What the French think of Americans - Part 2

If you didn't get a chance to read yesterday's part 1 go ahead and click here. 

Today, I'm jumping right into the list.

7. Overall, Americans are Pretty Warm & Welcoming as a Country

We say hello. We smile. We've got excellent customer service. We tend to rank pretty high in the welcoming department.

8. It's Difficult to Truly be Friends With an American

The saying goes that the Americans are there welcome you with open arms but that they rarely wrap them around you. A lot of French people are disappointed when they come to America and see that everyone is friendly, but not necessarily a friend. 

Are you ready for the cheesy analogy that I heard?

The French are like coconuts and the Americans are like peaches. Peaches have a sweet tender surface, but it has a pit that it almost impossible to break open. Whereas the coconut has a hard outer shell, but as soon as you break through the surface you find a sweet creamy liquid inside. 

Monsieur Right completely agrees with this analogy. 

9. Americans are Super Patriotic

The French pretend to be less so. But if you're like "Wow. That (insert customary French habit here) is really weird!" they'll probably be offended/defensive. It's kind of like the rule where you can complain about your family but no one else can. In France, they can bad mouth their country all they want, but it is completely unacceptable for anyone else to do so.


10. Americans Suck at Geography

I'm not even going to try to defend us here. A few years back I told a friend that I was going to Paris, and she's like, "That's the capitol of London, right?"




11. Americans Drink Straight From the Carton

Monsieur Right was pretty excited about this when we first started dating. He'd seen it in several American movies and thought I'd be totally cool with it. Yeah, no.
Apparently they do this on the tv show Step by Step all the time, and so quite a few Frenchies assume that's the norm in American households. I don't know about the rest of you, but my mother definitely would have yelled at us.


12. Americans are Obsessed with Money and Material Things

Money is a bit more of a taboo subject in France, so they consider the way that Americans talk about it to be somewhat vulgar. As for material things, I know quite a few Frenchies that love name brands and materialism as while. So while they claim to look down on this aspect of American culture, no one here has proven to me that they are any different.


So what do you think? Do any of these clichés surprise you? Do you disagree? Have you heard of any that are different. Let me know in the comments!