I NEED SOME HELP IN UNDERSTANDING FRENCHMEN.

I remember having had some drinks with my (German) friend in a bar in Cherbourg.
We had a heavy discussion with some French locals, who were all against us.
Then, some British tourists arrived.
We got free drinks from French, to join them against the British (in French, this was).
We got free drinks from the English vice versa (in English).

Because the French spoke English and German as well, the British lost. It ended singing 'God save the Queen' by all - and one of heaviest hangovers I had had until then.

Not only French. Americans are being hated in certain places; you cannot order Turkish coffee in Greece without insulting the server by very mentioning of something Turkish, and the same emotions exist in Bulgaria, Armenia, Romania; Russians are being disliked, at least, in Poland, Czechia and Hungary...
Persians and Arabs actively dislike each other, and both them hate Kurds. In Afghanistan every tribe hated the neighboring one, and all them hated the Soviet Army. Should I add such a phenomenon as anti-Semitism that exists everywhere, except, maybe, Israel and USA?

Certainly. In my travels I have encountered much anti-american sentiment. But it's not related to our image and culture, most people who expressed those feelings to me loved all things American and disliked American foreign policy.

But there is a lot of odd animosity.

For example, the jokes about the Polish. In Brazil those jokes are directed against the Portuguese......

In some of those cases you wonder why the stereotypical animosity lingers.

It is because all of you are bastards.

Seriously, it may be that it is a natural reaction to distrust others, and from distrust and absence of understanding can develop fear, and hate.

The only defence against that, is education, of a liberal kind.
And travel, of an inclusive kind. It's no good going around in groups.

Well, this has limited efficiency. Mohammed Atta spent enough time in the USA, but this did not make him to love this country and Americans.
Many of the rogue leaders (not only Muslims, take for example a Sorbonne graduate Pol Pot) had perfect liberal European eductaion; this did not make them less savage...

I thought, this thread was about 'help to understand Frenchmen' ...

Sorbonne, where Pol Pot got his university diploma, is supposedly in Paris, by the way.

Yes, Cambodia was a French colony.

But Pol Pot didn't study at the Sorbonne, because his degree was in radio electronics (other sources say he attended a school for printers and typesetters and also studied civil engineering).

But he did it in France. And I heard a rumor that he became politically active while being a student there. The results are well-known.

Yes.

Well, these are good points, Steissd, though it hurts me to say so.
Maybe I should just say, the exception proves the rule. (I regret Walter will not permit me to say more.)

I think what harms France is the extreme cynicism and selfishness of some of its political decisions over the last thirty years.
And, the antics of the French farmers.
And the Common Agricultural policy.
And its trade unions.
And their attitude over their silly language. Don't they know it sounds foreign to us?
And the fact that they don't wash very often.

However, I like Asterix, Stephane Grapelli and Brigitte Bardot. And Tintin

One point strikes me. It is not the education of Pol Pot and Mohammed Atta which is important, because idealogues and zealots will always occur; but the education of all those over whom they might have influence. That way, extremism has less of a chance of taking hold.

Besides that tintin is of Belgian origin, I share likes, McTag. (Could add some more mesdemoiselles ...)

I used to like the Roquefort cheese, but now I prefer to buy its Danish version (forgot the brand name, but it has almost the same taste).

The Danish is made of pasteurised milk, while the original is raw milk. (A good old Stilton is much better!)

Steissd, are you one of the Freedom Fries/ no-French-wine-or-luxury-goods brigade? Fess up.

Well, but I launched a personal boycott of the French goods out of solidarity with the Americans. Majority of Israelis still buy French merchandises... Well, real French Roquefort is really better than the Danish one, I have to admit...

Freedom Fries? No. We call them chips in Israel. This has nothing to do with France.

Brilliant! For chips is what they are. A lot of Israelis come from the north of England, home of fish & chips. Enough apparently at least to secure the dictionary entry.

Je ne sais qoui, feuille d'erable...especially when je non understand porquois les French non laver themselves more often....Je m'excuse, moi shall be no help ici...