When you immerse yourself in a new culture, there are going to be some hiccups along the way. You aren’t familiar with the new culture and the new culture isn’t familiar with you. I love living in France, but it’s not without its frustrations. Please keep in mind this isn’t meant to offend. I rag on Americans too and no one is perfect!
Read on for my list of what French people should learn!
Things French people should learn
Any foreigner in France has probably noticed at least one of the things on my list below.
Here’s my list of things French people should learn. You know, in order to keep us foreigners happy. {sarcasm}:
- How to pick up dog poop. Put poop in a bag. Easy. You can read my post on the problem with dog poop here.
- The concept of making one line at a store where there are multiple cashiers instead of separate lines for each cashier. One line people. That way we all get our turn and no one gets cut in front of. The first few times someone jumped in front of me (after arriving after me), I was nice. I said the FIRST few times…
- Leave the customer alone. I love great customer service, but if I walk in a store and say I’m just looking (HELLO SEPHORA!), it means I AM LOOKING. No, I don’t want to try perfume. Don’t spray anything on me. No, I don’t need advice. And for f’s sake, YES, you make me nervous when you’re two inches away from me. Like I need another reason to shop online!
- And the other extreme, learn what customer service means. It shouldn’t take months to resolve a simple internet service provider change. If we bought something at your store and it broke, we should be able to return it without a receipt. Or even if there’s no receipt! And if that makeup gave me a rash, yes I’d like to return it without a hassle! The French aren’t known for their excellent customer service.
- That Nutella is not a healthy breakfast food! Nor are croissants or other sugar-laden choices!
- Shipping should always be free! Or at least reasonable. When you buy stuff online, why do you need such high order totals to qualify for free shipping? Come on! And free returns would be a dream come true.
- People shop at all hours of the day. If you’re in business, be open! Being closed on Mondays (or some other random weekday), for two hours during the day for lunch, after 5 p.m. and on Sundays is just nuts. If you’re a business and want to make money, be OPEN for customers. (I’m talking to you, pharmacies…)
- How to fix the bureaucracy nightmare. Why does it take forever to get anything done? Carte de sejour, carte vitale, etc.? I don’t mind taking your time, but a simple request shouldn’t take half a century.
- SMOKING KILLS. Those warnings on the packs aren’t lying, folks. Smoking causes cancer, it smells bad, it rots your teeth, it’s EXPENSIVE. Smoking is NOT cool, kids.
- Banking should not cost money. There’s no reason why a regular account and a debit card (even with a chip) should cost 20 euros and up with a monthly account maintenance fee of 3-10+ euros. And the card takes at least a week to arrive!
And please take this list half-seriously. I get that no place is perfect (certainly NOT the United States) and the above list isn’t France-specific. Things on this list are mild annoyances, and while they’re fun to blog about, they don’t REALLY get under my skin (well, most of them don’t anyway). 😉
That was the short list of things French people should learn. What do you have to add?
I am glad that said that many of these things AREN’T specific to France.
BEST BUY in the U.S. has a bad return policy. You can’t return anything past 30 days WITH a receipt and most places in the U.S. will NEVER let you return without a receipt.
If I lived in France the “line” situation would cause me to be in DAILY fights because I sure would open my mouth!
The closed stores would drive me nuts too!
I think the stores I was referring to in the US about returns without receipts were mostly department stores when a product gives you a reaction. I returned a few things to Bloomingdale’s w/o a problem after getting a rash. But you’re right that these “issues” do exist in a lot of places. Just seems France has certain cultural things I just can’t get past! The lines thing does drive me nuts. And I called a guy out on it once at the pharmacy (blatantly cut in line), then the pharmacist informed him I was there before him and he didn’t care. Dirty looks followed. He still didn’t care. But there are people like that everywhere. I just notice it more here.
I live in Greece and can relate to over half the things listed here! I also love it: but the dog poo, bureaucracy and shop assistants in stores literally standing in my face drives me crazy!
Thanks for sharing.
Bex
http://www.leavingcairo.blogspot.com
Nice to know it’s not just France. Sometimes I wonder!
PREACH!!
Agree SO much about the opening hours. Why is Sunday Trading so outrageous to the French? The few small supermarkets that are open are packed!
Takeaways – there are other type of takeaway than Pizza folks. Why no decent Chinese or Indian at reasonable prices?
Strawberries out of season – 5Euros in France, £1 in the UK?
School strikes – for the first six weeks of our children’s first year, they were off every week for a day because of le grève!
Excellent additions, Neil! The takeaway thing is so true. Chinese for 2 (with an appetizer) was 30 euros in our small town! YIKES!!
I have three:
1- People order ice tea, because it contains ICE.
2- Coffee is cheap to make. Why do I have to pay $6 for a coffee with NO refills?
3- If foreigners at least attempt your language to fit in, making fun of them makes them want to punch you and spend their money in a country that isn’t where you live.
Yes, what is up with the no ice in anything? I always ask to be on the safe side so maybe some places do include it w/o asking. And people make fun of you when you attempt to speak French? I really hate hearing that. I get people who sometimes hear something in my accent (who don’t mean for me to take offense) and repeat the word not as a correction but just to repeat it in my accent, like mocking, but i know it’s harmless. Also, it’s hard when you’re a bit self-conscious especially in bureaucracy situations when others are listening and you have to use complicated phrasing. Ugh I hate that.
Great blog! I’m probably going to leave a few comments here and there. French people mocking accents is unfortunately not just something they do on foreigners but also on French natives. You even see this sometimes on TV chat shows, if one guest has some southern/French Canadian accent, be sure that everyone else will pick on it. It’s just plain rude. And I agree opening hours are laughable. Although in the UK shops may be open all day but a lot of them close as early as 5pm! As for sephora I know what you mean but apparently they have a sale target as well as a mystery customer (from sephora)who reviews employees based on their experience.
Ah yes, the mystery shoppers. So they have to treat everyone with over the top service. In the US, Sephora employees aren’t so in your face it seems. Interesting. And yes the accent thing is weird. I mean I am a little sensitive at times, but come on people, get over it! Thanks for commenting!
I believe that it depends on the cultural standard of the person who listens to you.The Frenchman, in general terms has neither facility nor the mind opened to learn another language. Many have complex for this reason and they react then trying to make jokes by your accent .. but without bad intention. I had not understood this reality, until I met many natives with high cultural level. They have helped me to understand these reactions and now I’m more lenient with who laughs because of my accent.
However…I must admit that the majority of persons that I have known adore my accent.
Peut-être que j’ai la chance 🙂
I love living in France, and in general love the French.
But goodness gracious when it comes to lines and waiting their turn they can be SO RUDE. Grocery shopping day is the worst day of the week for me. People stopping in the middle of the aisle to have a chat about the weather for 20 minutes is just not okay. At least try to move to the side so other people can get past. (I don’t know if this is a big city thing though, since I only lived in small towns in the U.S.)
Haha yes, did you look into LeClerc and Carrefour “drive?” No fees — just order online, select your time and pay and then drive up to collect your bags. We do that once a week to avoid all the hubbub in the store like you said.
Once again, I totally agree (wow, Am I even French???).
They (er, we) should learn to respect people’s personnal space on public transportation. And, for God’s sake, the public transportation should just stop to go on strike every two weeks…
(BTW, for the “I’m just looking” part, I felt the same way in some US stores)