Posted on 10/16/2023 3:25:32 PM PDT by Albion Wilde
Uninformed drivel …..LOL
…..
Heh, I had to laugh at your interaction with the French...That was very nice of you. I will say, though-even though I keep in reserve that individual French people would very likely be people I would like, the most unwelcome I ever felt in any port we went on liberty in was Brest, France.
We had to wear our uniforms ashore, and the people universally, and literally glared at us. It was very odd.
On the other hand, when we went to Edinborough, Scotland, I never felt so welcome, the people were absolutely delighted to meet us.
Well.
People are people no matter where you go, and if you can get to know them, and they you, it is almost always good, in my experience.
It was not so much nice of me as it was my astonishment, when they first approached me looking for someone who spoke French, that they then understood my responses! In Paris, one of the favorite tricks of the nasty shopkeepers was to pretend they absolutely did not understand a word you were saying, shrugging and smirking, even if your wrote down your request, pointed to what you wanted or held up how many fingers to try to buy a few croissants after having asked in French four or five different ways. When that couple understood me with no dissembling because they needed something, I was polite to them, but inside I felt wicked satisfaction!
Sounds like you and I both were having some similarly baffling rejections 20 to 30 years after WW2 as if the war had only ended the week before, and various people had resentments. It’s just that I thought the French were our allies! I guess it’s not much different from our south-north squabbling 100 years after our Civil War. But the French are a dream world unto themselves. It’s shocking that they are so far getting away with cracking down on pro-Hamas demonstrations now, on threat of jail time, given their past immigration stupidity. But that’s another thread.
May I say how much I’ve enjoyed how this thread wound around, from how to avoid harming children through abusive communications, to all kinds of intercultural communications, behavior and language issues! Thanks for the memories!
LOL, you bet, FRiend...now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!
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