The problem with the French....Case in point:
...is that they have no word for rapprochement.
"I think we can both agree that the diplomatic situation between our two nations is both regrettable and unnecessary . . . Perhaps the worst part is that it has resurrected in the United States some ugly, unfair, inaccurate and totally unsupportable stereotypes about the French. You know: that you are elitist, that you are rude, that you are cowards, that you have an insufferable air of superiority, that your fashion shows are nothing more than elaborate parades of clown costumes . . ."The minister waited for translation.
". . . that your movies are long and boring and unbearably pretentious, that you lack personal hygiene and let your dogs poop all over the streets, and indeed, that your national pet, the poodle, is a ridiculous life form better never to have survived the evolutionary process."
The minister shifted slightly in his chair.
"I will not insult you, or dignify these preposterous, obviously untrue stereotypes by asking you to respond to them. But I was just wondering if the French have any equally preposterous and obviously untrue stereotypes about Americans that you might enumerate here for the purpose of my not dignifying them with a response."
Re:Re-approachment
ziggy on 2003-09-07T17:53:24
Actually, the whole article is rather funny:The author writes a humorous column for the Wasington Post magazine every Sunday. This week, he wrote the cover story.And so it goes throughout the day. The French people are open, not suspicious. They are self-deprecating, not arrogant. They are almost gallant in their treatment of a stranger. They are defying stereotype.They are being contrarian. How damnably French of them.
:-)
The joys of having a junk-shop style memory...
