Je n’ai pas su retirer beaucoup d’information de cette liste de réponses. J’ai seulement remarquer que beaucoup de français ont définit une personne impolie comme quelqu'un qui ne respecte pas les autres. Ceci caractérise à mon avis une personne impolie « de l’intérieur », cependant que les américains cherchent à la définir « de l’extérieur ». C'est-à-dire, les étudiants américains donnent plutôt les caractéristiques bien visibles de côté, alors que « ne pas respecter les autres » est plutôt une partie du caractère mais non pas du comportement.

I generally agree with you Mikhail. I think that the Americans focused more on ways in which a rude person will affect other people, whereas the French focused more on what personality traits make up a rude person. I think it is an intersting commentary on how we view rude people. The French seem to see being rude as a pesrsonality trait, something sort of inherent in the person. On the other hand, the Americans tend to see rudeness as a state of being, or way of acting.

I found that the phrases used did have many similarities-respect seemed to be at the top of the list. I do agree, that there was a lot of focus on the American side about the effect, but I think on both sides there were "personality traits," perhaps a little more by the French, but still on both sides. For example, I thought the French response of badly educated was one personality component, but there was also showing up late which wasn't in the American list. In general, I thought the American responses were often more specific and used quite a variety of descriptions like malicious, obnoxious etc. Also, another interesting comment is that in comparison to past years, the American response of not saying please and thank you was interesting since in past years, it was a common French response. I would be curious about what you find to be perhaps some of the specific things that are rude-like not saying please/thank you or pushing others, etc. especially since many of the responses were indeed more descriptive, like about someone who is insolent, etc.

I agree with Renee, and overall the answers were extremely similar. However there wasn't much detail in terms of what is considered respect on the French side. Could you expand on that?

I thought that it was interesting that the majority of the responses were centered around direspect and individualism (i.e. arrogant, self-centered, vit pour elle-même, pense que tout lui est dû et n'aide pas). However, the French used words that mainly described the characteristics of a rude person while the Americans also incorporated phrases that described how rude people made other people feel (i.e. makes those around them feel uncomfortable, makes you feel bad about yourself) and society's reaction to him/her (i.e. unwanted, should be ignored). I was curious why someone wrote "mal éduquée" on the French side.

I agree with the above posts. The lists were similar, and they described a rude person as being someone who doesn't respect others. Unfortunately, there aren't many specific examples in this years responses to see the difference between the French and American definitions of respect. So, what do the French consider respectful or disrespectful and how does that compare to the American ideas?

I was wondering if a person is considered a rude person is it because of actions and gests he/she does on purpose or is it a trait done in the most innocent of manners. Is it maliciously done on purpose or are these rude people blissfully ignorant of the rest of civilization?

A Giorgio :
Je ne crois pas que beaucoup des personnes impolies en soient conscientes. Il est difficile de s’avouer d’un impoli, c’est honteux. D’après moi, les gens se comportant impoliment ne le pensent pas la plupart du temps. Il n’est pas agréable de se penser mal. Cependant, les plus impudents se rendent compte de son impolitesse, mais ils le concédèrent nécessaire ou bien peu important vu des circonstances ce qui ne les dispense certainement pas de la responsabilité de leur aptitude

Mikhail-In response to what you have said, I think a lot of people's habits about being polite probably have to do with how they are brought up and also where they live. There is also the problem that sometimes people are a bit wrapped up in what they're doing and don't notice that they may have done something impolite in the eyes of others. What are some things that you see as being especially impolite that you see people do?

Yeah, I agree with Renee. I also would like to know what exactly is considered irrespectful by the French. The responses to the questionaries weren't detailed enough in that area.

Je suis d'accord avec Renne quant au fait que la politesse dépend beaucoup de l'endroit et le milieu dans lequel on a été élevé. Pour moi une personne impolie ne fait pas attention aux autres : par exemple elle est souvent en retard et ne s'en excuse pas, elle est sale, sans gene ou grossière et met les gens autour d'elle mal à l'aise, ou encore ne dit ni bonjour, ni s'il te plait, ni merci... je ne pense pas qu'il y ait beaucoup de différence entre les Francais et les Americains là dessus : il y a quand même certaines règles de vie en société communes à tous les peuples, non?

Helene-I think a lot of what you propose is also true of Americans. I think that for us, people who don't think of others are especially rude. I guess that the American responses to this were very direct in that, as one American said, "a rude person is someone I cannot stand. How hard is it to be civil?" However, I do think that sometimes what is considered rude and what isn't is somewhat of a personal opinion too. Do you normally speak up when someone does something rude or are you more quiet about it?