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From: srradia@watmath.UUCP (sanjay Radia)
Newsgroups: net.travel
Subject: paris, france
Message-ID: <573@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Dec-85 09:00:19 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.573
Posted: Thu Dec 19 09:00:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 09:37:57 EST
References: <897@ihlpa.UUCP> <105800001@uiucuxc>
Reply-To: srradia@watmath.UUCP (sanjay Radia)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 29
Summary: 

I lived in Paris for about 2 years and had never encountered someone
being rude to me for speaking English or bad French. When I arrived, I knew
very little French and had to look for an appartment  (a very difficult
task even if you speak very good French) and settle in. I never had
any problems with my broken French. At work people were very helpful
and kind as I learnt the language. At times, I had to switch to English 
and the people who knew the language were very cooperative.  There are rude
people in every country and people have a tendency to generalize from one or
two bad incidents. As a foreigner in France, I had less problems than 
my parents have here in Canada. Granted they speak English with an accent,
but their English  was ten times better when they arrived in Canada than
my French was when I arrived in France.

One thing you have to understand is that the English language and the American
culture is affecting the culture of many countries and often
people will get defensive in order to preserve their culture and language.
This is because you lose your culture as soon as you lose the language.
Many people in north america of the English origin have never had the
experience of loosing their language and culture. If you keep this
in mind you will find yourself being more sympathetic to  foreign 
cultures and languages, and in turn you will find that foreigners  are
more sympathetic to you.

-- 

		sanjay
		UUCP:	...!{ utzoo,decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!watmath!srradia
		ARPA:	srradia%watmath%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
		CSNET:	srradia%watmath@waterloo.CSNET