Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Politesse
An English journalist learns about French manners, the hard way. I now realize how impolite I've been, not putting my elbows on the table and such.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Jan 02, 11:46:00 PM:
I think I now have a shopping list of every thing I want to do while I'm in France.
By , at
Tue Jan 02, 11:50:00 PM:
Oh wait, silly me, I thought there might be a time I would visit France, but I think I'll just pound nails into my skull instead.
By , at
Wed Jan 03, 11:56:00 AM:
Why do some people think their customs are the immutable laws of the universe?
By 
Sluggo, at
Wed Jan 03, 12:15:00 PM:
I like meeting people who are smarter than I am and enjoy being around people who are better looking than I am. I am intimidated, though, in a pleasent way, by people with nicer manners. Nothing is more impressive to me, except, perhaps the rare occasion of meeting children with nice manners, and in that case I'm impressed mostly with their parents.
To me, it just implies a conscious effort to put others at their ease, to listen and to take others as they present themselves. Of course, if you are presented with evidence of the others' ill will or crudeness, then you switch to the French model of manners: a formal system of ostracism
By , at
Wed Jan 03, 12:51:00 PM:
They eat very smelly cheese, and drink overpriced wine, and mock foreigners from anywhere, all the time, unmercifully!
What a marvelous country!! (kidding).
Don't be too intimidated by the attached article. Most of the French that I hobnob with are funny and pleasurable people to dine with. This attached article only applies to the upper strata of society. Most of us would be just as out of place at a dinner party in New York city among the wealthy and powerful there.
-David
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed Jan 03, 01:35:00 PM:
Good point. We breed our own brand of snobs in the states. And lots of them want to be more like the French...
