Parisian

Had my trip to Paris early this month.

I realized that either Parisians have improved helluva lot, or I had begun to understand them better.

They were universally known to be proud & rude people who'd refused to speak English although they can speak almost perfectly well. Not in those lousy French accent that Hollywood movies love to pretend & emphasize but decent English.

However, I don't know if it's because they had been trying to vie for the Olympic Games venue or they really decided to improve, but I found that they're noticeably nicer & more polite.
Of course, my friends who had tried learning French would always defend for their courteous manners & kind heart, especially those from suburb & rural.
But then.. who from suburb & rural aren't nice???

My recent trip, which involved heavy shopping (I blew my credit limit for the first time) & exclusive wine & dine was indeed a very pleasant trip.

To start with, the first meal in the city was great in the sense that they actually had English menu for us. Then the waiter took his time to explain terms that we might find unfamiliar. All happy & well.. food went ok. We ate & drank. We ordered bottle after bottle. So many bottles.. it caught up with some of us (lucky me was spared) the next day. When we talked about it over lunch the next day, I discovered that it was a total of 12 bottles!! The were 15 of us.

At lunch.. I ordered real beef tartar. We had a Greek guy in the group. He told me he'd like beef tartar just before heading for a ciggy break. WAitiers in Paris always asked if I knew what beef tartar is if I order it, seeing that I'm an Asian.
Well.. true to the waiter's surprise, the Greek guy gaped with shock when his meal arrived.

I was equally shocked, "I thought you knew!"
Greek guy: "I ordered beef tartar"
"This is.. beef tartar"
"I didn't know it's raw meat"
"...err.. Don't worry. It tastes like sashimi. Trust me"

Lesson learned: Never assume European knows everything about Europe.
Luckily he found it a good meal after all.

Oh.. back to PArisian.
I noticed: They won't tolerate impatience. They won't tolerate this thing they'd call "Rude" (by their culture).
While our culture, or in our fast-paced lives we aren't used to waiting patiently, they served customer one-on-one AND they would not divert or leave the customer untill the customer is all done. This can either be when the customer is done purchasing or is done enquiring. Before the sales person can excuse oneself, one would check that the customer had permitted one to leave when customer finally said, "THank you" or "I'm fine, thank you."

LV is still very much a famous brand. I was actually treated very well. No, thank you. Not because I looked like I'm rich, multi-million dollar, high-rised-hair Indonesian or shrieking Japanese. It just seems that they have finally learn to treat customers well.

Of course we must play our part.

In a regular pharmacy, I enquire lots of things. The poor pharmacist would not (could not) serve other until I release her. Well.. of course, my English isn't French. She patiently tried to decipher the name of the drug or item I told her. The other poor customer had to wait quite long, because they do not do multi-serving. This ain't Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong or China. This is Paris!
And the other customer really waited. I apologized for my hesitance. She pardoned me. This is their culture. This is their courteous manner.
WAIT TO BE SERVED. Do not skip queue or ever interrupt. They would never work like that.

And this is proof, that even when there was only one staff, so be it.

I learned this quite long ago, in fact. It's just that I thought it was because I was a yellow-skinned, that was why I had to wait. (You know.. some where, some people 'taught' us that yellow is inferior to white). But it didn't occured only to us, it applies to their own people too.

Well.. It has been kind of them to kind to us. Truthfully. We, proud Asians, who'd only speak English & our own mother tongues, never learn a single word of theirs (except for thank you), dared enter their country. Even the 'great' American (the best spender) would take up lessons learning the language before venturing the destination for holiday. Believe me. They do.

I have never really believe in learning a language I'd forget after the trip. Now I understand that it only shows that I have disrecpect them if I failed to do so. That is their culture.

France is the most visited country in the world. I don't think they do this merely to keep that spot.

Remember, many don't visit a country just because people there are nice(you would live there instead). They visit the country because they had a lot to offer.

France indeed does.