It is midnight. You hear very loud music coming from your neighbors' apartment.

Il est minuit. Vous entendez une musique très forte qui vient de l'appartement d'un de vos voisins

 ask them to turn it down

call the police(what if he is drunk and shoots me!))

dance

go join the party

Go over and join the party.

go somewhere else

I call to ask them to turn the music down

i don't get enough sleep anyway. it wouldn't make a difference. i'd sleep.

I knock on their door.

I throw a rock through their window

I wonder why I wasn't invited.

I would call and politely ask them to turn it down.

i would get really mad and tell them to lower their music

I would knock on the door and ask for them to turn it down.

I would put up with it and try to fall asleep.

I would try to sleep or bury my head under my pillow

If it bothered me, I would politely ask them to stop.

If it is disturbing, ask the neighbor to turn it down.

if it went on for too long, I would ask them to stop

ignore it

is it good music, maybe they're partying, cover my ears

It wouldn't bother me.

midnight is early anyway

put in ear plugs

put my pillow over my head.

try to sleep

wait for a while, if it keeps going, call and ask to be turned down

Wait for a bit to see if it stops, if not, ask them to turn it down

wait for a while

wait until 2am, then ask them to turn it down.

 go somewhere else

J'attends 1 h avant d'aller faire la fête avec lui

Je cogne contre le mur sinon je me lève

Je cours faire la fête avec lui

je lui demande de baisser,ou je fais la fête avec

je lui telephone avant d'appeller la police

Je lui téléphone

Je m'énerve en silence et j'attends que cela s'arrête.

Je me dis : "Super, une fête à coté!"

Je me lève pour leur demander de baisser le volume

Je ne peux m'empêcher de l'écouter.

je sors pour lui demander en douceur de baisser le son

Je téléphone pour leur demander de baisser le son.

je vais frapper à sa porte

Je vais immédiatement lui demander s'il lui est possible de baisser le son

je vais le voir et lui demande de se calmer.....(ou je m'invite à la fête)

je vais le voir pour me plaindre

Je vais leur demander gentiment de baisser le son.

je vais leur dire gentillement que je voudrais dormir

Je vais lui demander de baisser le volume.

pas de probleme: je ne dors jamais à minuit

s'il ne l'arrête pas dans 5 mn, je vais le voir

Si ca se reproduit ou dure, je vais les voir

Si ce n'est pas tous les soirs,je ne dis rien, j'aime aussi faire la fête.

si ça continue, je vais me plaindre chez ce voisin

Si ça dure trop longtemps, je vais lui demander s'il ne peut pas baisser

Si je dormais, je me lève et leur demande sèchement de baisser.

si la musique ne me plait pas je vais les voir

Soit je vais squatter chez lui, soit je lui dis que ça me gêne.

Discussion

Mais au fait, vous ecoutez quoi comme musique en ce moment ? A+ Emilie

i've noticed in general, that the french tend to be more direct and confrontational. there were very little responses about ignoring the music or doing nothing; whereas, there were more responses about doing nothing on the american side.

bonjour tous,

Je suis encore étonné par les réponses de ce questionnaire que je compare à celles sur le bon voisin. Aux Us vous semblez plus proches de vos voisins, qu'ici; or lorsqu'il s'agit justement de rencontrer ce voisin qui écoute de la musique trop fort, les français semblent plus communiquant que les américains qui éludent la situation.

Cela demande explication chers amis d'outre altlantique !

A bientot

JC

I also think that maybe the reason the US responses were less confrontational was because we are close to our neighbors. Sometimes my neighbors are loud at night, but unless they are loud every night, really late at night (midnight isn't that late), I wouldn't say anything to them because I wouldn't want to have bad relations with the people I live with. Also, I would usually rather not have to get out of bed to go deal with it :)

I assume from some of the responses on the French side that you live in dormitories. Do you consider your neighbors to be friends, and if so, wouldn't you want to avoid confrontation about something small like loud music?

I think, whether you confront your neighbor or not, depends on your mindset at the time. If you're not doing anything in particular, you might just want to go join the party. However, if you're trying to study or sleep, you might get very irritated and say something to your neighbor. I'm not sure if this is connected in any way to the apparent, more confrontational, nature of French people in this exercise.

I don't belive that our responses differed that much, since both sides have pretty much the same collection of answers, just at different rates, and that could just be do to our random sample of sutdents. I do have two questions though, one, how would your reactions differ (if at all) if this was a dorm/hotel or apartment/house, and two, is there a law in France that sets specific quiet hours at night?

For this particular situation, the majority of the french reactions were aggressive. Most people would ask their neighbor to turn down the music. I thought the french were passive(in the case of the mother slapping her child). How come in this situation, the french behave aggressively?

I noticed that in this situation, the french are very aggressive, compared to the situation of the mother slapping her child. Why the difference? Hiw come in one situation, the french are passive, but in another situation, they are aggressive?

I know I wouldn't do much if my neighbors were loud for a couple reasons. One, I know them well and two, I realize that if they are loud every once in awhile that I probably am loud sometimes. I also agree that my reaction would depend on the mood I am in.

suppose it also makes a difference HOW people ask to turn the music down. in this aspect i'd say the french would be more aggressive, and us here (i don't want to lump everyone here together under "americans") would be more polite. That's probably why the french appear to be so snappy in films- to them, that's normal but to us it seems far too similar to giving orders.

Salut, Je pense également que notre réaction face à ce genre de problèmes dépend de ce que vous êtes en train de faire, et dépend également de la fréquence. si mon voisin met la musique très fort tous les soirs jusqu'à 2 ou 3 heures du matin, je crois que je finirai par lui dire. Si ce n'est qu'une fois de temps en temps, je ne dirai rien : tout d'abord, parce que cela permet d'avoir de bonnes relations avec ses voisins, et également parce que si cela m'arrive de faire la même chose, il comprendra. Echanges de bons procédés.