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French without (too many) tears
Share000000000or copy the linkIt was at the beginning of my first year at secondary school that I began studying the French language French, and with it became gradually aware of an irresistible...
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Paradise Lost?
Share000000000or copy the linkBack to Earth Though my narrow escape from a snake in the grass caused me to revise my ideas on the existence of a Paradise on earth, I think its general effect on me was...
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My French Illusions
Share000000000or copy the linkLinda’s Illusions I recently had the pleasure of reading and reviewing (www.goodreads.com) Linda Kovic-Skow’s autobiiographical story, French Illusions, which related...
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Some Lost Illusions
Share000000000or copy the linkUniversity Teaching Methods On the academic front, we had previously been provided with detailed instructions on how to enrol at the Centre de Patronage des Etudiants...
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Top 10 French Sexist Pronouncements
Share000000000or copy the linkInternational Women’s Day (8th March) not only commemorates the historical struggle of women throughout the world to obtain the same rights as men but, by providing an...
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Hand Shaking and Cheek Kissing in France
Share000000000or copy the link1. Hand Shaking – What all Brits Abroad Should Know. It is a double paradox that a people whose perception of politeness requires them to make total strangers believe...
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2. Cheek Kissing – Tips for Newly-Settled Expat Brits
Share000000000or copy the linkIt is a measure of the drastic changes in English attitudes towards kissing in general, and cheek kissing in particular that what is now more and more accepted as a...
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Le French Dunk
Share000000000or copy the linkIt has always been an enigma to me that a nation so universally condemned for the uninspired nature of its cooking could have managed to impose on our planet such a...
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Polite and Friendly Politeness
Share000000000or copy the linkEnglish ‘Friendly’ Politeness Not only is the Frenchman in me astonished by how familiar you Brits are with those you’ve just made the acquaintance of, but how distant...
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Good Manners …à la française
Share000000000or copy the linkFriendly Politeness British expatriates or those travelling in France might have thought, however, that under normal circumstances, politeness, especially when served up...
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Brits Abroad: When Cultures Clash
Share000000000or copy the linkA British Expat Lands Back in England After landing back in England, this British expat boarded an almost empty train from the airport. At the following city station,...
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What the French Whisky Drinker Should Know
Share000000000or copy the linkIn France the working man’s usual choice of pre-meal tipple is pastis, a refreshing, aniseed-based spirit which is drunk ‘on the rocks’, and served with a carafe of...
View ArticleLe Système D
It is yet one more indication of the immeasurable gulf that separates two nations – geographically so near, but mentally vast oceans apart – that what is such a well-established and accepted procedure...
View ArticleEven More Système D
When it comes to getting a bargain you can’t just do anything. I mean, you’ve got to go about it in the right way. And it’s amazing what you can do with just a dash of imagination and a touch of...
View ArticleThe Rule of the Exception
When an Englishman considers rules and regulations he makes two simple additions: they apply to the 63.4 million sum total of his compatriots – plus himself. When a Frenchman thinks about rules and...
View ArticleFeminine or Feminist?
International Women’s Day (8th March) not only commemorates the historical struggle of women throughout the world to obtain the same rights and opportunities as men but, by providing the occasion to...
View ArticleNon-Verbal Communication
I can’t help thinking that some of those intercultural misunderstandings that exist between French and English can be caused, in part, at least, by those non-verbal elements which have such an...
View ArticleEquality for All?
It is yet one more surprising fact that France is perhaps the only developed, capitalist-oriented country on our planet where so many people are ready to believe that society is composed of a Manichean...
View ArticleEquality Before The Law?
Like all developed European nations, confronted with a lack of home-grown labour to satisfy the demands of an expanding economy in the fifties and sixties, France opened up her borders to massive...
View ArticleParis Elected As Their Favourite Shopping Town
According to an article which recently appeared in the Economics Supplement of the Figaro newspaper Brazilian, Chinese and Russian tourists have voted Paris their favourite shopping town. Moreover, 28%...
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