Rating: 
Summary: it's scary how accurate she is
Review: Being married to a French citizen, I finally am able to realize why the french are the way they are. I so enjoyed the book that I looked her up while visiting my in-laws in Paris and had a delightful visit with here. You learn, through her book, that the French are a wonderful people who love life perhaps more than we know how to. You just need to get past what seems to be a zenophobic and snobby attitude. If you are going to be spending any significant time in France, or with a French person, this is a must read book. She said she might do a second one soley on work and Love. Should be good.
Rating:
Summary: This book clears up all the French/English misunderstandings
Review: While at times it may have seemed a little demeaning towards the French culture, I enjoyed this book because it conveyed the true French person in a way that anyone can understand. It was like a psychologists view into the mind of a Frenchman. The chapters on how to use charm effectively and what to do during dinner parties only made the book even better. At times this book was a little critical--however it needed to be critical to get the points accross. Call it constructive criticism.
Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFIQUE!!
Review: This book became my closest companion the year that I studied abroad. Not only did it save me from many an embarassing faux pas at dinner parties, etc., Polly's suggested phrase "Excusez-moi de vous deranger" opened MANY doors for this ignorant Texan. A must-read for anyone going to France for even a short period of time.
Rating:
Summary: the best book a frenchman should read before working abroad
Review: I am french and I have been working in the UK for the last year. While having to work with anglo-saxon people (from the UK, US, Australia,NZ, ...), I found FRENCH OR FOE of a huge help in getting across all the initial cultural and professional hurdles.
FRENCH OR FOE is an excellent mirror for a french to look himself into. It brought many answers or tips on how to tackle all the questions you ask yourself when diving both into a new job and into a new culture.
It has three very particular features that are so hard to accept by french people:
- it has great humor, and uses humor to get messages across
- it is efficient, which is most usefull in everyday life, much more than trying to cover
precisely all the details
- it doesn't prentend to be always right, and even admits that the anglo saxon way can be wrong in few instances.
Bref, it is a great book that the few real cliche french will hate for all three of the above reasons. The others, the majority, will love it and will learn why to love their compatriots a bit more.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh really????
Review: Well, call me biased. I am French, after all, and biased is one of the things this book says I am anyway ;-)
I bought "French or Foe" for my German husband with whom I am going to relocate from California to Paris in spring this year, and with all the rave about the book I had thought it might be a good preparation for him who has been to France only for a few short visits. However, I'm not so sure I'll give it to him now, after reading it myself - he might still back out. So we French lie all the time. And we all exude wafts of B.O. We are unsmiling non-English-speaking gruffians, never ever on time, can't keep our hands to ourselves, and don't even have a word for "sorry".... I was bamboozled - where did I grow up then if that is France???? And funny that none of my many non-French friends or my VERY Anglosaxon minded husband ever had any similar experience! I find the book very narrowminded, much as Polly Platt claims to really love the French. I do give her credit for recognizing some idiosyncracies that require a certain in-depth understanding of our mentality. Like, why we are very private people and why it takes us long to bond. Or why we are not too fond of hords of obnoxiously loud and unkempt tourists who don't appreciate our centuries-old culture and history. Other things she talks about are just too clichey, like our almost religious obsession with food, its ingredients, its preparation and the setting in which it is consumed. Yet other Gallic national traits go entirely unnoticed. All in all, the book is over-generalizing and over-simplifying, and I'm really not saying this because I feel my patriotic pride hurt (I did laugh heartily at certain "gotcha" descriptions, and also I have lived in Germany, the UK and US for long enough to have a bit of distance to my fellow-Frogs). But for an author who claims to have lived in France for around 30 years now, the observations are very superficial and shallow, and you can clearly tell that her experience, especially with "etiquette", dates well back to the Sixties. She says nice things, too, now and then, but only after a good fifty-page bashing, and her "but really, they aren't all that bad after all" just doesn't sound honest then. And it doesn't help either that she deliberately quotes so many negative Yankee expats statements - believe me, I know a ton of very happy campers there! So, don't make the same mistake I made, like wanting to use the book as a serious source of information, but consider it fun reading for getting your worst prejudice of Les Frogs confirmed (plus, the book is helpful if you find yourself frequently invited to a thirty people twelve-course dinner party and having to solve the dilemma of whether a lady of royal or imperial descendance may pass a door first. But if in doubt, you can also call your embassy.....). Desolee, Madame Platt!
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd edition of French or Foe? is out, would like anecdotes
Review: I'm awfully pleased that my readers' comments at Amazon!Iwould like to ask them for any great French anecdotes they have -- andto tell them that the new edition is now out, including a chapter about what French people think about living and working in the U.S.A.
Rating: 
Summary: Valuable info for anyone going to France
Review: I was lucky enough to read this book halfway through my vacation in France. All of a sudden frustrating situations became understandable. For example - never admit you are wrong. That really came in handy when I returned a rental car with a scratch. If I hadn't read the book I'm sure it would have been an issue. Instead I had learned to shrug and say nothing. No problem. There are many other valuable insights to the French psyche. An excellent gift for anyone planning to travel to France. A must for anyone moving to France.
Rating:
Summary: Obligatoire reading if you'll be working with the French!
Review: I've worked with many Frenchpeople in the last 17 years, mostly in Africa. I read the book recently, and found myself muttering throughout: "but of course!" "That explains it!" ...and most of all "if only I had known!..." It clearly (and entertainingly) covers the source behind many of the French behavior quirks on the work scene, including their perceptions of time, getting things done, accepting (or not accepting!) feedback, etc. I think I would have been much more patient and understanding with my French colleagues had I read this years ago. Desolee, toute le monde! Je vous comprends maintenent!!!! Plus, it's an excellent primer on the somewhat contorted French educational system...and the implications if your colleague has attended one of les grandes ecoles..
Rating:
Summary: An innocent book causes an international incident.
Review: I bought this book because my children go to a French American School, and culture clashes are part of the daily routine. Great Book. I read it, my teenage son read it, and it explained a lot. A friend married to a Frenchman read it, and said it explained things she's wondered about the 20 years she's been married. Then we made the big mistake.
Picture a dinner table, set with white linen tablecloth and glittering gasses of wine. A congenial group of friends, 3 Americans, 1 Mexican and 3 Frenchpersons. The book comes up as a subject. Innocently, I produce it.
For the next 10 minutes, it gets passed around. Sections are read aloud. All hell breaks loose, as the Frenchman seeks to defend himself and his immortal culture from the Philistine Americans.( Its the chapter on dinner parties that gets the reaction.)
For the next hour, the French fur flew as the Americans tried vainly to protest, over imagined
insults to La Civilisation Francaise. The conversation leaped from language to language.
Eventually things calmed down. We drank our coffee. We kissed goodnight.
And the American hosts never did figure out what caused the insult. The description of the French dinner party seemed very like what we had all just enjoyed. So enjoy the book. its full of great information. But be careful showing it to a Frenchman
Rating:
Summary: Un surpris!
Review: French or Foe? is such a good, useful (and loving) look at the Gallic personality, it's attracting readers one might not expect.
That's what I discovered on a recent business trip to Paris when it slipped out of my briefcase and onto the conference table. Naturellement, they had all read and enjoyed Ms. Platt's insights long before I had. Beware. Be arrmed. Get it if you want to be more comfortable and better accepted by nos amis Francais
|
