5 ms·

Why the French Love to Complain

29 points by jmnicolas 6y ago

pjmlp 6y ago
This applies to most European countries actually.
- yetihehe 6y ago
  Yeah, for poles, "How are you?/Co u ciebie?" is an invitation to complain, not a figure of speech.
  - coldtea 6y ago
    Where complain here means "actually talk about your life/how you are/situation", and then listen to the other talk about theirs.
mytailorisrich 6y ago
> there’s “porter plainte”, for complaining more officially Note that this does not simply mean an 'official' complaint, but a formal criminal complaint to police or 'procureur' (district attorney). So if you're unhappy about the service in a Parisian cafe and tell the waiter that you're going to "porter plainte" the reply will probably only be a sneer even more condescending than usual.
- krzepah 6y ago
  Actually don't say you are going to "porter plainte" in a café, you will look like a Karen with extra steps edit : Porter plainte means filling the papers to a Police station to start a judiciary procedure against someone, you'd do that for violence, theft, rape etc...
  - mytailorisrich 6y ago
    Yes, exactly what I wrote ;)
    - krzepah 6y ago
      yup ^^
mrath 6y ago
I was told by a fellow Australian, that was a birth right as Australian :-)
embarraseduker 6y ago
Ah the UK, where its okay to be racist against everyone apart from the UK upper class. "I speak English without an accent.." - you mean you speak English with a SE England accent?
hackbinary 6y ago
Uhm, I think the British won the "complainer" trophy with our lame ass brexit project. In fact, now the Scots are complaining about England (& Wales) winning the complaint trophy, that they themselves will likely win the complaint contest in 2021. (Please note I support Scots independence, and Scots complaints with the UK are also long standing and well founded.)
ciconia 6y ago
I'm an expat living in France, and I always tell my French friends they don't know how lucky they are to be living in such a wonderful country. Really when you come to other countries I lived in, there's no comparison.
- seszett 6y ago
  The thinking is that the country probably wouldn't be so wonderful if the people were not in the habit of complaining about some of the things that aren't that wonderful.
- guerby 6y ago
  Moore in the movie Sicko displayed this in a funny way (I'm french): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko "In France, Moore visits a hospital and interviews the head of obstetrics and gynaecology and a group of American expatriates. Moore rides with the "SOS Médecins", a 24-hour French medical service that provides house calls by physicians. Moore discovers that the French government provides many social services and rights in addition to health care, such as daycare for $1 an hour, free college education, a minimum five weeks paid vacation by law, vacation, and neonatal support that includes cooking, cleaning, and laundry services for new mothers. "

29 points by jmnicolas 6y ago

pjmlp 6y ago

This applies to most European countries actually.

yetihehe 6y ago
Yeah, for poles, "How are you?/Co u ciebie?" is an invitation to complain, not a figure of speech.
- coldtea 6y ago
  Where complain here means "actually talk about your life/how you are/situation", and then listen to the other talk about theirs.

mytailorisrich 6y ago

> there’s “porter plainte”, for complaining more officially Note that this does not simply mean an 'official' complaint, but a formal criminal complaint to police or 'procureur' (district attorney). So if you're unhappy about the service in a Parisian cafe and tell the waiter that you're going to "porter plainte" the reply will probably only be a sneer even more condescending than usual.

krzepah 6y ago
Actually don't say you are going to "porter plainte" in a café, you will look like a Karen with extra steps edit : Porter plainte means filling the papers to a Police station to start a judiciary procedure against someone, you'd do that for violence, theft, rape etc...
- mytailorisrich 6y ago
  Yes, exactly what I wrote ;)
  - krzepah 6y ago
    yup ^^

mrath 6y ago

I was told by a fellow Australian, that was a birth right as Australian :-)

embarraseduker 6y ago

Ah the UK, where its okay to be racist against everyone apart from the UK upper class. "I speak English without an accent.." - you mean you speak English with a SE England accent?

hackbinary 6y ago

Uhm, I think the British won the "complainer" trophy with our lame ass brexit project. In fact, now the Scots are complaining about England (& Wales) winning the complaint trophy, that they themselves will likely win the complaint contest in 2021. (Please note I support Scots independence, and Scots complaints with the UK are also long standing and well founded.)

ciconia 6y ago

I'm an expat living in France, and I always tell my French friends they don't know how lucky they are to be living in such a wonderful country. Really when you come to other countries I lived in, there's no comparison.

seszett 6y ago
The thinking is that the country probably wouldn't be so wonderful if the people were not in the habit of complaining about some of the things that aren't that wonderful.
guerby 6y ago
Moore in the movie Sicko displayed this in a funny way (I'm french): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko "In France, Moore visits a hospital and interviews the head of obstetrics and gynaecology and a group of American expatriates. Moore rides with the "SOS Médecins", a 24-hour French medical service that provides house calls by physicians. Moore discovers that the French government provides many social services and rights in addition to health care, such as daycare for $1 an hour, free college education, a minimum five weeks paid vacation by law, vacation, and neonatal support that includes cooking, cleaning, and laundry services for new mothers. "