How to understand the French - lesson 1

For those of you who think being French is sitting on the terrace of a nice little café, sipping red wine, watching a few old men with caps playing boule, shouting some nice words of encouragement to Jean-Michel and René, all this with lavender fields and the Mediterranean in the background - I'm sorry to disappoint you but that is all wrong. That picture - you will only get it in films (and that is American films - French films are more likely to show Gerard Depardieu dressed as a woman swimming around in the sewer, or a hysterical Louis de Funes slipping about in chewing gum factory).
Real French people are very different, and if you want to learn more - please read the following lessons with great attention.

Lesson 1:
Don't try to positive me!

French are genuinely AGAINST everything that is new in general, and everything that might lead to some kind of change in particular. "Change" isn't necessarily some world transforming project, it can also be minor things like putting your shoes in a new place or taking the hangers out of the wardrobe when you take your shirt off it.
So: everything that is new, and that hasn't been made up by the French person himself, will be welcomed with more or less vivid negativism. You must understand that this is not always intentional, it's just natural.

To try to understand this, please read the following quotes, and try to imagine the respons:

1. Swedish wife: "our lovely neighbour just gave me her old twin pushchair, so now I can go for long walks with both kids, isn't that great??"



French husband: "oh, another thing to fit in the garage!"


2. Swedish wife: "I just bought 50 kilos of ecologically produced potatoes delivered to our door, so now we don't have to carry it home from the shop any more and it was even cheaper than the shop price!!"



French husband: "We've never done that before, why would we start now?? And I'm sure they've hidden all bad potatoes under the first layer."


3. Swedish wife: "I've tried a new recipe!!!"



French husband: "And what if I don't like it?"


4. Swedish wife: "I've created a blog!!!"



French husband: "yeah but nobody will connect"


and so on and so forth...