? I've had high end bagels in Pennsylvania and Virginia where they use the same recipe and technique and they're legit not quite as good

Being a filthy American I've never tried a bread product made in France. Anyone tried both French and non-French (but made in the same style) baguettes/croissants who can speak for the difference?

1
Wanderreply
sh.itjust.works

Historically they think, or at least seem to think, learning English is beneath them. In fact doing anything not French is beneath them. Then they act like wankers and that's why everyone hates them.

English is the dominate language and the Chinese even accepted it before the French. At this point the youth have sort of given up and end up consuming a lot of media and internet in English so it's way better. Also the lingua franca of Europe is English so they got to learn it just to speak to everyone else, but they don't really and as such have probably the worst english is western Europe and even most of Europe in general.

0
mabeledoreply
lemmy.world

While I get your point, it’s hard to argue that English is the lingua Franca in Europe, since there are more native French speakers than English.

1
lemmy.world

Lingua franca isn't about native speakers, and if anything it's about second language speakers. Mandarin has the most global native speakers, but even if we remove it from the running because it has a logographic writing system, number 2 is Spanish. Yet the global lingua franca is English.

2

Lingua Franca is about how many people you could communicate with across boundaries, thus native speakers play a critical role here.

“English is the global lingua Franca” is frankly debatable, given the proficiency requirements in many fields. Proof of it is that translators are still ubiquitous in places of business when it comes to negotiations.

0
zaphodreply
sopuli.xyz

Ils le comprennent parfaitement mais ils refusent de le parler.

55
jobbiesreply
lemmy.zip

Je mapelle jobbies et je 35 ans. Je habite a Ecosse et je taime Duran Duran et le ping pong.

6
jifreply
piefed.ca

This is an outdated stereotype. I'd be willing to bet more French speak a second language than Americans.

17
Tjareply
programming.dev

But not than Belgians, Dutch, polish or Germans, which are the most frequent comparisons.

11
Miaoureply
jlai.lu

Why would the Dutch/Polish/Germans speak more languages?

2
dalekcaanreply
feddit.nl

Idk about the Polish and Germans personally, but for the Netherlands at least it's a relatively small country with a limited amount of entertainment made there, so a ton of media is imported and subtitled. Since a lot of it comes from the US and UK, and most of it is subtitled (for the most part only kids' shows are dubbed over), the majority of people speak or at least understand English. According to Wikipedia, it has been estimated that as much as 90% to 97% of the population is proficient in English.

5

Also English, French and German are part of you high school curriculum next to Dutch so at least you get a basic understanding of 3 other languages, of the 3 English is the one that sticks the most because of the aforementioned media that gets imported.

4
Honytawkreply
discuss.tchncs.de

Belgium alone has 3 official languages: French, Dutch and a German speaking part.

The French part refuses to learn any of the other official languages, even in school. They don't see the need.

While the other parts are a lot more open to other languages. You will be hard pressed to find someone in Flanders that doesn't speak French on top of their Dutch.

4

?

What are you talking about.

We have obligatory 2 foreign language in our school curriculum.

Most people take English lv1 and then whatever of Italian/Spanish/German is closest border to them.

1
piefed.social

lol not in absolute numbers terms, no way. The US has 5x the population, and there are tons of immigrants that speak multiple languages. So regardless of how stupid native-born citizens are, there are still many bilingual+ people.

5

most people i know who grew up in california took at least a couple years of high school spanish.

i was a snot, i took german with the goth kids instead.

1
literature.cafe

Absolute numbers? what kind of intentionality disingenuous comparison is that? We have like 4x their population.

Try visiting France. Almost everyone in the major cities speaks English to a competent degree. Only like a quarter of Americans speak Spanish equivalently. I mean not even all Latin people speak Spanish in the US.

1

So you mean to degrade the immigrant US population further?

Just because Trump and his ilk barely know what "caliente" means does not erase the MASSIVE population who are ESL in the US.

1
Hazelreply
piefed.blahaj.zone

I've been in France for two days and have already met 2 young people who didn't speak more than high school English. Oh and I'm a tourist, so they were working a job where they have to interact with foreigners regularly...

Now of course anecdote isn't statistics, and my French is certainly no better, but compared to other European countries their English level is... notable.

3
literature.cafe

Wow two whole young people. So almost everyone else spoke English right? Don't lie to me because I've been there many times and I know they do.

It's crazy how Americans get defensive about the dumbest shit.

1

Yes, almost everyone spoke English, I never lied about that. Just compared to other European countries I've been, 2 is still notable. In many countries it'd be hard to find a single young person who didn't speak English even if you were trying to find them for 2 days.

I'd know because I live in a European country, I'm not American.

1

The reality is that most French people speak enough english to get by, we just don't like speaking it.

1
sh.itjust.works

They don't even understand French from other countries.

Source : Je suis Canadien français mais je parle anglais quand je vais en France. C'est beaucoup moins chiant.

13
Honytawkreply
discuss.tchncs.de

Ce n'est effectivement pas qu'une question d'accent. Ils utilisent des mots différents pour désigner certaines choses. Dites-vous aussi « quatre-vingt-dix-neuf » au lieu de « nonante-neuf » ?

2

Yeah, I'm from New Jersey but took French in middle and high school, and eventually, at 19 say let's do this thing, and I go to Montreal, and imagine my surprise when I have no idea what the fuck they're saying. And I make friends with a couple on a cruise from Gatineau, and my god, it's even harder to understand. I was failed by my education!

And when I go to Paris and speak French they're like "Okay you can stop," which to me means good enough! The New Jersey accent is quite unlike the French accent, it seems.

2

Someone in France told my friend she was speaking barbarian French (Quebecois French) once.

1
FishFacereply
piefed.social

This, and without a hint of irony.

France, you're a cunt and I love you.

17

Exactly! We may all hate each other on some level, but we are still sistren and brethren of europe (russia you dont count fuck off, but we can gladlely accept kasachstan as honorary european in its place instead). Hit on one of us and we are a united front!...atleast the people...politics...ugh lets not start that...

3
buranreply
lemmy.today

Do we Latinos join the club or not?

We love to mess with speakers of other Romance languages.

2
Ricazreply
lemmy.world

We can at least all agree that Portugal doesn't exist

3
lemmy.ml

Hating the French is a MI6 psyop to direct hate away from the Bri*ish

119
Hubireply
feddit.org

Most Europeans don't even think about the Bri*ish

49
ashenonereply
lemmy.ml

That's why your not invited to the haters ball

9
Valmondreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

What about the Germans? Or are they just too low hanging fruit for banter?

2

Banter is fun when the other side can give back in a humourous way. I'm told. I wouldn't know, too busy being efficient.

2

What are we for then - to direct hate away from the Yanks?

1
Wanderreply
sh.itjust.works

Unpopular opinion but the British aren't even that bad. They are only hated so much because they have been really good at a lot of things and drinking too much. The foundation most of the world is based on is British and it's easy to miss.

0
mabeledoreply
lemmy.world

The foundation most of the world is based on is British and it's easy to miss.

Lol not even close.

Also, there are very specific reasons why the British have bad rep.

3
lemmy.world

English

When people talk about the "British" they tend to show their ignorance about the UK

You're talking about the English.

Not the Scots, not the Welsh

1

When people talk about the “British” they tend to show their ignorance about the UK

Right, because there weren't any Welsh or Scottish colonizers.

1
lemmy.world

Sometimes you Germans love them a little too much and France has to get restraining orders.

59

It's not our fault when they make their streets so marchable with rows of trees to keep our soldiers in the shade.

8
feddit.dk

I feel like most Europeans have no issue with the French, it's an America-thing. Maybe a UK-thing.

38
horsereply
feddit.org

The French are incredibly based and the trope of them surrendering immediately is ridiculous. The French resistance during WW2 was fierce. And throughout history and in current times the French don't take shit from their government. If the French government tried even a fraction of what our (German) government is pushing through at the moment Paris would be burned to the ground. Meanwhile we (Germans) just whine and do nothing.

22

As another fellow german, i admire way more. We germans have lots to learn from french culture. From treating meal times and food as something to be celebrated and not a neccessary annoying task. Their local empathy without tearing others down. The joy of life and less complaining about small minor things while ignoring how good we got it. Their protest and workers-unity culture though is on top of the list. If we had that, Mr. Burns would have never gotten into office, a curtain brown party made in russia wouldnt be so populare, and so many social problems we wouldnt have rn.

Also the french goal for european independence and self reliance.

But the french nuclear power kink can stay in france

9
dwzapreply
lemmy.world

Here, take my upvote, and thank you!

-- A french.

19
skisnowreply
lemmy.ca

It's an American thing that has slightly spilled out to the UK through popular media.

France has a strong track record post WW2 of consistently standing up to the USA's wars abroad; they were one of the first to kick US nuclear bases out of their own country during the Cold War, and were their biggest Western opponent at the UN regarding the second Iraq war. Hence the continued popularity of the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" trope in American media.

14
jdrreply
lemmy.ml

Never mind the 900 years of constant wars

3

"You see king philipe, we have a very lucrative wine trade in gascony and the flemish like us and we like their cloth industry. You know...thinking about, my mother was the last of the house of capet. Wouldnt that make...king of france?" - Edward III probably

2

Anyone in the 21st century claiming to still be sore over the Napoleonic Wars or anything pre-dating them maybe shouldn't be taken seriously

0
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Ah, no, we don't have issues with the french, we just love hating on each other because you know, we have history. Not with the current ones which is why we have no issues, but you know, it's entertaining.

French can joke about how the Basque did a very early space program (terrorism), how the Germans love their soap (Nazism) and so on. We don't have issues with each other, it's just fuckery.

That's why it's weird when Americans call french white flags... They are not allowed, also their references are about their experiences as tourists, which is like, it was probably their fault.

13
1rrereply
discuss.tchncs.de

We hate "The French" but have no issues with French people.

6
jdrreply

The English once found a monkey after a shipwreck and tried and hanged it on the charge of being French.

3

Italians have a tendency to hate/compare themselve to the French.

For example: Italy scores very badly in some rankings. The first thing an Italian would do is to check if France is higher or lower than Italy. If it's lower, they'd say "at least we beat the french". If it's higher they'd say "damn we even scored worse than France... terrible".

But I don't think people actually hate france or the french. it's more like a meme I think!

::: spoiler Source: I'm italian and I don't hate nor love the French :::

5
sh.itjust.works

I'm an englishman francophile. I love Jacques Brel, Georges Perec, French food...

like everything this is just a meme

5
lemmy.world

We have no issue with the French. We do hate the Italians, they're a bunch of pushy fascists.

2

Their government. Fascists are everywhere. Germany, france, poland, england, turkey, romania, finland, sweden, portugal. Everywhere. and once the fat bald snake of a bear is dealt with one way or the other, oooh that will be beautiful watching them scramble without their biggest finance and supprter.

2

There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the DutchFrench.

31
lemmy.world

I love Europe. It's the only place where a bus driver from country A can get into a heated argument with a random guy from country B in two completely different languages. After both have gone on for a bit and not understood a word of what the other one was saying, they have reached a point of agreement, can wish each other a good day and carry on.

29

And here I am, just sitting in the bus, waiting to get to work, while these two are shouting in foreign languages

I've genuinely been in that exact situation haha

2
lemmy.zip

In overwatch EU servers (maybe in other similar games too), in my experience, in terms of pure toxicity hurled at you, having a french accent in comms manages to be even worse than having a female voice. Couldn't help but smile this one time someone told me they wouldn't be using the team comms because they were french. Amazing.

27
lemmy.world

I love it. Never understood the hate for the French. I sometimes mock their accent out of admiration (same with Dutch). It sounds so nice to me. Once came across a woman who spoke in a French accent in Overwatch, rolled her R's forever and it sounded so attractive.

8
bimbobearreply
lemmy.world

Despite some very famous recent losses, France historically tended to go to war with and win against just about everyone on the continent, as such everyone got a bit salty about it. These days its just more of a meme.

7

Yeah, you know, I wasn't really around then. And I don't believe in making fun of someone because their ancestors were dicks.

4

Well, they conquered Spain by turning against them, allies up to that point, and having their army inside the country already. "The war can be said to have started when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Spain, but it escalated in 1808 after Napoleonic France occupied Spain, which had been its ally."

The the Spaniards handed Napoleon his ass on a platter, coining the word guerrilla.

2
icelimitreply
lemmy.ml

It was pretty much all Napoleon though. Combined with utter incompetence of the neighbouring states.

0

Never understood the hate for the French.

Just look up their colonial past. Before you think "That's old stuff now", some places still suffer from French colonialism today

One of the founding principles of the (CFA, African Financial Community) was that colonies had to keep 50 percent of their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury, plus an additional 20 percent for financial liabilities. Thus, member states only retained 30 percent of reserves within their borders.

The monetary zone limits industrialization and economic development and discourages trade among member states

1
Jumireply
lemmy.world

The French are the saltiest fuckers on the European OW servers. If they want to really insult you they switch to French, fucking cowards.

Which is honestly absolutely hilarious

7
Ricazreply
lemmy.world

Literally >50% of every sentence out of a Frenchmans mouth online is fdp or mdr..

2

Not all french are versed in the art of cursing, that is the sad truth.

2
Axolotlreply
feddit.it

Tbf, english insults are generally very lame compared to French, Italian etc etc

1

I don't know, calling someone a twat, plonker or nob has its charm. Although German ones are the best in any case

3

I actually quite like the french nowadays....coming from a dutchie

23
rbosreply
lemmy.ca

Nah, Quebec's cool. They know how to throw a good rager.

12
lemmy.ca

We love them because we can immediately tell they aren't American.

8
lemmy.ca

Without QC we'd have turned indistinguishable from Americans.

7
muusemuusereply
sh.itjust.works

You guys aren’t all that different from us Americans. You are us on a time delay. You see all the awful shit we do and resist at first, but when the outrage starts dying down you do the same awful shit too.

2
lemmy.ca

If you believe what is happening is a result of the progression of the capitalist system, that assessment makes perfect sense. I tend to believe that.

1

It's a bit more ugly than that given the historical context. Because of religious and political realities, French Canadiens relative to Canadians are more like Ireland for the British. There is some leftover racism from that era but most urban Canadians don't fall in the old patterns.

2
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Not true, we the French don't care you hate us.

If anything, your hate makes us stronger.

17
Leviathanreply
lemmy.world

I showed a French dude a meme about British people relaxing when they get home because they don't have to do the accent anymore. He said it's the same with French people, except about pretending they like France.

4

and here I thought rioting in the streets for your rights and to keep government terrified of, and in service to, the people every 3 months was what made you stronger.

1

If anything, your hate makes us stronger.

You may want to recalibrate that, you're looking awfully weak and french

0
HugeNerdreply
lemmy.ca

Your food sucks and your wines are hugely overrated.

-1
lemmy.world

The US equivalent would be Missouri lolol

Sub-continents bonding over a shared butt-of-the-joke is fun.

16
sh.itjust.works

First time I'm hearing of hate for Missouri lmao. Usually it gets lumped in with the rest of the Midwest for being nothing but corn and cows. I've heard a lot more hate for states like Alabama and Mississippi

23
piefed.ca

I grew up in Iowa, you could tell an old timer based on the way they pronounce it. We had a stereotype of Missourians always "warshing" their clothes and "fixing" their dinners. "You talk with that lazy mouth like you're from down Mizzurah."

3

Yeah it should be Ohio, or one of the states surrounding Mississippi (whom all say "thank God for Mississippi" when looking at their low stats)

14

There's no hate like the hate between Californians and Texans.

1
Carlreply
anarchist.nexus

It probably depends on where you live. If you’re really anywhere outside of the south, it can fit any of the southern states. Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Arkansas, etc… Basically any state that fell prey to the Southern Strategy.

2

I don't hate any states because even our states can have a huge amount of people, so they're very diverse. If anything, I really really don't appreciate the politicians in certain states. They are killing their residents and economies. Name a red state basically.

2

Bro what? Most of the country has literally never once even thought of Missouri.

It depends on where you are, of course, but the real butt of the joke states are obviously Texas, Florida, and West Virginia.

2
lmuelreply
sopuli.xyz

Maybe that’s why we Germans don’t hate you guys - we’re busy hating our own country as well

14
lemmy.world

People love to hate the french but I find it pretty unearned.

13
Appoxoreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

They put up the white flag before any argument could be made.

-3
lemmy.blahaj.zone

American commenter detected, how dare you fuck with France without even being European. And if you are European, how dare you using the American punchline when we have our own for France.

11

Then proceed to read the second sentence, thank you. I'm on the other side of France, but feel free to ask for some hate mail material.

3

The painful 'Murican obsession with identifying as a member of a culture they have a tenuous link to, in an attempt to be interesting, is genuinely cringeworthy

Your great grandfather was Scottish, French, Irish, Italian etc.

Not you

12
lemmy.ml

It's obviously cringe, but I don't think it's some trivial thing, it's a trauma of Colonialism. Americans don't truly have a claim to the land they pillaged to live on. Whiteness absorbed European ethics like the borg, stripped them of a language and culture, and all they have left is getting run over by a Ford F250 in a Walmart parking lot.

So a lot of white Americans have this near libidinal need to tie themselves to a culture they consider to be more real or substantive. I don't think that's a trivial desire, but insisting that you're Italian, despite not knowing anything about the place, or claiming your great great great grandma was a Cherokee princess, or some shit.... That ain't it

3

FWIW, I don't think it's a practice exclusive to whiteness, since marginalized groups will establish a nucleus of cultural identity as well. Whiteness will supplant that cultural identity in all but name, eliminating the need for traditional ethnic enclaves, but there are still plenty of legitimate (mostly non-white) subcultures in North America with shared practices and traditions that are not wholly American either.

1
lemmy.world

Hating other nations is the starting point of all fascist ideas. (also, I'm french)

10
hansoloreply
lemmy.today

Isn't that also how the World Cup works? For example, I wanted Mbape to win, and the English to lose, but that doesn't mean I actually supported France.

2

Yes. Checks out. Ball sport is facism. With a ball.

A lot of matches could be avoided if only they had more balls. The ball owner just decided to only make one ball available, so they'd fight over it and remove attention from himself. It's like the Colosseum, where the Caesar never had to fight.

This is the shitpost community, btw.

5

How many wars have the US started by invading other countries?

Quick Google search:

• Mexican-American War (1846)

• Various 19th-century interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, etc.)

• Philippine-American War (1899)

• Vietnam War escalation (1965)

• Invasion of Grenada (1983)

• Invasion of Panama (1989)

• Gulf War (1991)

• Invasion of Afghanistan (2001)

• Invasion of Iraq (2003)

• Invasion of Iran (2026)

3

One thing doesn't exclude the other. We have big hearts, we can hate multiple countries, including our own.

18

Sorry. We got other things to hate on right now that are worth more hate than the French.

9
grayreply
lemmy.ml

SNP based DNA-test. But in my humble opinion as a bioinformatician, genetic variants don't have nationhood

12
tetris11reply
feddit.uk

aren't those chips skewed towards over-represented european (sub)-populations in general though

4

You only need 13 relatives to be 100% of something in the 9th generation to have 5% ancestry in it (well specifically 5.078125%, but who is counting).

6

US Americans are kind of obsessed with DNA genealogy. The results are mostly insignificant, they can't tell you anything about the "nation" you are coming from. But it's fascinating for them to imagine they are 10% Welsh and 20% German.

4

Funny how the American one is better in principle, but worse in practise while the European one is worse in principle but (ehhh fine I guess but ugh) in practise

6

I feel like the incelish greentext format is best way to explain my hatred for the historical France.

> Colonizes random north african country.  
> Adds "being gay is illegal" to their constitution.   
> Leaves.  
> Refuses to elaborate.  
Wtf was their problem?

Reference

5

Americans: You should see how racist Asian countries are!

(Me going to Europe and hearing the wildest takes)

3

Reminds me of that experiment some guy did and dressed up in Mexican attire and Americans were all saying how offensive it was.

Then he went to Mexico and asked old Mexican men and they all shrugged and couldn't have been less offended by him.

2
sopuli.xyz

The French are hated by basically any nation that has a border with them. They fucking invented chauvinism. Wonder why?

1

I'd say we just hate on them for the funny. The moment the yanks start shitting on the French they're our European homies.

6

Chauvinism has been one of the best selling exports though. No self respecting nationalist who isn't also a chauvinist.

2

Stereotypes.

Americans are incredibly obsessed about which European countries their distant ancestors came from, even if they basically know nothing about these countries or how they are today.

Meanwhile, in Europe, friendly neighbour ribbing is alive and well. Everyone slings mud over the border, and it's fine, usually, they'll do the same to us, you see.

3