FWD: Europe unites in hatred of French

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Europe unites in hatred of  French
By Henry Samuel in Paris
(Filed: 17/05/2005) 
Language, history, cooking and support for rival football teams  still divide 
Europe. But when everything else fails, one glue binds the  continent 
together: hatred of the French. 
Typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing  monsters 
they are. 
But now after the publication of a survey of their neighbours'  opinions of 
them at least they no longer have any excuse for not knowing how  unpopular 
they are.  
Why the French are the worst company on the planet, a wry take on  France by 
two of its citizens, dredges up all the usual evidence against them.  They are 
crazy drivers, strangers to customer service, obsessed by sex and food  and 
devoid of a sense of humour. 
But it doesn't stop there, boasting a breakdown, nation by  nation, of what 
in the French irritates them.  
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists,  stubborn, 
nannied and humourless". However, the French may be more shocked by  the views 
of other nations. 
For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and  frivolous". The 
Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The  Spanish see them 
as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as  "preaching". In 
Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving,  righteous and 
self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it,  egocentric bons 
vivants".  
Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral,  disorganised, 
neo-colonialist and dirty". 
But the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll  was 
conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just what  they 
thought of them.  
"Interviewees were simply asked an open question - what five  adjectives sum 
up the French," said Olivier Clodong, one of the study's two  authors and a 
professor of social and political communication at the Ecole  Superieur de 
Commerce, in Paris. "The answers were overwhelmingly negative."  
According to Mr Clodong, the old adage that France is wonderful,  it's just 
the French who are the problem, is shared across Europe. 
"We are admired for our trains, the Airbus and Michelin tyres.  But the buck 
stops there," he said. 
Another section of the study deals with how the French see the  rest of 
Europe. 
"Believe it or not, the English and the French use almost exactly  the same 
adjectives to describe each other - bar the word 'insular'," Mr Coldong  said. 
"So the feelings are mutual." 
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