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Why the French aren't as rude as you like to think they are.

You probably like to think that you have the French all worked out. Every time you hear or read, ‘The French’, you have your own idea about what that represents. Unless you’ve spent a considerable amount of time in France, studied French, or in fact are, French; there’s a big chance that your idea comfortably rests on a skewed cultural stereotype. You may enjoy France’s fashion, cheese and wine, but you still think they’re rude, arrogant, and pretentious. Different things may have influenced this; maybe it was a friend’s holiday story about their time with an unfriendly Parisian waiter, or maybe it has something to do with how the thieves and mistresses in films always manage to be French. As a society we enjoy stereotypes because they’re cognitively efficient. We find comfort in repetition, and just like we enjoy watching our favourite films again and again, the ‘experiential control’ makes us feel at ease when we know how stories will end. We also find comfort in numbers, creating easy bandwagons. When we travel abroad and discover how other cultures work, our own culture is always our first point of reference. Cultural stereotypes are like accents, they’re always only relative to your own. Since being in France, I’ve encountered some of the funniest and friendliest people I’ve met in my life; and this is why I roll my eyes each time I overhear someone talking about their ‘cold nature’. When travelling to a foreign country, it’s indispensable in having a basic understanding for that country’s existing norms and values in order to be respectful to its people, and in turn, to be respected, by its people. The catalyst for this rude French stereotype has unquestionably stemmed from unawareness about their rules of social conduct. I am not French, and I will never be French, but I have a good idea about how they work, and this is why I can see both sides to the story. I am merely the observer, the messenger, the ‘cultural translator’ if you like, and this is why I can tell you why the French aren’t as rude as you like to think they are..

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Photo from the beautiful Montpellier, France 2012