December 15, 2004
LOSTER IN TRANSLATION (via Rick Turley):
Paris sends Japanese into suicidal state: report (AFP, 12/14/04)
A strange illness has descended on Japanese living in Paris, tipping many of them in a state of profound culture shock after realising their ideals about the French capital were unrealistic, a study published in Monday's Liberation newspaper said.More than a 100 expatriates a year are sinking into a state called "the Paris syndrome" which is characterised by feelings of persecution or suicidal tendencies, according to the mental health facilities of city hospitals.
Part of their clinical depression stems from having to reconcile their romanticism about Paris with reality, psychiatrists said.
"Magazines are fuelling fantasies with the Japanese, who think there are
models everywhere and the women dress entirely in (Louis) Vuitton," Mario Renoux, the head of a French Japanese Society for Medecine was quoted as saying.After a relatively short period of only three months or so, Japanese immigrants expecting to find a haven of civilisation and elegance instead discover a tougher existence with many problems dealing with the French.
Imagine being a member of a dying culture and the shock of translocating to an even uglier one? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 15, 2004 2:22 PM
Everyone I know who's ever been to Paris says it would be a nice city if it weren't for all the Frenchmen.
Posted by: Mike Morley at December 15, 2004 3:20 PMGiven how badly the Japanese mangle English, one can scarcely imagine how horrible their noises must sound to the French ear. And the French are not the slightest bit tolerant of people whose French is not excellent.
Posted by: Bart at December 15, 2004 5:44 PM"And the French are not the slightest bit tolerant of people whose French is not excellent."
Including Quebecers!!
Posted by: Oswald Booth Czolgosz at December 15, 2004 6:07 PMThat is most definitely not true, Oswald.
Paris is like a beautiful, statuesque woman who knows she is beautiful. Visually sublime, but when you get to know her, less than meets the eye.
Posted by: Peter B at December 15, 2004 8:01 PM"Paris? Full of Parisians. Even the French hate it." -- Methos in the Highlander TV series
Nonsense, Peter.
Paris is second only to NYC as a place of continuing fascination. If you are tired of Paris, you are tired of life. It has its faults from the dog poop all over the place to the sometimes superior attitudes of its inhabitants, but its sublime joys from even the smallest restaurants and out-of-the-way museums to the traditional touristed areas like the Louvre and the Tour Eiffel are unequalled anywhere. And living there is about 1/3 the price of Manhattan.
The Japanese play the notes but they just don't get the music.
Posted by: Bart at December 15, 2004 8:49 PMFrancophones in Quebec are intolerant of anyone who doesn't speak French. I've expereinced it first hand. I feel the pain of Janpanese persons living in Paris.
Posted by: Phil at December 15, 2004 9:32 PMPhil,
But if you speak French the way that it is spoken in the French elite, you get treated like an Englishman in America, like someone special. There are tons of Frenchmen working in Quebec precisely for that reason.
Posted by: Bart at December 15, 2004 9:41 PMPhil:
In my experience, they are intolerant of Canadians who won't try to speak French. Unlike the French French, they have a high tolerance for mangled syntax. And they certainly don't expect Americans to speak French. Wear a lapel pin.
They admire the French as a linguistic and cultural fount, but find them personally tiresome and pompous.
Posted by: Peter B at December 16, 2004 5:50 AMIf you are tired of Paris, you are tired of secondhand smoke.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at December 16, 2004 11:31 AM