A typical conversation with a French person

June 28th 2007

Sorry for not writing lately, my ideas come and go and I prefer to write when I have interesting ideas and let the bad ones just go away. I know, you’re probably thinking “So these are the good ones?” No, I’m holding out on you. There is another secret blog with the good stories and these are the ones that don’t make the cut!

Today I’m thinking I haven’t updated my site in a while and I need some topics. Fortunately one of the guys I ate lunch with gave me some material: Here is an actual conversation from lunch, which I think is pretty typical of how conversations with the French go..

Me: (unwrapping one of those refreshing towel wipes after lunch).. I love these things.
French guy: Bof (hard to translate, it means it’s not very interesting)
Me: I like the smell.
French guy: It stinks.
Me: It reminds me of the cologne in Turkey. Everyone uses this lemon smelling cologne. Like on the buses, it’s refreshing.
French guy: But you still smell crad (slang for nasty).
Me: It’s really hot in Turkey so it’s nice to get refreshed with a lemon smell. Like on the long trips on a bus, they come around and give you the cologne since you can’t wash or take a shower on the bus.
French guy: I don’t see the point, you’re just covering up your odor with another one.
Me: Yes but the lemon odor is better than the body odor!
French guy: Not really. It’s still crad.

after a few more exchanges like this I decided there was no way I was going to win this one. Sometimes it seems like the French take a position just to have an interesting discussion. They keep going on, saying ridiculous things just to keep the conversation going. It makes me feel like I’m on candid camera or something. Wait, this isn’t sometimes it’s almost all the time..

Don’t worry, if this happens to you there is a very easy solution: Just say “You’re right” and change the subject. Usually this pisses them off, because they took their stupid position just to vex you and make conversation. When you agree and change the subject it’s like you’ve just diffused a pack of explosives and now they’re unarmed. Try it!

Tags:


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. stevex on July 4, 2007 0:51

    French people like, no they love discussion. Most of the time, these discussions looks like arguing for foreigners because French will always says the opposite from you. It’s part of the education I guess…or not :)

  2. Michael on July 4, 2007 7:01

    Yes, you sum it up nicely. It’s just kind of frustrating and pointless though when someone takes a ridiculous position. It’s like “what’s the point?”

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Powered by WP Hashcash

Travel Blogs - Blog Top Sites