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French Tourist are worst in the world??

Jul 9, 2009#1

Chibibar

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090709/lf_ ... 6fJax0fNdF

Wow...

They said the Japanese are the best tourist.

I wonder why? maybe cause people actually research the places they go and accommodate accordingly? When I travel, I try to learn the local tipping custom and stuff so at least I don't piss off the wrong people (like people preparing your food and such) I never had issue when traveling abroad.

I just think the French people are arrogant

(my perception anyways when I visit Paris several years back)

Jul 9, 2009#2

GasBandit

From what I hear, french people outside of paris are actually very nice and very accomodating and very appreciative of tourists... it's just the parisians who are a bunch of fucking shitballs.

Jul 9, 2009#3

Chibibar

GasBandit said:
From what I hear, french people outside of paris are actually very nice and very accomodating and very appreciative of tourists... it's just the parisians who are a bunch of fucking shitballs.

I hope so

I went to all the "standard" tourist spot in Paris and it was cool to see minus the people. I am hoping to take my wife there someday. Of course my last name didn't help much in France either

Jul 9, 2009#4

D

Dubyamn

The Japanese are good tourists. They love buying are always very polite and are always incredibly interested in whatever is around.

And they all speak at least a little English horribly broken but it's probably enough to get by without seeming rude and snobby.

Jul 9, 2009#5

Jake

Chibibar said:
Of course my last name didn't help much in France either

Does it start with an "H" and end in an "itler"?

Jul 9, 2009#6

Chibibar

Jake said:
Chibibar said:

Of course my last name didn't help much in France either

Click to expand...

Does it start with an "H" and end in an "itler"?

nope.. in French is stands for dog.

Jul 9, 2009#7

David

Jake said:
Chibibar said:

Of course my last name didn't help much in France either

Click to expand...

Does it start with an "H" and end in an "itler"?

Jul 9, 2009#8

Chien?

Jul 9, 2009#9

Chibibar

Edrondol said:
Chien?

yup

Jul 9, 2009#10

sixpackshaker

I love the irony of how many French blame American tourist of ALL the bad habits listed in the article. Whole Ugly American stereotype gets played out by the French too...

Jul 9, 2009#11

The funny thing about the French are that they differ from most other countries in the way they treat tourists. If in Germany you try and speak German, they love you for it. Same with almost all the other countries I visited. But when I tried to speak French they turned their noses up because I was doing it incorrectly.

Jul 9, 2009#12

Chibibar

Edrondol said:
The funny thing about the French are that they differ from most other countries in the way they treat tourists. If in Germany you try and speak German, they love you for it. Same with almost all the other countries I visited. But when I tried to speak French they turned their noses up because I was doing it incorrectly.

funny thing. My sister was studying French and she can speak pretty well. Even my cousin who live in Belguim (she also speak fluent French) said my sister's pronunciation and such is very good, but when my sister talk in France...... same thing.. nose stuck up.

But there are many beautiful things to see in France, and I hope my wife gets to see them someday

She love to travel plus her personal desire is to have her passport stamped with many visa as possible.

Jul 9, 2009#13

Frankie Williamson

Non-urban Quebecers are pretty fucking intolerant of "filthy Anglos" from everything I've experienced. I can speak some French (I'm not fantastic at it but I can hold a rudimentary conversation) and actually had someone when I was asking for directions mock me by cutting me off and going, "eblah eblah eblah." and wave their hands like I was the world's biggest waste of time.

Annoying.

Jul 9, 2009#14

WolfOfOdin

I've traveled the bulk of Europe, added benefit of having family in Ireland.

My rankings:

France: Absolutely beautiful outside the festering hellhole that is Paris. <3 Lyons

Italy: Was treated like hell there, but I only visited Tuscany.

Germany: Hands down the NICEST people I've ever met. Excellent food, excellent beer and all around good times. Berlin and Schoenberg were absolutely beautiful.

Spain: Barcelona and Madrid were the only places I went, but loved it none the less.

Ireland: My family lives in Kilglass in Count Sligo Ireland, I understandably got along rather well with most folk.

Jul 9, 2009#15

Alex B.

We ran into a lot of French tourists in San Francisco back in May, and they all seemed pretty cool. We befriended the French surfer dude who was giving the tours for them, and he told us about all the great surf beaches over dinner. :toocool:

Jul 9, 2009#16

Denbrought

Japs do strike me as good tourists, from the time I've spent just idling in Barcelona. French... I think it's a fair shot at calling them "in general" one of the worst kinds, but if we're talking particular experiences from most people I know, American's win the price by a long shot.

A tip about the language barrier thing, unless you have good proficiency with the other person's language, ask if they speak english first. If they don't it's fair game to try it in the other one, and if they do it's all the better. But remember that it's better to speak a language half-arsedly than to not speak it at all.

Jul 9, 2009#17

WolfOfOdin

I did see some horrifically idiotic americans in Spain...one actually said "So this is like....old mexico?'

Just a quick question Den, is it true that if you call a Spaniard Hispanic/Latino it's considered a rather big insult?

Jul 9, 2009#18

I

IchigoX

Denbrought said:
Japs do strike me as good tourists, from the time I've spent just idling in Barcelona. French... I think it's a fair shot at calling them "in general" one of the worst kinds, but if we're talking particular experiences from most people I know, American's win the price by a long shot.

A tip about the language barrier thing, unless you have good proficiency with the other person's language, ask if they speak english first. If they don't it's fair game to try it in the other one, and if they do it's all the better. But remember that it's better to speak a language half-arsedly than to not speak it at all.

Nice.

Jul 9, 2009#19

Chazwozel

GasBandit said:
From what I hear, french people outside of paris are actually very nice and very accomodating and very appreciative of tourists... it's just the parisians who are a bunch of smurfing shitballs.

I can vouch for this. Visited a friend who lives in Toures and had a blast. We went to Paris and people in cafes and stores were shitcocks even to him! And he's fucking French!

Jul 9, 2009#20

A

AngelofBitterness

You got to love those surveys :rofl:

A few years ago, the worst tourists were Americans because they were rude, refused to speak the local language, arrogant and loud (positive: they tipped). Then the year after, it was the English. Why? Because they were rude, refused to speak the local language, were arrogant and loud. And now the French :rofl:

. And guess why? :rofl:

Seriously, those surveys are crap - target Italy and they'll claim the Germans are the worst tourists. Wherever there are too many of one country visiting, they'll tend to find them the worst tourists because they've had more examples of bad behaviour.

Jul 9, 2009#21

AshburnerX

IchigoX said:
Denbrought said:

Japs do strike me as good tourists, from the time I've spent just idling in Barcelona. French... I think it's a fair shot at calling them "in general" one of the worst kinds, but if we're talking particular experiences from most people I know, American's win the price by a long shot.

A tip about the language barrier thing, unless you have good proficiency with the other person's language, ask if they speak english first. If they don't it's fair game to try it in the other one, and if they do it's all the better. But remember that it's better to speak a language half-arsedly than to not speak it at all.

Click to expand...

Nice.

I'll tell you what... I'll start calling people out for saying Jap when the Japanese stop calling people Gaijin outside of Asia, ok?

Jul 9, 2009#22

CynicismKills

GasBandit said:
From what I hear, french people outside of paris are actually very nice and very accomodating and very appreciative of tourists... it's just the parisians who are a bunch of fucking shitballs.

This is 100% true. The Parisians don't even like the rest of France. We had a friend with us from southern France and apparently they figured it out, they treated her just as shitty as those of us who were American.

Everywhere else, though, the French were awesome people.

Jul 9, 2009#23

klew

In Tahiti, the French nationals were a bit more standoffish towards American tourists (at least at the airport, shops, and restaurants) than the Polynesians, both groups being French-speakers, of course.

Jul 9, 2009#24

David

Germans are pretty cool to tourists. Many of them will readily speak English to you the moment they realize you're American (though this is usually more of them just showing off their mad english skillz than trying to be helpful, they'll want to break out the english whether your German is OK or not.)

There were a couple of assholes in Berlin, but that's to be expected in major cities anywhere.

Next time I'm considering refusing to speak and pretending to not understand English. Shopkeeps will switch to english to moment they hear my accent but I'll just keep on being like "...Was? Ich verstehe nicht."

Jul 10, 2009#25

Covar

Edrondol said:
The funny thing about the French are that they differ from most other countries in the way they treat tourists. If in Germany you try and speak German, they love you for it. Same with almost all the other countries I visited. But when I tried to speak French they turned their noses up because I was doing it incorrectly.

Its my understanding they would get upset if you didn't try to speak French though. If that is really the case then fuck them.

Jul 10, 2009#26

Twitch

Germany everyone was very nice
Italy- Without a doubt the nicest people but I look Italian and could speak it better than the other languages at the time.
France- I only went into southern France this most recent time but everyone was quite nice, though most people I spoke to were actually immigrants.
Spain- I didn't have much interaction with locals but those that I did were mostly nice. I had the most trouble in Catalan speaking areas.

Jul 10, 2009#27

CynicismKills

Twitch said:
Germany everyone was very nice
Italy- Without a doubt the nicest people but I look Italian and could speak it better than the other languages at the time.
France- I only went into southern France this most recent time but everyone was quite nice, though most people I spoke to were actually immigrants.
Spain- I didn't have much interaction with locals but those that I did were mostly nice. I had the most trouble in Catalan speaking areas.

I agree on Italy. They were awesome to me and my friends.

Jul 10, 2009#28

ElJuski

Moon People obviously are nice because THEY DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW THEIR MOON SECRET.

Also,

I AM UN...CHIEN! ANDALUSIA!

Jul 10, 2009#29

HowDroll

I spent a week in Paris last year and I only ran into one rude person. Everyone else I met was incredibly nice, even going out of their way to help us at times. I do, however, speak intermediate-level French. My boyfriend ran into a few more rude people on his first day there--the few times he spoke to someone without me. The reason for that? He doesn't speak a word of French and didn't even bother with the niceties (hello, please, thank you, etc.) Once I gave him some rudimentary French lessons, their disposition toward him changed dramatically. Honestly, I can't say I blame them. I work retail, and whenever someone walks up to me and starts speaking in Spanish--then gets upset when I can't immediately find a Spanish speaker to help them--I get supremely pissed off too. Am I arrogant? Perhaps. But this shit happens to me at least 2-3 times per week, and I can't imagine how often Parisians have to deal with it from ignorant American tourists.

Jul 10, 2009#30

Math242

Worst tourists

- Parisians. should nuke them from orbit, only way etc etc . Rest of France are good people.

I even wonder why they leave they shitty city because they'll never find anything else nice anyway.

god, i hate them. I was in croatia a few months ago and there were a lot of french people. nobody could stand the parigos especially the other french dudes (britons rock).

Jul 10, 2009#31

Denbrought

WolfOfOdin said:
Just a quick question Den, is it true that if you call a Spaniard Hispanic/Latino it's considered a rather big insult?

Well, the pop here is Caucasian generally, so it's as big of an "insult" as going around the US calling everyone native americans

It'd bug me (specially because I have no hispanic traits), but no sand in vagina for me. Except if they call me mexican, then it's on.

IchigoX said:
Denbrought said:

Japs do strike me as good tourists, from the time I've spent just idling in Barcelona. French... I think it's a fair shot at calling them "in general" one of the worst kinds, but if we're talking particular experiences from most people I know, American's win the price by a long shot.

A tip about the language barrier thing, unless you have good proficiency with the other person's language, ask if they speak english first. If they don't it's fair game to try it in the other one, and if they do it's all the better. But remember that it's better to speak a language half-arsedly than to not speak it at all.

Click to expand...

Nice.

Should I call them Japanese-American? Seriously, jap bears as much racial strength as "white", except in presence of elderly americans and japanese.

Jul 10, 2009#32

Math242

i ll cut u, mang

Jul 10, 2009#33

Enresshou

AshburnerX said:
IchigoX said:

Denbrought said:

Japs do strike me as good tourists, from the time I've spent just idling in Barcelona. French... I think it's a fair shot at calling them "in general" one of the worst kinds, but if we're talking particular experiences from most people I know, American's win the price by a long shot.

A tip about the language barrier thing, unless you have good proficiency with the other person's language, ask if they speak english first. If they don't it's fair game to try it in the other one, and if they do it's all the better. But remember that it's better to speak a language half-arsedly than to not speak it at all.

Click to expand...

Nice.

Click to expand...

I'll tell you what... I'll start calling people out for saying Jap when the Japanese stop calling people Gaijin outside of Asia, ok?

This. I don't appreciate the term Jap (although I do have one hilarious story of my Irish mother in a fit of rage screaming, "IM GONNA JAP-SLAP YOU, BOY!"), but far better than calling every non-ethnic Japanese who wasn't born in Japan "gaijin".

As for tourists...I can't really say. I pop in and out of San Francisco a lot, but I tend to avoid the touristy areas (unless I go to Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39). Most of the people I meet from outside the country are in the labs I work in, and they've all been fairly nice folk.

Jul 10, 2009#34

AshburnerX

I've run into a quite a few Japanese tourists here in Ohio... mainly hanging around COSI, the Wright Patterson Air Force Base Aviation Museum, or the Columbus Zoo (#1 in the Nation!) and here's my basic understanding of how they tend to be.

- Japanese Adults: Polite and they try their best to speak English. These are the people you want to talk to if you must.
- Japanese Children: Sometimes shy, sometimes not. Rarely speak English. Not polite, but hey, they are kids. Watch out for a Kancho though... they don't seem to understand that it's considered sexual harassment here in the US. Yes, this has happened to me :eek:

rly:
- Female Japanese Teenagers/Young Adults (if your Female): Rude and demanding. Often speak good enough English, but will openly mock you in Japanese if they think you don't understand. Act like adults when around parents.
- Female Japanese Teenagers/Young Adults (if your Male): Will ether hang onto you and try to get you to take them around or will try to avoid you, thinking anything you say is a pick-up line. Often play up broken English angle to get what they want. Not afraid to ditch you if they find a better looking guy that will do what they want.
- Male Japanese Teenagers/Young Adults (if your Male): Pretty much the same as Female-Female example above.
- Male Japanese Teenagers/Young Adults (if your Female): They will ether hit on you mercilessly because they think all American Women are easy (a stereotype that gets played up a lot in Japan apparently) or they'll be too shy to talk to you.

Jul 10, 2009#35

Gurpel

AshburnerX said:
IchigoX said:

Denbrought said:

Japs

Click to expand...

Nice.

Click to expand...

I'll tell you what... I'll start calling people out for saying Jap when the Japanese stop calling people Gaijin outside of Asia, ok?

yeah... asian people in general are vehemently racist. i'm pretty sure the chinese word for "foreigner" basically means "sub-human"

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laowai

alright, so its a little less perjorative than i made it out to be..

Jul 10, 2009#36

Zarvox

IchigoX said:
Denbrought said:

Japs

Click to expand...

Nice.

Just to restate what's been said, but do it a little more bluntly: I'll start giving two shits about racism against the Japanese when Japan stops having one of the most racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic cultures on earth.

Jul 10, 2009#37

Jay

So the French are easily annoyed, arrogant, bitch a lot and are cheap skates. Yep, that sounds about right. I speak fluent French, live in Quebec and I've been to Europe a few times. Haven't been to Paris but lived in Marseilles and this stingma is true and I'm not surprised by this survey or by people's experience. My fiancee wants to go to France soon and I want to make her happy, I just don't forward with dealing with them. We're going to Italy this year for 2 weeks and I speak fluent Italian and lived in Rome when I was young, if anything, Italians are too friendly that it makes me suspicious.

Oh and HowDroll, a good reason why you were probably well treated was that you're cute little lady and the French love helping out the ladies. :unibrow:

Jul 10, 2009#38

Jake

HowDroll said:
I spent a week in Paris last year and I only ran into one rude person. Everyone else I met was incredibly nice, even going out of their way to help us at times. I do, however, speak intermediate-level French. My boyfriend ran into a few more rude people on his first day there--the few times he spoke to someone without me. The reason for that?

Boobs.

Jul 10, 2009#39

ElJuski

They were rude to him because she has big tits?

Jul 10, 2009#40

Chazwozel

AshburnerX said:
- Male Japanese Teenagers/Young Adults (if your Female): They will ether hit on you mercilessly because they think all American Women are easy (a stereotype that gets played up a lot in Japan apparently) or they'll be too shy to talk to you.

Don't worry the stereotype that Japanese girls will do whatever the hell you want and not ask twice is played up in America pretty well.

Jul 10, 2009#41

AshburnerX

Chazwozel said:
AshburnerX said:

- Male Japanese Teenagers/Young Adults (if your Female): They will ether hit on you mercilessly because they think all American Women are easy (a stereotype that gets played up a lot in Japan apparently) or they'll be too shy to talk to you.

Click to expand...

Don't worry the stereotype that Japanese girls will do whatever the hell you want and not ask twice is played up in America pretty well.

I've met some in my time... it's a dying trend. I couldn't be happier.

Jul 10, 2009#42

SpecialKO

I wouldn't go so far as to call all Parisians assholes, but they definitely seem to have a thing about the "proper" way to speak French that the rest of the country doesn't seem to.

I speak French with a Swiss accent, like a Swiss person; a little gutteral, flatter inflection, a little slower than parisien french, and supposedly (according to my relatives who speak like Parisians) German mannerisms.

Paris is the only place in France where I've gotten weird looks for how I speak. Hasn't happened in the north, south, or central part of the country, just Paris.

Jul 10, 2009#43

Jake

ElJuski said:
They were rude to him because she has big tits?

Eh, why not? Knock yourself out.

Jul 10, 2009#44

I had a wonderful time in Paris. In ten days I had two people be rude to me, one waiter and someone at a currency exchange. Big whoop. I was proficient but not fluent in French at the time and I didn't have anyone give me any kind of crap for how I spoke. People were generally patient and polite.

Jul 10, 2009#45

T

Thor

Frankie said:
Non-urban Quebecers are pretty smurfing intolerant of "filthy Anglos" from everything I've experienced. I can speak some French (I'm not fantastic at it but I can hold a rudimentary conversation) and actually had someone when I was asking for directions mock me by cutting me off and going, "eblah eblah eblah." and wave their hands like I was the world's biggest waste of time.

Annoying.

where did you go?

Jul 10, 2009#46

Green_Lantern

Chibibar said:
Edrondol said:

Chien?

Click to expand...

yup

...if that helps "Chien" doesn't sound like if should mean dog...

funny that Japanese are good tourists, but not good hosts.

Would be relevant to this thread to say that some surveys said that French men have bigger... you know what, It is not really relevant. :aaahhh:

Jul 10, 2009#47

Green_Lantern said:
ld be relevant to this thread to say that some surveys said that French men have bigger... you know what, It is not really relevant. :aaahhh:

Bars of soap? I would, too, if I never used them.

Jul 10, 2009#48

Cajungal

Baguettes.

Jul 10, 2009#49

CynicismKills

Tracts of land?

Jul 10, 2009#50

AshburnerX

Cajungal said:
Baguettes.

Too bad then turn rock hard after a day or two... wait, where am I going with this?

aranoid:

Jul 10, 2009#51

Green_Lantern

AshburnerX said:
Cajungal said:

Baguettes.

Click to expand...

Too bad then turn rock hard after a day or two... wait, where am I going with this? aranoid:

Dunno, maybe you could use them with girls? I pretty sure they would be impressed by hard rock french baguetes.

Jul 10, 2009#52

WolfOfOdin

Ahhh, alright Den.

There's a kid in my year of law school who's 100% Spanish, from Barcelona I believe. Another student called him latino and he FLIPPED and replied "I am not a goddamn half-breed" with a lot of venom.

Jul 11, 2009#53

Shawn

Working in the travel industry I can give you my ratings.
French are pretty high on my "worst tourist list" due to their attitude and refusal to learn simple concepts such as "Room service closes at 10pm. Stop calling."

But the worst tourist on the list are Indians (Asia). This is a culture where if you are rich enough to take a vacation you consider yourself better than anyone else. Especially with people that serve you. Here at the hotel we cringe whenever we see an Indian tourist based on the following likelyhoods.

*Most Indian tourists do not tip. What makes this even more aggrivating is they are the most likely tourist that SHOULD tip given the circumstances. They often bring their extended and large families with them which results in a lot of work for waiters, bellmen and shuttle services. I remember one incident where we had to argue with a man to give at least a $5 tip to our bellman who had single handedly transported 20+ suitcases to their rooms.

*They can be incredibly cheap. This goes beyond just not tipping. I've been in rate wars with Indian tourists over the dumbest of things from our parking charge to charges for long distance phone calls. I remember an Indian guest fighting the final cost of the room when he thought that the $149 per night charge was the TOTAL price for all three nights he stayed with us.

*You are probably a servant to them. No, they do not see you as paid employees. They think less of you than that. If anything you are there to serve them and only them. They hold you personal responsible for anything they might require regardless of how much of it is actually in your hands. If they ask you to call a taxi for them, and the taxi is late, it's YOUR fault and "you should be ashamed for treating a guest like that".

Multiply these problems x10 if the guest happens to be a Doctor.
Sure they must hand out Medical Diplomas at every street corner in India, but gawd help you if the guest picked one up on his way to America.

Jul 11, 2009#54

Covar

WolfOfOdin said:
Ahhh, alright Den.

There's a kid in my year of law school who's 100% Spanish, from Barcelona I believe. Another student called him latino and he FLIPPED and replied "I am not a goddamn half-breed" with a lot of venom.

wow, so on top of being offended the guy was a racist to boot. good to know.

Jul 11, 2009#55

Jay

Shawnacy said:
Working in the travel industry I can give you my ratings.
French are pretty high on my "worst tourist list" due to their attitude and refusal to learn simple concepts such as "Room service closes at 10pm. Stop calling."

But the worst tourist on the list are Indians (Asia). This is a culture where if you are rich enough to take a vacation you consider yourself better than anyone else. Especially with people that serve you. Here at the hotel we cringe whenever we see an Indian tourist based on the following likelyhoods.

*Most Indian tourists do not tip. What makes this even more aggrivating is they are the most likely tourist that SHOULD tip given the circumstances. They often bring their extended and large families with them which results in a lot of work for waiters, bellmen and shuttle services. I remember one incident where we had to argue with a man to give at least a $5 tip to our bellman who had single handedly transported 20+ suitcases to their rooms.

*They can be incredibly cheap. This goes beyond just not tipping. I've been in rate wars with Indian tourists over the dumbest of things from our parking charge to charges for long distance phone calls. I remember an Indian guest fighting the final cost of the room when he thought that the $149 per night charge was the TOTAL price for all three nights he stayed with us.

*You are probably a servant to them. No, they do not see you as paid employees. They think less of you than that. If anything you are there to serve them and only them. They hold you personal responsible for anything they might require regardless of how much of it is actually in your hands. If they ask you to call a taxi for them, and the taxi is late, it's YOUR fault and "you should be ashamed for treating a guest like that".

Multiply these problems x10 if the guest happens to be a Doctor.
Sure they must hand out Medical Diplomas at every street corner in India, but gawd help you if the guest picked one up on his way to America.

One of my favorite comedians is Russell Peters, who've I went to every one of his concerts when he's been in town. He comes from Indian origins and looks the part. In his routines he goes into great detail how Indians are by far, the cheapest of all races on this planet. To the point he claims, his culture invented the number 0. It's highly entertaining.... mostly because it's true.

Jul 11, 2009#56

HowDroll

SeriousJay said:
One of my favorite comedians is Russell Peters, who've I went to every one of his concerts when he's been in town. He comes from Indian origins and looks the part. In his routines he goes into great detail how Indians are by far, the cheapest of all races on this planet. To the point he claims, his culture invented the number 0. It's highly entertaining.... mostly because it's true.

Even in retail, Indians are cheap. I almost dread having Indian customers because I know they'll argue with me like Best Buy is some market in Hyderabad.

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