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Japanese tourists stricken by Paris Syndrome
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teruterubozu
Member
Kagami said:
Thus "syndrome", not "epidemic".
It's not even the best city in the British Isles. Edinburgh is so much more liveable it's silly.gerg said:
No, London sucks hard. Overcrowded, dirty, overpriced with shitty pubs and bars that offer nothing.
A few isolated pockets of culture do nothing to change the fact that as a city it's awful.
glaringradio
Member
This man speaks the truth. Safe, beautiful, great night-life, great shops, great restaurants, great bars, great people. Edinburgh is class, I challenge anybody to come here during festival season and say it is anything other than the most entertaining city in the world. London is an overcrowded, over-expensive, overrated city.Sir Fragula said:
Went to Paris for a French school trip when I was 11. Quite funny really how they didn't mention all the rat shit, driver's complete disregard for traffic lights, hateful fucking people working in shops, and the fact that every street looks grimy and covered in rubbish. Went back for a concert when I was 18 expecting things to have changed.
It was worse
EDIT: Just now realising the inherent pointlessness of saying London is shit to someone who lives in London. Its like when you tell someone, who moves from a small town in Northern Ireland to Belfast, that it is shit. Big City Syndrome I'd call it.
No thread about France is complete without the Conchords:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZG2Cb1I7oo
Kind of a strange story though... surprised that people can build up something like a city so big in their mind that it leads to a mental breakdown. Very strange...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZG2Cb1I7oo
Kind of a strange story though... surprised that people can build up something like a city so big in their mind that it leads to a mental breakdown. Very strange...
Sir Fragula said:
I'm moving up there in September for uni, so hopefully I'll enjoy my four years as a student.
I don't drink that much, but I guess your mileage does vary.
And I don't find London overcrowded, except on Oxford Street where people forget how to walk quickly. In fact, what I love about London is just how many different people from so many different cultures are there. It's an incredibly vibrant place.
I wouldn't call the culture in London "isolated", given the breadth of its museums, galleries, and especially theatre.
In fact, I wonder what a city would need to have in order to please if the culture in London is, indeed, so isolated.
WorriedCitizen
Member
Visiting France can be rather unpleasent if you don't speak their language. It entirely depends where you are and who you meet tho. I remember a family vacation in the Bretagne where none of us spoke French or English but we had a pretty good time and met many friendly people. Then on the way back we drove through Normandy and a woman in a bakery shop refused to sell my mother a bread.
Hey, it's from regular experience. The city is dirty. The city is overpriced - you don't have to be poor to know when you're being ripped off.Salazar said:
I don't see how you'd be able to infer agoraphobia or lack of popularity though?
I know so many people who moved 40 miles north to live there and not a one has a better quality of life for having done so.
I decided to do something similar to the waiter (sans the shouting) but couldn't keep doing this. The only difference is that I'm using our language in our country to talk with immigrants working in retail who don't speak our language!
I think we lack taking pride in our language, I mean a lot of people here prefer talking in English with foreigners and would find it more civilized.
Edit:
I think we lack taking pride in our language, I mean a lot of people here prefer talking in English with foreigners and would find it more civilized.
Edit:
From what I saw it was overcrowded and more importantly expensive. But yeah I really loved how multicultural the demography is.gerg said:
caffeinated
Member
Last time I was in Paris, an old lady shouted at me and my girlfriend because it took us about 10 minutes to decide which panini should we eat. Apart from that French people were much friendlier than I expected.
use the Japanese hot-line.Salazar said:
To be fair, dirty and over-priced are my two overwhelming impressions of London. I worked there for a year in the late 90's and I still occasionally go down there to see friends and my impression remains the same, dirty & overpriced. It certainly isn't all like that, but enough to make it the over-riding impression.daviyoung said:
What kind of fucking bullshit is that? You must first learn the local language before trveling to a foreign country? In all other countries it is accepted to try to communicate in English first, which is the international fallback language. Only the French are fucking arrogant when it comes to foreigners who cannot speak their stupid language.SmokyDave said:
segasonic said:
I think SmokyDave speaks a generally truth, although I wouldn't put it as strongly - when you go abroad you should definitely try to speak the native language. Doing so is a common courtesy that people all over the world will appreciate.
What's arrogant is expecting people in a foreign country to be able to converse perfectly in a language that isn't their own.
Yes, you have correctly deduced my opinion. For the optimum experience in a foreign country, any foreign country, you should spend a week or two learning the very basics of their language. You will find your experience far more rewarding and enriching and the people in the country you're visiting will treat you very, very differently. If you consider this 'fucking bullshit' then feel free to carry on with your life, as you were. Judging by your post you're hardly a delight to converse with in any tongue.segasonic said:
I'd be tempted to accept that I'm just being an old man [despite being mid 20s] about this; I like the moderately sized town I live in where I can walk to work, have a large shopping district and can still hop in a car and stop by a gorgeous country pub in ten minutes...
But there *are* big cities that I like so that kind of goes out the window. Edinburgh! Boston! Marseilles!
But there *are* big cities that I like so that kind of goes out the window. Edinburgh! Boston! Marseilles!
Meus Renaissance
Member
I need to see an Englishman argue against a Frenchman in Paris and a German man in Berlin. It will be spectacular
VistraNorrez
Member
I've been to Paris twice and many other European cities. The single nicest person I met was in Paris. An old lady, who spoke no English, saw my wife (then girlfriend) and I were lost and led us to the Pantheon. I speak very little French or any non-English languages but I always try to be respectful of the city and nation I'm in. Learn all the greetings and pleasantries, it goes a long way. And try to be as unassuming as possible.
Japanese tourist groups are by far the most annoying people anywhere, if just for how big their groups tend to be but they are so involved in their own little world and don't seem to consider there are others around. Then it's Italians, who are very loud and never stop talking. I don't find Parisians to be much different from New Yorkers or really inhabitants of major cities. Some are nice, some are rude.
Japanese tourist groups are by far the most annoying people anywhere, if just for how big their groups tend to be but they are so involved in their own little world and don't seem to consider there are others around. Then it's Italians, who are very loud and never stop talking. I don't find Parisians to be much different from New Yorkers or really inhabitants of major cities. Some are nice, some are rude.
jorma said:
Laugh loudly, then walk over and start talking to your colleague in English, all the time looking over and pointing at little Johnny Foreigner.
Once enough mirth has been extracted you can proceed to shoo him out the door. It's a respectable establishment, don't want his kind in here.
Dabookerman
Member
London is great for tourists. To live? Unless you're minted.. Pwahahahahha
And yeah, Paris is a shit hole, EXCEPT the area where La Grande Arch is. That place was awesome, so clean, so little people and some great architecture and
And yeah, Paris is a shit hole, EXCEPT the area where La Grande Arch is. That place was awesome, so clean, so little people and some great architecture and
pieatorium
Member
Speak louder and slowerjorma said:
London is not the worst city, but people think it's the best city? No no no.
I'm curious, what does london do that makes it the best? Only one thing I can think of is ease of travel to other places (EU, Africa, US, even south America). Other than that, pay more to get less than anywhere else.
I'm curious, what does london do that makes it the best? Only one thing I can think of is ease of travel to other places (EU, Africa, US, even south America). Other than that, pay more to get less than anywhere else.
Natetan said:
As I said before, the sheer volume of culture in London is wonderful. Alongside the many galleries and museums there's an incredible amount of theatre, both as part of the West End and with fringe productions.
I also like how multi-ethnic London is, and living in Tokyo has made me appreciate the amount of greenery there is there, too.
broadwayrock
Member
daviyoung said:
Off topic, but did you know Art Attack's Neil Buchanan is now a guitarist in a heavy metal band:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a313394/art-attacks-neil-buchanan-plays-heavy-metal.html
I'm always surprised when I read this thing about parisians shouting at people that don't speak french. You'd think in a town that gets more than 15 million international tourists every year the waiters would either get used to it or die of heart attacks, but what do I know.
Then again I'm french and even I don't fancy parisians too much so perhaps it's the truth.
Then again I'm french and even I don't fancy parisians too much so perhaps it's the truth.
broadwayrock said:
WAT
/mindblown
Natetan said:
The Tokyo subway isn't necessarily cheaper, depending on how much you travel. With an Oyster card, which I believe can be picked up easily for tourists, there is a maximum amount of money that you can spend a day. (I believe that this is the price of a one day travel card.) If you travel a lot on the Tokyo Metro, however, you can easily end up spending two times or three times that limit.
Also, again, the culture in Tokyo is nice, but Tokyo's National Museum doesn't really have much against the British Museum.
Quadrangulum
Banned
Paris is wonderful but it probably has, of all cities, the greatest set of expectations attached to it.
Natetan said:
To be fair, Tokyo doesn't have that much history. It's a pretty recent city, especially by east asian standards, and doesn't have that much international history, certainly nothing comparable to London. Then again London is also a large step behind Paris in that regard so that doesn't make the poster you responded to right either.
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