A rude person is someone ...

Une personne impolie est quelqu'un ...

disrespects your time and effort.

does not take into account other people's feelings or emotions, disregards situation around them, only cares for themselves,

doesn't care about how his words will make another person feel.

obnoxious, self-serving, unaware

That don't respect you as an individual

who bothers you by being impolite.

who chooses to offend.

who cuts you off in the street, who swears and is otherwise insensitive.

who do anything without thinking of how it will affect others.

who does not consider anyone's feelings but their own.

who does not respect social etiquette or the feelings of others.

who does not show respect when he/she has to.

who doesn't allow others to speak.
who belittles others.
who has no good manners.

who doesn't respect others.
who talks too loudly.
who doesn't care.

who has too many issues.

who have disregard for others.

who ignores people's opinions, who doesn't care about others

who is inconsiderate and thinks only of himself.

who picks their nose in front of you

who purposely insults others or brags all the time.

who thinks only of the inconvenience that is put upon them and doesn't see how certain actions can inconvenience others.

yucky, obnoxious, closed-minded, rigid

d'irréfléchi.

d’irrespectueux,manque de savoir vivre et d'irresponsable.

est une personne qui n’a aucun respect pour les autres tant les petits que les grands et qui manque totalement de savoir vivre.

grossière.
irrespectueuse.
sans savoir-vivre.

méchant,inacceptable

qui est barbare,blessant et brutal

qui est grossier, impertinent et irrespectueux

qui est irrespectueux envers son entourage.

qui n'a pas de respect pour son entourage

qui ne considère pas autrui, qui se fiche des autres.

qui ne respecte pas l'éthique.

qui ne respecte pas les autres.
de désagréable.
qui mérite des claques.

qui ne respecte pas les autres.

Qui ne respecte pas les autres. Et qui ne parle pas correctement, par exemple qui ne remercie pas quelqu'un qui l'aide, ou qui ne dit pas "s'il vous plait" quand elle demande quelque chose.

qui ne respecte personne.

sans gêne, irrespectueuse des autres et qui considère que tout lui est dû.

Discussion

In the US I think we have so many rules that people from other cultures may seem rude even if they don't think they are being that way. Most of the time with acquaintances people just expect you to put on a smile and not subject them to your bad mood because it may be seen as impolite but in other cultures its ok to not return a smile and say exactly how you are feeling. I think that is why people say Americans smile too much. Is it the same way in France?

While both groups mentioned respect/lack of respect many times, I noticed that only the American responses really contained mentions of having bad manners, picking one's nose etc.  Is being impolite not as associated with being actually rude in France?

En France, les gens que l'on croise dans la rue ne sont pas forcément souriant, mais une fois la conversation engagé avec quelqu'un, les choses changent. Les français sont donc plutôt souriant, mais d'après ce que tu dis Melanie, surement moins que les américains.

D'après ce que j'ai pu constaté, l'impolitesse se définie à peu près de la même manière dans nos deux pays. La question que je me posais, est : est ce que vous êtes souvent vulgaire, pas forcément en insultant les autres, mais dans votre manière de parler de tout les jours? Parce qu'en France il est fréquent de "ponctuer" les phrases avec des mots plutôt vulgaires, même si c'est impolie. On ne fait pas ça quand on s'adresse à des personnes importantes (professeurs, employeur ...).

I don't believe that there is a large difference between students talking to professors or amongst themselves (in a classroom setting). Outside of class things change, but the difference isn't as striking as I imagine it to be in France.

I wonder how you view other people. Is there a large difference between talking to a professor, a clerk in a store or a policeman? Sometimes I see Americans being very inconsiderate to people in stores (basically focusing all the problems they have with the store on one person that isn't actually responsible); does that happen in France?

I think people avoid saying vulgar words in front of people who they consider their superiors in some manner, such as their professor or their parents. However, I don't think that simply adding vulgar words to a sentence makes a person rude, maybe its because so many people do it now. I think it has more to do with the attitude and the behavior of a person. The main reason I think people avoid saying vulgar words in the presence of people elder to them is to avoid impressions of vulgarity or offensive terms, not necessarily because they think its rude.

Somebody mentioned that a rude person is someone who is barbare et brutal. What do you think why did they connect these terms with rudeness? What exactly do brutal and barbare mean in French?

@ Jelle

En fait je ne dis pas qu'on se manque de respect entre nous, loin de moi cette idée. Mais je dis plutôt qu'on parle comme ça sans s'en rendre compte, mais ce n'est pas du tout dans l'intention d'être méchant.

C'est vrai que les langages vulgaires laissent penser que les personnes qui les utilisent sont impolies mais je dirais plutôt que tout depend du contexte, du regard et du ton. L'impolitesse n'est pas seulement caractérisée par la parole. On peut manquer de respect envers quelqu'un sans utiliser un langage vulgaire.

>I think it is hard to determine if someone is rude, especially in some cases. What I have in mind is exactly the cultural differences that Melanie mentioned. For me, when I ask someone "How are you?" here in the USA, people just say "good" or something short, but what I do is I start explaining how I actually feel. The other person, however, often doesn’t care; they only ask out of politeness and they don't find it rude to just end the conversation with a "good" or "fine". I also don't find it rude anymore and just answer the same way.

In relation to what Lissy said, I find that the rudest people are in fact the people who refuse to talk to someone for the wrong reasons. For example, there are people who refuse to talk to people from a different (usually lower social class). In addition, there are people who talk about a person behind their back (without that person knowing) which I also find rude. Ironically, my closest friends and family use some of the most vulgar language.

One of the descriptions someone wrote had brutal in it. Did this mean physical brutality of verbal?

I agree with Adrian on that. I think the language you use with close friends and family ,who the people that you're super comfortable with, should not be used to judge whether you're rude or not. In my opinion how you interact with others in general(both your friends and strangers) can tell more.

To response to Melanie comments about foreigner tends to view Americans as rude, I think it's more or less has something to do with manner which of course depends alot on the individuals that you deal with. I have to say my first impression about Americans was they were one of the rudest people I've ever seen, that's because of many incidents on the plane on my way to MIT when I first came to the US. However that perception changed when I got to MIT campus. I would say education and the way you're raised(not just limitted to this) have alot to do with whether you'll become a rude person or not. We just can't generalize by culture or group of people because any group there are definitely mean, ego., cold people but there are also very nice and friendly people. The good thing about american culture in this is that this make people feel closer to each other since they don't have to care too much although sometime too close to a random stranger might not be a good thing.

Concernant le langage vulgaire que l'on emploie parfois, ce n'est en aucun cas dans le but de blesser qui que ce soit. C'est souvent un langage banalisé que l'on utilise avec ses amis. On dit ces mots sans vraiment les penser, ou sinon ils ont un autre sens pour nous.

Je pense que la politesse est intimement liée à la culture et au milieu dans lequel nous avons grandi. Nous pouvons retrouver des règles qui sont presque pareils dans tous les pays comme bien parler aux ainés, aux autorités, aux personnes âgées etc. Mais si on analyse beaucoup plus en profondeur, certaines différences peuvent apparaître suivant les cultures. Chez moi par exemple, c'est impoli de trouver quelqu'un que l'on ne connait pas dans un ascenseur sans le saluer. Il y en a même qui vont jusqu'à le voir comme un acte de sauvage et pourtant cela ne dérange point en France.

Une personne impolie est une personne qui ne respect pas les autres. Je remarque que beaucoup de personnes ont avant tout évoqué le langage, mais je pense que l’impolitesse peut venir de manières différentes comme passer devant tout le monde dans une file d’attente ou mâcher un chewing-gum pendant un réunion… Comme pour le langage, le chewing-gum n’a rien d’impoli mais c’est la circonstance qui le fait devenir comme utiliser un téléphone portable dans un lieu public par exemple.

I just remembered how confused I was for a thing in particular when I came to the USA. Usually when you get late for class in my own country when you enter the room you need to say something like "I apologize for being late." My math teacher would even make us re-enter through the door if we forgot to apologize. But here, in the USA, you just enter quietly if you are late. When I asked my friends why is that not considered rude, they said that if you are already late you can only make it worse if you interrupt the lesson by saying "sorry" so better just sit down :) So, yes, definitely some rules for politeness are not unique for all countries and cultures but some are. For instance, there are certain actions and types of behavior that show lack of respect everywhere in the world. Do you agree with that?

I agree with Denis, there's something more than mere language that makes a person rude.

It's true how we think the norm of politeness is different from culture to culture but I think the basic value or i should say the minimum requirement should be the same. The different should be from how people set their requirement which depends on what/how much they're exposed to beside their own culture/norm that they're used to. For example, I was raised to think that you're considered rude if you don't open/hold the door for someone you're walking with or the person behind you but I am sure there are people think that's fine. It might or might not be a good thing but now I sorta let that slide as long as you're slamming the door into my face, although I can still choose to keep my bar high.

I think what Noujoud said applies to many Americans our age too. There is a certain language you use that might be vulgar around your friends but would be unacceptable in many other situations. I speak differently (sometimes more vulgar) around my friends and much more polite and proper in front of professors or other authority figures who tend to be of the older generation. I definitely hear people say words to each other that would be taken as insulting if placed in a different context. I think a rude person is someone who doesn't choose appropriate language for a situation and therefore is offensive to people.

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