> even if you were off on the pronunciation, most people appreciated
> that you had taken the time to learn something, and, as a result, were
> invariably more willing to understand what you needed; this was esp.
> true in France.
That wasn't my experience in 1978 when I could speak tolerable francais. I
was on a train going from Amsterdam to Paris with a friend who was
quadriplegic. They only served food in the dining car but my friend's
wheelchair couldn't fit through the door. I explained the situation to the
conductor but he was quite pompous and pretended not to understand even
though it meant that my quadriplegic friend went hungry. A few years later I
recounted this story to a lady with a Masters in French from Stanford. Of
course her french was impeccable. She had lived in Paris a couple of years
as part of her masters program. During her stay she asked a native friend
why the French were so rude to Americans. They reply, "Well we are rude to
each other so why shouldn't we be rude to Americans?" :-)
--
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
--
Author: Orr, Steve
INET: sorr_at_rightnow.com
Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051
San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
Received on Tue Jun 11 2002 - 18:33:36 CDT
