It seems as if there is a French sentiment of the
"falling behind" of France, as evidenced by the
descriptions of a lost hegemony, but especially the
word "retard." What are these observations referring
to specifically? Are these sentiments felt by a
majority of the French would you say?

There is a slight difference in how Americans percieve
the French, although we have learned much about the
history and the culture. Most Americans associate
France with the main monuments or cities, i.e. Eiffel
Tower and Paris. The French associate France more
politically and socially.

I expected that each of our associations with the
country less familiar to us would be a landmark or a
city of that country. For example, the American all
thought of Paris and the Eiffel Tower with France, and
yet, none of the French mentioned any landmarks or
cities. I also expected that when we look into our own
country, we would not see it the way that our opposite
numbers would see it, and yet many of the French
mentioned both their capital and the Eiffel Tower. Does
that mean the French pride in Eiffel Tower much more
than the Americans in the Statue of Liberty, though they
were both designed by the same chap?

Ne te trompe pas; nous n'avons aucune fierté
particulière à l'idée d'avoir la tour Eiffel.Pour ma
part, je m'en moque même royalement! Le problême est que
certains Français avec lesquels tu travailles (mes
camarades donc) écrivent n'importe quoi juste parce
qu'ils sont étriqués.Aussi, je vous conseillerez de ne
pas prendre au sérieux les éventuelles moqueries dont
vous pourriez faire l'objet au cour de cette étude. ps:
ce message n'engage que moi...

In message 124 on Monday, October 21, 2002 3:41am,
Arnaud writes:

>Ne te trompe pas; nous n'avons aucune fierté
>particulière à l'idée d'avoir la tour Eiffel.Pour ma
>part, je m'en moque même royalement! Le problême est que
>certains Français avec lesquels tu travailles (mes
>camarades donc) écrivent n'importe quoi juste parce
>qu'ils sont étriqués.Aussi, je vous conseillerez de ne
>pas prendre au sérieux les éventuelles moqueries dont
>vous pourriez faire l'objet au cour de cette étude. ps:
>ce message n'engage que moi...
>

j'aimerais bien savoir en quoi tes camarades (dont je
fais partie) sont si "étriqués". et permet moi quand
même d'ajouter que je trouve ton post relativement mal
placé... mais pas la peine de perdre son temps à
polémiquer ! merci.

jeanou..

ok, on several things... but first of all, i must say,
arnauld et jeanou, you make me laugh. (this is in a
strictly literal and sincere way). as you may know from
stereotypes, in america, comments, words, things are
taken seriously. so, arnaud et jeanou, let's "perdre le
temps à polémiquer"... i have never seen the word
étriqué before and just looked it up in the dictionary.
so, arnauld, in what ways are your colleagues at int
étriqué? also, arnaud, i noticed from your message to
jessica on the subject of freedom/liberté and from the
message you have posted in this category, a very
interesting phenomenon. it is true that we (fr 151
students at brown) might seem to take this exercice so
seriously that we cannot pick up on jokes that might be
played on us. three things on this subejct: a. this
webct exercice is the focus of our studies at the
moment. we discuss it in class three times a week and
our homework consists in analysing the material. b. we
cannot afford to not take ourselves seriously b/c this
site is regulary checked by our prof. (n'est-ce pas
shoggy?). c. it is true that perhaps americans have a
different sense of humor and the french might have a
drier, perhaps more sarcastic sense of humor. and
finally, let's not kid ourselves... outside of the
classroom we too joke, laugh, have fun, and (this one
is for jeanou) have a couple of vodka redbulls. hasta
luego ---min.

In message 162 on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 2:13pm, Min
writes:

>ok, on several things... but first of all, i must say,
>arnauld et jeanou, you make me laugh. (this is in a
>strictly literal and sincere way).

cooool !

>as you may know from
>stereotypes, in america, comments, words, things are
>taken seriously. so, arnaud et jeanou, let's "perdre le
>temps à polémiquer"... i have never seen the word
>étriqué before and just looked it up in the dictionary.
>so, arnauld, in what ways are your colleagues at int
>étriqué?

nous ne sommes pas étriqué (narrow minded)... au
contraire, si nous l'étions nous n'aurions pas choisi un
groupe comme "cultura" qui vise justement à nous
permettre d'échanger avec des étudiants d'ailleurs.

>outside of the
>classroom we too joke, laugh, have fun, and (this one
>is for jeanou) have a couple of vodka redbulls

yeah ;o) mais ne prêtez pas d'attention aux messages de
mes camarades qui dénoncent mon goût pour l'alcool
(n'est pas kalafatis) : c'est un peu exagéré ! juste une
petite bière de temps et temps ou un ricard (est-ce que
vous connaissez aux Etats Unis ?? car je crois que c'est
typiquement français...)

jeanou..

>hasta luego ---min.
>

Jeanou, what is "un ricard?"

jessica, le ricard (comme le pastis) est un apéritif au
goût d'anis qui vient du Sud de la France ;o)

jeanou..