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#21
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Air France? Ptui!
Barry Gold wrote:
OTOH, when it comes to a "business" that is run by the government, like Air France, well, you can expect about as much service as you would from, say, the INS in the US. In case you had not heard, Air France is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Air-France-KLM. So it is not government owned anymore. Air-France-KLM is, as of martch 31 2006: 269 383 518 shares of about 8,50 euros, owned by: Widely owned :65.8% Government: 18.6% Employéees: 15.1% Self: 1.5% AF had gone though a long period of upheavals and cutbacks in order to make it papaltable for an IPO, at which point the french government greatly reduced it ownership of the airline. And when AF merged with KLM, that share of government ownership went down further. In fact, AF-KLM is financially healthy and has done well in recent years despite all the problems in the industry. |
#23
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Air France? Ptui!
theresa wrote:
"Bonjour {M. or Mlle.} mais -- ma Francais est tres mal, et voulez vous aidez-moi, s'il vous plait?" That has gotten me around France on many a journey. And until recently, when they inexplicably grew more cheerful (I heard it was meds), the French were not mean, they were grumpy, and a kind demeanor went far in reminding them that the world (especially the US) was not a totally screwed up place. Butbutbut... the world IS a totally screwed up place. -- PB The return address has been MUNGED My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/ |
#24
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Air France? Ptui!
Phoenix wrote: In article , says... qu'est-ce que c'est wrote: [snip] Overall, I've found the French helpful if you will just take the trouble to learn a few hundred words of French and use them. OTOH, if you think that they ought to speak English because that is the right and proper language, you are likely to get what you deserve. (The bare _attempt_ to stumble through a sentence in French was enough to get me smiling help -- in English.) That's true in any foreign country, as far as I've noticed. Learn to string together a few sentences and people suddenly start to smile and warmly help you out. I have no idea why France catches hell for it when the same is true everywhere. Because that's not what the French do. I have found (advised originally by friends and it turned out to be true) that if you are in France and speak to someone in any language other than French or English they will happily switch to English (if they can) and help you. But if you approach them in English you get treated like dirt. If I use English in France I get nowhere. But if I use Portuguese they switch to English and are very helpful. It has to do with more than a little bit of jealousy because England and the US are now more highly "ranked" in the world than France (while the French think they are the most important country in the world) and outright anger that English has become the international language instead of French. |
#25
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Air France? Ptui!
"Tchiowa" wrote in message ps.com... Phoenix wrote: In article , says... qu'est-ce que c'est wrote: [snip] Overall, I've found the French helpful if you will just take the trouble to learn a few hundred words of French and use them. OTOH, if you think that they ought to speak English because that is the right and proper language, you are likely to get what you deserve. (The bare _attempt_ to stumble through a sentence in French was enough to get me smiling help -- in English.) That's true in any foreign country, as far as I've noticed. Learn to string together a few sentences and people suddenly start to smile and warmly help you out. I have no idea why France catches hell for it when the same is true everywhere. Because that's not what the French do. I have found (advised originally by friends and it turned out to be true) that if you are in France and speak to someone in any language other than French or English they will happily switch to English (if they can) and help you. But if you approach them in English you get treated like dirt. That wasn't our experience at all. We made plenty of goofs, laughed at ourselves, let them laugh at us, and were treated well. The *only* rude person we encountered in France was a young man we asked for directions. He turned out to be from London, who started in on an anti-French rant, telling us how lucky we were to have asked him, instead of a Frenchman who'd have answered rudely. That made a good party story that evening. Kris |
#26
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Air France? Ptui!
Most of them can't even speak English!
David Barry Gold wrote: qu'est-ce que c'est wrote: [snip] People just don't understand: The French have no concept of "customer service". They don't know what it is, they don't undersand how it works, it is totally foreign to their culture. |
#27
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Air France? Ptui!
Some of the easiest ways to learn languages are on this site:
http://easylanguagelearning.blogspot.com/ |
#28
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Air France? Ptui!
Some of the easiest ways to learn languages are on this site:
http://easylanguagelearning.blogspot.com/ |
#29
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Air France? Ptui!
Kris Baker wrote: "Tchiowa" wrote in message ps.com... Phoenix wrote: In article , says... qu'est-ce que c'est wrote: [snip] Overall, I've found the French helpful if you will just take the trouble to learn a few hundred words of French and use them. OTOH, if you think that they ought to speak English because that is the right and proper language, you are likely to get what you deserve. (The bare _attempt_ to stumble through a sentence in French was enough to get me smiling help -- in English.) That's true in any foreign country, as far as I've noticed. Learn to string together a few sentences and people suddenly start to smile and warmly help you out. I have no idea why France catches hell for it when the same is true everywhere. Because that's not what the French do. I have found (advised originally by friends and it turned out to be true) that if you are in France and speak to someone in any language other than French or English they will happily switch to English (if they can) and help you. But if you approach them in English you get treated like dirt. That wasn't our experience at all. We made plenty of goofs, laughed at ourselves, let them laugh at us, and were treated well. The *only* rude person we encountered in France was a young man we asked for directions. He turned out to be from London, who started in on an anti-French rant, telling us how lucky we were to have asked him, instead of a Frenchman who'd have answered rudely. That made a good party story that evening. I suggest that you were "lucky". My job in the 90s took me to Paris for about a day or so close to 100 times. I could count the number of times I was *not* treated rudely on one hand. |
#30
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Air France? Ptui!
In article . com,
says... Kris Baker wrote: "Tchiowa" wrote in message ps.com... Phoenix wrote: In article , says... qu'est-ce que c'est wrote: [snip] Overall, I've found the French helpful if you will just take the trouble to learn a few hundred words of French and use them. OTOH, if you think that they ought to speak English because that is the right and proper language, you are likely to get what you deserve. (The bare _attempt_ to stumble through a sentence in French was enough to get me smiling help -- in English.) That's true in any foreign country, as far as I've noticed. Learn to string together a few sentences and people suddenly start to smile and warmly help you out. I have no idea why France catches hell for it when the same is true everywhere. Because that's not what the French do. I have found (advised originally by friends and it turned out to be true) that if you are in France and speak to someone in any language other than French or English they will happily switch to English (if they can) and help you. But if you approach them in English you get treated like dirt. That wasn't our experience at all. We made plenty of goofs, laughed at ourselves, let them laugh at us, and were treated well. The *only* rude person we encountered in France was a young man we asked for directions. He turned out to be from London, who started in on an anti-French rant, telling us how lucky we were to have asked him, instead of a Frenchman who'd have answered rudely. That made a good party story that evening. I suggest that you were "lucky". My job in the 90s took me to Paris for about a day or so close to 100 times. I could count the number of times I was *not* treated rudely on one hand. As compared to what other non-English country? If you've only blared away in France, expecting everyone to fall on their knees for you, then you don't have much to compare the country to. bel |
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