You are walking down the street and someone in front of you
discards some trash on the sidewalk.

Vous marchez dans la rue et quelqu'un devant vous jette un
papier gras sur le trottoir.

Depending on how disgusting the trash is, I would pick it up or just move on.
Give them a disparaging look.
I don't do anything. It happens all the time.
I don't say anything. There is a lot of trash in America.
i ignore it
I pick it up and throw it away, unless it's disgusting, then I let it be.
I would be bothered and might pick it up in case I am in no hurry. I would only talk to him if I knew him personally
I would be disgusted, and I might pick it up depending on the kind of trash it was.
I would disapprove. I would probably pick it up myself.
I would ignore it because I would probably be too embarrassed to say anything
I would pick it up (unless it is really disgusting)
I would pick it up and throw it in a trash where they could see me doing so.
I would pick up the trash.
I would probably do nothing.
I would stare at them but that's it
I would yell at them to throw it in a trashcan and lecture them about the environment
I yell "literbug!" and then pick up the trash and throw it out.
I'd ignore it
I'd probably just pick it up and toss it out. Unless it was really gross.
I'll see it and continue with my business.
Mentally curse them
Pick it up and make sure they see me do it.
Pick it up.
unless it looks like it might be money I walk by.

"C'est sale"
"la poubelle est plus loin
...
.....
c'est banal
c'est pas grave, ça arrive aussi
c'est pas mes affaires
je fais rien
je fais rien, mais je me dis que c'est pas bien
je fais une remarque mais je ne la lui adresse pas directement
je l'engueule
je l'engueule
Je le prends et le jette à la poubelle sans rien dire
je le ramasse et je lui redonne avec un grand sourire en lui disant : "excusez moi, je crois que vous avez perdu quelque chose
je le regarde de travers et ramasse le papier
je lui demande de le ramasser
je lui fais une reflection
je me dis que cette personne n'a aucune education
je n'y fais pas attention
je ne dis rien
je ne fais rien mais je me fâche
je passe à coté du papier
je passerai sans faire attention
je soupire
je suis outré

Discussion

Qu'est-ce que l'on peut faire, ce sont des actes anodins qui entraînent
la saleté dans nos villes. Chaque personne est responsable de ses actes
donc c'est à chacun de prendre ses responsabilités et de respecter sa
ville.

En effet, chaque personne est responsable de ses actes, mais apparemment
certaines n'ont pas encore intégrer toutes les notions. Les français et
les américains sont partagés entre le fait d'ignorer la situation ou de
réagir. Personnellement, si je prends la presonne en flag et qu'elle est
à deux pas de moi je lui fais remarquer qu'il existe des poubelles et
que les trottoirs ne sont pas des décharges publiques.

Je pense que aujourd'hui il faut agir contre ce type de pollution et
surtout je fais la rémarque quand je vois le cas du maître et chien à
paris, "c'est dégueulasse"...tu ne peut pas marcher tranquille sans
marche sur une crotte.

Suivez Pablo, Vote for "World Wide Forest"!!

en fait ,ce que j'ai trouvé bizarre que il ya des gens qui vont donner
des conseils en leur prechant,, je ne trouve pas une tres bonne idée
,car c'est pas a nous de faire apprendre la politesse aux gens et de
leur conseiller ,moi dans cette situation je prefere continuer mon
chemin tranquillement et je fais semblant que j'ai rien vu,

Personally, I think reactions are different depending on where you are.
For example, if you live in a clean, nice suburb (remember, American
forums are not like French suburbs), then if you see someone throw
something in the street, you may not like it too much.

However, if you come from a heavily populated city, then garbage is
always on the street. For example, if I see someone in New York throw
something in the street, I would disagree since I was raised with
principles, however at the same time I would think it's normal because
everyone does it. That is why New York has an extremely serious rat
problem.

So, in summary, I think a person's reaction depends on where they live,
what principles they were raised with, among other things.

I thought it was interesting how on the American side, a lot of the
people responded that they would pick it up "if it wasn't too gross," or
something similar to that, yet on the French side, if the response was
"pick it up" then there were no strings attached. Is this true, or is it
just that the Americans stated what the French assumed?

seems the attitude is remarkably similar overall, given that many people
said they would do nothing, several said they'd say something, and
several said they'd pick it up. The most noticeable difference was that
more of the french would request that the person pick it up, while more
of the americans would pick it up themselves.

this similarity actually surprised me, because I was warned when i went
to paris that often people would throw trash in the gutters of streets
because they clean the gutters every day. should i assume that this
isn't generally the attitude after all? i can't really distinctly
remember whether i actually observed this occuring while i was there or
not.

Though some MIT students indicated that they would confront the person,
it seems most would either pick it up (contingent on it's not being too
gross!) or do nothing. I would probably not say anything to the person
because I am very hesitant to confront a stranger for fear that they
could become violent or otherwise unpleasant. From reading the responses
to this situation and others, it seems the French are less inhibited
about approaching strangers. Is this the case? For others, if you would
not confront the person, why not? Pièrre mentions that it's not his
place to give advice to the person and would continue to walk by. Is
this the main reason, or are there other reasons why one ignores the
situation?

engage