I want to know the context.
Stereotypes.
Americans are incredibly obsessed about which European countries their distant ancestors came from, even if they basically know nothing about these countries or how they are today.
Meanwhile, in Europe, friendly neighbour ribbing is alive and well. Everyone slings mud over the border, and it’s fine, usually, they’ll do the same to us, you see.
As European we don’t!
Not true, we the French don’t care you hate us.
If anything, your hate makes us stronger.
I showed a French dude a meme about British people relaxing when they get home because they don’t have to do the accent anymore. He said it’s the same with French people, except about pretending they like France.
We love our country with the same passion we hate our country.
Le vrai patriotisme.
and here I thought rioting in the streets for your rights and to keep government terrified of, and in service to, the people every 3 months was what made you stronger.
I’m also commenting to let people know I don’t care.
If anything, your hate makes us stronger.
You may want to recalibrate that, you’re looking awfully weak and french
Your food sucks and your wines are hugely overrated.
Yup, can comfirm we dont care what you think 🙃
The painful 'Murican obsession with identifying as a member of a culture they have a tenuous link to, in an attempt to be interesting, is genuinely cringeworthy
Your great grandfather was Scottish, French, Irish, Italian etc.
Not you
It’s obviously cringe, but I don’t think it’s some trivial thing, it’s a trauma of Colonialism. Americans don’t truly have a claim to the land they pillaged to live on. Whiteness absorbed European ethics like the borg, stripped them of a language and culture, and all they have left is getting run over by a Ford F250 in a Walmart parking lot.
So a lot of white Americans have this near libidinal need to tie themselves to a culture they consider to be more real or substantive. I don’t think that’s a trivial desire, but insisting that you’re Italian, despite not knowing anything about the place, or claiming your great great great grandma was a Cherokee princess, or some shit… That ain’t it
This, and without a hint of irony.
France, you’re a cunt and I love you.
They’re cunts but they’re our cunts.
Exactly! We may all hate each other on some level, but we are still sistren and brethren of europe (russia you dont count fuck off, but we can gladlely accept kasachstan as honorary european in its place instead). Hit on one of us and we are a united front!..atleast the people…politics…ugh lets not start that…
Oh yeah, it’s siblings rivalry. Outsiders OUT.
Second pic is “listen here, you little shit” expressed with chef’s kiss.
Do we Latinos join the club or not?
We love to mess with speakers of other Romance languages.
We can at least all agree that Portugal doesn’t exist
You mean Eastern Spain? Where they speak Brazilian?
Nobody knows what language they speak, it lacks vowels. Also, it’s western spain 🙃
We can agree that portugal is a lost balcan nation
Hating other nations is the starting point of all fascist ideas. (also, I’m french)
Isn’t that also how the World Cup works? For example, I wanted Mbape to win, and the English to lose, but that doesn’t mean I actually supported France.
Yes. Checks out. Ball sport is facism. With a ball.
A lot of matches could be avoided if only they had more balls. The ball owner just decided to only make one ball available, so they’d fight over it and remove attention from himself. It’s like the Colosseum, where the Caesar never had to fight.
This is the shitpost community, btw.
Fascism is the logical conclusion of nations
Both World Wars started in Europe.
How many wars have the US started by invading other countries?
Quick Google search:
• Mexican-American War (1846)
• Various 19th-century interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, etc.)
• Philippine-American War (1899)
• Vietnam War escalation (1965)
• Invasion of Grenada (1983)
• Invasion of Panama (1989)
• Gulf War (1991)
• Invasion of Afghanistan (2001)
• Invasion of Iraq (2003)
• Invasion of Iran (2026)
The French don’t mind, cause they don’t understand any language except French.
the impression I get is that they’re pretending not to understand, but they do, they just don’t give a flying fuck what other people think of them because everyone keeps buying their cheese, wine, and fashion so they’re busy counting money, getting laid, and smoking like chimneys lol
Can confirm, their cheese if fucking awesome
Even their cheese is busy getting laid, I see
then what
Then, Mac, maybe we can get some Mac & cheese
Don’t forget their baguette and croissant dividends.
They don’t care to understand.
A shame, they seemed an honest man.
Historically they think, or at least seem to think, learning English is beneath them. In fact doing anything not French is beneath them. Then they act like wankers and that’s why everyone hates them.
English is the dominate language and the Chinese even accepted it before the French. At this point the youth have sort of given up and end up consuming a lot of media and internet in English so it’s way better. Also the lingua franca of Europe is English so they got to learn it just to speak to everyone else, but they don’t really and as such have probably the worst english is western Europe and even most of Europe in general.
While I get your point, it’s hard to argue that English is the lingua Franca in Europe, since there are more native French speakers than English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_speakers_in_Europe
This list estimates native French and English speakers are approximately the same amount as of 2024
I knew Russian was gonna be the largest but I’m surprised German was higher than French and English, and didn’t know French and English were approximately neck and neck
Lingua franca isn’t about native speakers, and if anything it’s about second language speakers. Mandarin has the most global native speakers, but even if we remove it from the running because it has a logographic writing system, number 2 is Spanish. Yet the global lingua franca is English.
Lingua Franca is about how many people you could communicate with across boundaries, thus native speakers play a critical role here.
“English is the global lingua Franca” is frankly debatable, given the proficiency requirements in many fields. Proof of it is that translators are still ubiquitous in places of business when it comes to negotiations.
Ils le comprennent parfaitement mais ils refusent de le parler.
I don’t want any wine, thanks.
Je mapelle jobbies et je 35 ans. Je habite a Ecosse et je taime Duran Duran et le ping pong.
enchanté
Je ne veux pas deux cent cinquante grammes d’olives.
They don’t even understand French from other countries.
Source : Je suis Canadien français mais je parle anglais quand je vais en France. C’est beaucoup moins chiant.
Someone in France told my friend she was speaking barbarian French (Quebecois French) once.
Ce n’est effectivement pas qu’une question d’accent. Ils utilisent des mots différents pour désigner certaines choses. Dites-vous aussi « quatre-vingt-dix-neuf » au lieu de « nonante-neuf » ?
Yeah, I’m from New Jersey but took French in middle and high school, and eventually, at 19 say let’s do this thing, and I go to Montreal, and imagine my surprise when I have no idea what the fuck they’re saying. And I make friends with a couple on a cruise from Gatineau, and my god, it’s even harder to understand. I was failed by my education!
And when I go to Paris and speak French they’re like “Okay you can stop,” which to me means good enough! The New Jersey accent is quite unlike the French accent, it seems.
They hate French people in France too, so…
This is an outdated stereotype. I’d be willing to bet more French speak a second language than Americans.
But not than Belgians, Dutch, polish or Germans, which are the most frequent comparisons.
Why would the Dutch/Polish/Germans speak more languages?
Belgium alone has 3 official languages: French, Dutch and a German speaking part.
The French part refuses to learn any of the other official languages, even in school. They don’t see the need.
While the other parts are a lot more open to other languages. You will be hard pressed to find someone in Flanders that doesn’t speak French on top of their Dutch.
?
What are you talking about.
We have obligatory 2 foreign language in our school curriculum.
Most people take English lv1 and then whatever of Italian/Spanish/German is closest border to them.
Idk about the Polish and Germans personally, but for the Netherlands at least it’s a relatively small country with a limited amount of entertainment made there, so a ton of media is imported and subtitled. Since a lot of it comes from the US and UK, and most of it is subtitled (for the most part only kids’ shows are dubbed over), the majority of people speak or at least understand English. According to Wikipedia, it has been estimated that as much as 90% to 97% of the population is proficient in English.
Also English, French and German are part of you high school curriculum next to Dutch so at least you get a basic understanding of 3 other languages, of the 3 English is the one that sticks the most because of the aforementioned media that gets imported.
They do, each country for different reasons.
lol not in absolute numbers terms, no way. The US has 5x the population, and there are tons of immigrants that speak multiple languages. So regardless of how stupid native-born citizens are, there are still many bilingual+ people.
Absolute numbers? what kind of intentionality disingenuous comparison is that? We have like 4x their population.
Try visiting France. Almost everyone in the major cities speaks English to a competent degree. Only like a quarter of Americans speak Spanish equivalently. I mean not even all Latin people speak Spanish in the US.
most people i know who grew up in california took at least a couple years of high school spanish.
i was a snot, i took german with the goth kids instead.
I’ve been in France for two days and have already met 2 young people who didn’t speak more than high school English. Oh and I’m a tourist, so they were working a job where they have to interact with foreigners regularly…
Now of course anecdote isn’t statistics, and my French is certainly no better, but compared to other European countries their English level is… notable.
The reality is that most French people speak enough english to get by, we just don’t like speaking it.
Wow two whole young people. So almost everyone else spoke English right? Don’t lie to me because I’ve been there many times and I know they do.
It’s crazy how Americans get defensive about the dumbest shit.
Yes, almost everyone spoke English, I never lied about that. Just compared to other European countries I’ve been, 2 is still notable. In many countries it’d be hard to find a single young person who didn’t speak English even if you were trying to find them for 2 days.
I’d know because I live in a European country, I’m not American.
I am french
Hating the French is a MI6 psyop to direct hate away from the Bri*ish
Most Europeans don’t even think about the Bri*ish
Spaniards do, but only during summer.
That’s why your not invited to the haters ball
We can multitask, mate.
Fits
What about the Germans? Or are they just too low hanging fruit for banter?
Banter is fun when the other side can give back in a humourous way. I’m told. I wouldn’t know, too busy being efficient.
Gott strafe England.
What are we for then - to direct hate away from the Yanks?
Unpopular opinion but the British aren’t even that bad. They are only hated so much because they have been really good at a lot of things and drinking too much. The foundation most of the world is based on is British and it’s easy to miss.
The foundation most of the world is based on is British and it’s easy to miss.
Lol not even close.
Also, there are very specific reasons why the British have bad rep.
English
When people talk about the “British” they tend to show their ignorance about the UK
You’re talking about the English.
Not the Scots, not the Welsh
When people talk about the “British” they tend to show their ignorance about the UK
Right, because there weren’t any Welsh or Scottish colonizers.
In overwatch EU servers (maybe in other similar games too), in my experience, in terms of pure toxicity hurled at you, having a french accent in comms manages to be even worse than having a female voice. Couldn’t help but smile this one time someone told me they wouldn’t be using the team comms because they were french. Amazing.
I love it. Never understood the hate for the French. I sometimes mock their accent out of admiration (same with Dutch). It sounds so nice to me. Once came across a woman who spoke in a French accent in Overwatch, rolled her R’s forever and it sounded so attractive.
Never understood the hate for the French.
Just look up their colonial past. Before you think “That’s old stuff now”, some places still suffer from French colonialism today
One of the founding principles of the (CFA, African Financial Community) was that colonies had to keep 50 percent of their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury, plus an additional 20 percent for financial liabilities. Thus, member states only retained 30 percent of reserves within their borders.
The monetary zone limits industrialization and economic development and discourages trade among member states
Despite some very famous recent losses, France historically tended to go to war with and win against just about everyone on the continent, as such everyone got a bit salty about it. These days its just more of a meme.
Yeah, you know, I wasn’t really around then. And I don’t believe in making fun of someone because their ancestors were dicks.
Well, they conquered Spain by turning against them, allies up to that point, and having their army inside the country already. “The war can be said to have started when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807 by transiting through Spain, but it escalated in 1808 after Napoleonic France occupied Spain, which had been its ally.”
The the Spaniards handed Napoleon his ass on a platter, coining the word guerrilla.
It was pretty much all Napoleon though. Combined with utter incompetence of the neighbouring states.
The French are the saltiest fuckers on the European OW servers. If they want to really insult you they switch to French, fucking cowards.
Which is honestly absolutely hilarious
It’s because insults in French are much better. Insulting in French is more cathartic.
Literally >50% of every sentence out of a Frenchmans mouth online is fdp or mdr…
Not all french are versed in the art of cursing, that is the sad truth.
Don’t forget “ta mère”
Can’t tell if it’s a parody or actual scene from the movie.
Actual scene from the movie.
Tbf, english insults are generally very lame compared to French, Italian etc etc
I don’t know, calling someone a twat, plonker or nob has its charm. Although German ones are the best in any case
I feel like most Europeans have no issue with the French, it’s an America-thing. Maybe a UK-thing.
The French are incredibly based and the trope of them surrendering immediately is ridiculous. The French resistance during WW2 was fierce. And throughout history and in current times the French don’t take shit from their government. If the French government tried even a fraction of what our (German) government is pushing through at the moment Paris would be burned to the ground. Meanwhile we (Germans) just whine and do nothing.
As a fellow German I kind of admire the French protest culture. Fully agreed.
As another fellow german, i admire way more. We germans have lots to learn from french culture. From treating meal times and food as something to be celebrated and not a neccessary annoying task. Their local empathy without tearing others down. The joy of life and less complaining about small minor things while ignoring how good we got it. Their protest and workers-unity culture though is on top of the list. If we had that, Mr. Burns would have never gotten into office, a curtain brown party made in russia wouldnt be so populare, and so many social problems we wouldnt have rn.
Also the french goal for european independence and self reliance.
But the french nuclear power kink can stay in france
It’s an American thing that has slightly spilled out to the UK through popular media.
France has a strong track record post WW2 of consistently standing up to the USA’s wars abroad; they were one of the first to kick US nuclear bases out of their own country during the Cold War, and were their biggest Western opponent at the UN regarding the second Iraq war. Hence the continued popularity of the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” trope in American media.
They were also the ones that brought USA into Vietnam in the 1950s…
Never mind the 900 years of constant wars
“You see king philipe, we have a very lucrative wine trade in gascony and the flemish like us and we like their cloth industry. You know…thinking about, my mother was the last of the house of capet. Wouldnt that make…king of france?” - Edward III probably
Anyone in the 21st century claiming to still be sore over the Napoleonic Wars or anything pre-dating them maybe shouldn’t be taken seriously
It’s mostly american propaganda
Here, take my upvote, and thank you!
– A french.
The ruse worked get them!
Quickly grab the Alsace !
nooooo
Ah, no, we don’t have issues with the french, we just love hating on each other because you know, we have history. Not with the current ones which is why we have no issues, but you know, it’s entertaining.
French can joke about how the Basque did a very early space program (terrorism), how the Germans love their soap (Nazism) and so on. We don’t have issues with each other, it’s just fuckery.
That’s why it’s weird when Americans call french white flags… They are not allowed, also their references are about their experiences as tourists, which is like, it was probably their fault.
We hate “The French” but have no issues with French people.
I love France, it’s a beautiful country. Unfortunately it’s filled with Frenchmen.
The English once found a monkey after a shipwreck and tried and hanged it on the charge of being French.
I’m an englishman francophile. I love Jacques Brel, Georges Perec, French food…
like everything this is just a meme
don’t forget Dominique Pinon
Poirot and Tin-tin.
Italians have a tendency to hate/compare themselve to the French.
For example: Italy scores very badly in some rankings. The first thing an Italian would do is to check if France is higher or lower than Italy. If it’s lower, they’d say “at least we beat the french”. If it’s higher they’d say “damn we even scored worse than France… terrible”.
But I don’t think people actually hate france or the french. it’s more like a meme I think!
Source:
I’m italian and I don’t hate nor love the French
We have no issue with the French. We do hate the Italians, they’re a bunch of pushy fascists.
Their government. Fascists are everywhere. Germany, france, poland, england, turkey, romania, finland, sweden, portugal. Everywhere. and once the fat bald snake of a bear is dealt with one way or the other, oooh that will be beautiful watching them scramble without their biggest finance and supprter.
There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures and the
DutchFrench.Also, people in Canada: “we hate the Quebecois”
Nah, Quebec’s cool. They know how to throw a good rager.
Especially when you tell them they arent french, so i heard. Hehhehe
Non non non non it’s the otherwise around.
We love them because we can immediately tell they aren’t American.
Without QC we’d have turned indistinguishable from Americans.
You guys aren’t all that different from us Americans. You are us on a time delay. You see all the awful shit we do and resist at first, but when the outrage starts dying down you do the same awful shit too.
If you believe what is happening is a result of the progression of the capitalist system, that assessment makes perfect sense. I tend to believe that.
Fuckers need to learn how to say NO.
It’s a bit more ugly than that given the historical context. Because of religious and political realities, French Canadiens relative to Canadians are more like Ireland for the British. There is some leftover racism from that era but most urban Canadians don’t fall in the old patterns.
Predator handshake meme: “Canadians and French”
I, as a German, actually love the French
Sometimes you Germans love them a little too much and France has to get restraining orders.
Loved them so much they wanted to keep a part of them.
I was going to respond, “As is tradition.”
It’s not our fault when they make their streets so marchable with rows of trees to keep our soldiers in the shade.
ARTE: plan is working, excellent
I rarely watch ARTE, though.
🇨🇵❤️🇩🇪
(Ich bin französisch)
HERETIC
Americans: You should see how racist Asian countries are!
(Me going to Europe and hearing the wildest takes)
I love Europe. It’s the only place where a bus driver from country A can get into a heated argument with a random guy from country B in two completely different languages. After both have gone on for a bit and not understood a word of what the other one was saying, they have reached a point of agreement, can wish each other a good day and carry on.
First they exchange cigarettes though
As a bus driver: This insensitivity will not stand!
And here I am, just sitting in the bus, waiting to get to work, while these two are shouting in foreign languages
I’ve genuinely been in that exact situation haha
