THAT CAN BE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER NATIONALITIES
1- The “how many kisses” awkward situation in schools
In French schools, we greet our friends with kisses on the cheek (la bise), but depending on the region from where you come from, it depends how many kisses you give. Example: In the east of France, it tends to be three, but in Paris it will be two.
Everyday we can get awkward situations where you tend your cheek for a third kiss for example, but the other person is already done. This is why we now tend to prevent these embarrassing moments by saying “attention, j’en fais deux” (be careful I only do two kisses)
2- We never call any of our teachers or professors by their name, just “monsieur” or “madame”, or else it’s considered rude and mocking
3- We use social media differently
French kids between the ages of 12 and 15 all have in common this tradition of tagging all their closest friends on their profile pictures on Facebook, and for each person they write a long text under the description of the profile picture. Many people like me find this category of French people “ridicule”. Here’s an example of a friend of my brother’s text:
“Hugo, t’es mon tout t’es ma vie je t’aime plus que tout mon bébé coeur d’amour mon homme” (Hugo, you’re my everything my life i love you more than anything my baby love, my man) ……….and she’s 12……
Not all kids do this, I didn’t, but so many did, and they were considered the popular ones.
4- The war between the ones who prefer “beurre salé” (salted butter) or “beurre doux” (normal) on their butter in the morning (by the way, salted butter is definitely better obviously)
5- It has become a common national dislike in France for a singer called “Jul” because we find his raps ridiculous (for example a song called “Wesh alors” which means “yeah so”) and so when you say “j'aime Jul” everyone starts 😅. For fun we also do his special ✋ sign that gets people cracking: you put your fourth finger and pinky down on both hands and then stick your hands together.
6- We don’t say “phew” when we’re reassured by something: we say “ouf”
7- The song “Sardines” by Patrick Sébastien is our traditional funfair song, and everyone knows it cause it’s super funny
8- We’re so used to greeting people with two kisses on the cheek that we’re surprised when international people look at us shockingly when we get too close to them to greet them
5- We have a lot of publicity on french radio, so we start learning them by 💛 in the 🚗, and sometimes with friends we have fun singing the jingles together. For example “carglass répare, carglass remplace” “gifi des idées de génie”
9- We like distinguishing two kinds of summer vacaction french families: either the ones who go to “Le sud” or the ones who go to “Bretagne” which are two very different kinds of beaches in different regions of France
10- Our markets are usually on Saturday mornings and we have everything but especially a lot of 🧀, like a lot, and from all our french regions (they are so so good)
11- We make fun of “les aristocrates” who have names such as “de la Tour”, “de Courlet-Vrigelles”, who have castles in France and who seem to only hang out with each other. They organise their own parties called “rally” where they dance rock and maybe meet their futur boyfriend/girlfriend from the same category as them
Of course this doesn’t suggest all french people can relate, but as a french person who has traveled around the world I have remarked that these things distinguish us from others! :)))
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