They didn’t learn French before moving to a French country? Just… wow.
It’s like that story about the family that moved to Russia and said “We didn’t think it would be so hard to live in Russia when we didn’t speak Russian!”
You can move to most European countries and learn the language from the welcoming people there that can switch to English or use a translator if necessary.
In France you are just a outcast, this is due to French people being assholes with their noses up their ass.
That has not been my experience of France. Maybe its just me but almost everyone I met in Paris was friendly and many spoke English at least a little. I had some wild nights getting trashed and riding the Metro all over, no one gave me any shit for speaking English anywhere I went. I wouldn’t try to live there without at least a basic understanding of the language but as an English speaking visitor it was perfectly fine and I found the random Parisians I met to generally be cool people and not at all like their reputation.
Yeah, France is the exception, but only because they’re narcissistic pricks with nothing to be narcissistic about, particularly their pricks.
I speak French and was an outcast, though it wasn’t nearly as bad outside of Paris, other cities just ignore you mostly.
Note: I was an exchange student in the US, and hosted some US student in return, back in France. So I was able to live the culture shock first hand. 😆
It is true that there is a sharp contrast between the French way of life and other, more easy going countries, like the US.
Politeness is key, especially between strangers. But without knowing any of the rules, a foreigner has a good chance of being rude without even realizing it.
But once you got past that hard outer shell, we can be quite friendly. Of course, there are exceptions, and I personally experienced some pretty rude waiter in Paris… once.
It’s not that.
Sweden is probably more polite, and it’s fine. The rest of France is also lovely.
Paris just seems to breed assholes somehow.
Maybe it’s you, not the french?
I live here, as a foreigner, and sure the bureaucracy is wild as is the language but I haven’t felt what you’re conveying, especially in Paris where no one gives a damn if you speak english or anything, you could dress up in toilet paper and people wouldn’t care.
Gotta go look at some impressionist paintings and then go to the movies, after eating some good stuff, all on my modern bicycle.
On the countryside people are more like the common clay, but they are like that for everyone.
Again, every other country, every other city in France were lovely.
The louvre was gorgeous.
As I said, Paris would be great if it wasn’t for all the fucking people.
Ok, yes that’s known, in paris people are stressed and rudish, but they are that to everyone without discrimination.
It didn’t seem like stress, it seemed like they genuinely enjoyed being superior entitled assholes.
And as an American, I thought I had a high threshold for that.
The rest of Europe was incredible, the Nordic countries are my vision of heaven on earth. Mostly moved to Sweden, yesterday basically cut my last ties.
It’s also cultural, when you go to a café or a shop or a restaurant in Paris, you go to someone elses place (theory is that as it’s so small in overcrowded Paris, it was actually someones home too and history made the rest), you are not some golden client and instead you are on their turf, so they can ask you to move, not serve you etc.
Maybe that’s why some people think the french are rude.
This was my experience in Paris, but not in Nice, even away from the tourist traps like Vizille I was very much encouraged to speak my broken French so I could learn. If they spoke English they’d apoligize for a dropped participle and then pull out a word like pugillistic.
Parisians hate everyone, including the French.
I can agree that some of my compatriots can be rough with tourists, and I apologise for that. I personally try to help everyone I come across. There is, however, a big difference between coming for a few weeks for vacation, only speaking English, and believing you can come to live and not make the slightest of effort to learn the tongue. People will notice you can not learn how to ask for a baguette, and in return, will not make efforts either.
You can move to most European countries and learn the language from the welcoming people there that can switch to English or use a translator if necessary.
Not in the Netherlands. Nobody will speak dutch to you, and will switch to English immediately if they detect an accent.
Chief among the drawbacks of life in Nimes, McIsaac-Kierklo says, is that she can’t often get good produce to cook with — she notes limp celery for sale at the local grocery story. And, she says, the wonders of French cuisine haven’t really won her over.
“People go, ‘Oh my god, the French food is so fabulous.’ Yeah, if you want to eat brie, pâté, pastries and French bread all day long,” she tells CNN. “But who eats like that?”
Also: the couple has struggled to make friends, McIsaac-Kierklo has not yet mastered the language (or learned much of it), and the bureaucracies behind the healthcare system and banking system, and getting a long-stay visa, have been nightmarish.
…who the fuck are these people? How do you not like French food? How are they NOT finding excellent produce? It’s fucking EVERYWHERE in France, and miles better on average than what we get in the states. And not bothering to even learn French, and then being annoyed that it’s hard to make friends is just… what…?
The CNN article is actually even better. HERE for example is some some of the so-called terrible produce. I also liked this:
“I said to Ed one day, ‘I haven’t talked to one person here in three months…’ I just miss interacting,” she says, adding that she doesn’t necessarily “want to hang around with expats” as “that’s not exactly why we came on this adventure.”
Locals have been friendly and welcoming, but Joanna hasn’t managed to “strike up friendships” the way she would have hoped to, conceding that the language and cultural barrier have made things more tricky.
I think maybe the most clear evidence that these two are idiots and California cliches with no ability to self-reflect, however, is that they agreed to the story at all. Okay, you were DINKs for a long time and now you have money to burn and did something slightly dumb. Why in the holy hell would you tell the world?!?!?
Joanna explains that she and Ed bought and sold three different homes during their first 15 years of marriage, “giving us a comfortable amount of cash to afford us the option to travel and even relocate to anywhere we wanted.”
In 2010, the couple bought a summer home in Northern California and spent eight years or so “going back and forth to San Francisco.”
“I think every married couple needs two places to live, because you’ve got to get away from each other,” adds Joanna, who previously worked as a healthcare executive.
Oh fuck off you entitled POS.
Those peppers are stunning. What is she complaining about?
Even the rest of the stuff on the shelves looks beautiful. I’m legitimately confused
Lol im not a big france fan, i like germany and spain better to be honest but its still really easy to get produce like other european countries(unlike the us where you have to sell your left testicle for it). Not learning the language and then complaining is just usual anglo centrism or what they call it. And dont you dare talk about “bureaucracies” to me as an american, just getting into your country is a fucking pain in the ass. A lot of people take my america hate personally but the thing is just fix it. I hate useless complications, vote for the people who will fix it. Its not a personal attack against you, its an attack against your country. Europe and the eu are a million miles from perfect but most countries are a million more miles from it.
… I don’t like french food. It’s not bad, it’s just massively overdone, like it’s all they have.
Wife adored it though, she’s a proper francophile, we’d go to a bistro, have lunch, leave, go 5 feet, she’d want to try the one next door too.
In her defense she didn’t know she was pregnant at the time, but she’s still an extreme francophile.
Personally the French outside of Paris were awesome, just the Parisians who give the country such a bad reputation.
I don’t get the hubbub about French food either. I’ve been to fancy french restaurants, and the food was good but nothing special. Some French cheese is very good, but i can get that at local gourmet markets. The prepared dishes themselves were not remarkable to me
Why do I feel like they complained when people didn’t “speak American” in the States
They probably did tbh
They hedged their bets, holding on to Joanna’s rent-controlled apartment in San Francisco just in case they wanted to return.
I have LOTS of sympathy for these people.
Also: the couple has struggled to make friends, McIsaac-Kierklo has not yet mastered the language (or learned much of it)…
Is there any possibility that these two things are related?
Jackasses. I think it’s safe to say that San Francisco doesn’t want them back.
Oh I agree. This article would be funny if it weren’t so infuriating.
She’d eagerly looked forward to cooking meals in France beforehand, but Joanna says that she had trouble finding quality produce to cook.
“You go to the supermarket, and the produce is terrible,” she says. “You pick up a piece of celery and it falls over. It’s so limp. So old and so horrible. Who would eat this?”
Also: the couple has struggled to make friends, McIsaac-Kierklo has not yet mastered the language (or learned much of it)
“I honestly don’t think we could have put in any more effort to acclimatize to the French way of life,” adds Joanna, who describes their experience as “a nightmare.”
Don’t give up, lady. Try and bond with them by talking smack about French produce loudly and clearly in English. You’ll get through sooner or later. Even the French will eventually give in to determined gregariousness.
This article is amazing. It totally belongs in The Onion. Even the quotes are perfect.
Trump won and we’re immediately seeing the “don’t leave the US please” narrative
But it makes sense. America should keep its contagion to itself.
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Goes to a foreign country.
Does nothing to make life comfortable in said country.
Doesn’t like it.
Did you even read the article because it doesn’t sound like it.
Actually it does
They didn’t bother learning French and they don’t want to eat French food all the time. Sounds like a completely personal.problem when you move to France
I did. It sounded exactly like that to me. Maybe I’m wrong though.
A whole part of it is how they tried to find a doctor, and tried many but couldn’t find on taking new patients. To say they’ve tried nothing doesn’t make much sense.
A lot of that could very well be French attitude versus American attitude and the doctors offices going, “yeah, no, we’re not accepting new patients.” Accept 5 new French patients 2 minutes later. Especially given the American attitude given off in the quotes in the article are classic entitled behavior. “You mean you can’t make a Martini if it isn’t on the menu!??!!”
a lot of Americans really don’t understand that people don’t cater to the customer outside the US, you just get perceived as arrogant, doubly so in France and not speaking a lick of French.
Also: the couple has struggled to make friends, McIsaac-Kierklo has not yet mastered the language (or learned much of it)
Genuine question: Why France? Is that a particularly easy European country for an American to move to? Personally I’d give it a try, but I can speak the language decently enough to get around because I grew up with it.
I thought a lot of Americans were going to Portugal because they were specifically making an effort to entice immigrants.
If you don’t speak the language you’ll hang out with other expats, which will just exacerbate the problems.
- French is hard.
I moved to europe and will never move back, give me those far right facist tears, I’m thirsty.
I’m commuting, I do not blame you at all, so glad my family is spared from all the bs here, during an election season no less.
You might want to suck it up for the next four years there, Jo.
If she can manage that. Americans chose Trump, and if I were France, I’d be doing everything possible to remove them from my country.
“they’re only sending their worst!” You sound exactly like trump.
On the contrary: I paint all Americans with the same broad brush.
You think trump was differentiating? Lol
Why? Refugees welcome.
They kinda sound like assholes.
OK now that trump won… I think France isn’t that bad.
Given Trump’s win, I would encourage every country to catapult every American they can find into the sea.
Ridiculous.
You’d get better range with a trebuchet.
I bet you’re shocked by racism and other prejudices and have no idea how someone could support someone like trump.
What?
Please take them back, we have enough self absorbed assholes to deal with already.
No
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My condolences.
