British sense of time vs. American

Why people in Latin Europe are more friendly and warm? versus Anglo-Saxon coldness, and rigidity.

In France the working week is fixed at only 35 hours. Paid Holidays are 6 weeks to 2 months a year. People have more time to communicate and socialise. Food culture, the lunchtime in France is sacred, and people take it very seriously (2 hours break for lunch !) During lunch people socialise and discuss new ideas. (lunch in Anglo-Saxon countries is a 25 minutes sandwich) French are genuine people, they are not hypocrite, if they dont like you, they will let you know somehow (tagged as being rude). Family, social life and friends are more important that work. The quality of life is more important than financial gain.

My question is, how can you be happy if you work + 45 hours a week, have a 30 minutes break to eat a crappy sandwich, 2 weeks paid holiday (if lucky) a year, living in a materialistic society, where TIME IS MONEY (and not a part of your life) and seeing your friends is like booking a business meeting in advance. Lets not mention the food culture and other cultural environments. People are so reserved, introvert and hostile, and if they speak they are so superficial, passive if not boring. That looks very sad!

You need to get out of the house more often, stop watching TV, and booking appointments in advance to visit your friends, like business clients. You have only one life, life is supposed to be exiting, challenging, stimulating and spontaneous, not a bloody organised routine!

For Americans, that way of life is natural. They find it necessary.

" booking appointments in advance to visit your friends, like business clients. You have only one life, life is supposed to be exiting, challenging, stimulating and spontaneous, not a bloody organised routine!"

I don't necessarily like the "french way" but I agree with Jerome. Western societies transformed us in paranoiac socio-phobic creatures, where any human contact needs to be planned well in advance, like some morbid introverts agoraphobic and workaholics.

I'm glad, I would hate to have to socialise all the time. Socialising is overrated.

Americans live to work.
Europeans work to live.

>>booking appointments in advance to visit your friends, like business clients.

Well said Jérôme! friends should be friends without appointments. Everybody needs a good friend.

So you think you can just barge in on sometime at any time you please? What if they're in the middle of something or have other plans? You would be interrupting them.

Friends are for you when you need them, it is pathetic to make appointments to visit your best friends. ( I am talking about real friends no acquaintances) If they are busy, very simple they'll tell you, no offence done to anyone , that is why they are friends.

And listen to me , and listen good. A good friend is not selfish, is there to help you even if they're in the middle of something or have other plans. And you are expected to do the same, is mutual friendship.

Capisci ?

"So you think you can just barge in on sometime at any time you please? What if they're in the middle of something or have other plans? You would be interrupting them."

Jesus, what country are you from? have you got any friends?

"Western societies transformed us in paranoiac socio-phobic creatures, where any human contact needs to be planned well in advance, like some morbid introverts agoraphobic and workaholics."

not any western society, italians, Spanish are not like that

"And listen to me , and listen good. A good friend is not selfish, is there to help you even if they're in the middle of something or have other plans. And you are expected to do the same, is mutual friendship. "

Anglo-saxons are well known for their cold character, why are you surprised? british talk only about the weather, germans have bad sense of humour, americans make appointments to visit their friends, swiss are maniacs and Norwegians dont talk with their neighbours.

On a macro scale the Germanic nations are very disunited and hate each other, the Dutch, Danish people hate the Germans, the Austrians hate the Germans and viceversa, The Swedes hate the Norwegians and viceversa. The Brits hate everyone including the Americans.

I've never heard of the Germanic language union or any Global Germanic institution that unites the anglo-germanic countries. As opposed with the germanics - the latin people of Europe sympathise the other Latin countries, and formed the Global Latin Union, a global Latin cultural organisation.

"Les peuples de langue romane sont d’origines très diverses ; ils ont cependant en partage le même patrimoine linguistique et le même système de références historiques, juridiques et culturelles."

http://www.unilat.org

{>>booking appointments in advance to visit your friends, like business clients.

Well said Jérôme! friends should be friends without appointments. Everybody needs a good friend.}

Don't you see that you are invading your friend's privacy?

Maybe the French and Italians don't have any need for privacy, but we Americans, Germans, and Brits do!

Damian, thank you for your informative post; it explains quite a lot about the Brits.

Some of the complaints I agree with 100%, but some of them are downright stupid. One Englishwoman with whom I worked complained at length about the availability of fresh fish; this complaint evoked raucous laughter from all twenty people with whom I worked. Why? We live in the goddamn desert! Did she ever take a moment to look out the window? Even the Mexicans and Guatemalans laughed at this one. As for the coffee? Everybody whom I've queried about the matter has said that British coffee is horrible; it is surely a matter of subjective taste.

On the other hand, the complaints about the health care system are legitimate; taking care of the paperwork can be a labyrinthine nightmare of epic proportions. And the complaints about the dominance of religion in our lives are shared by many Americans. Complaints about the attitude toward liquor (and drinking) aren't shared by Americans, but they are understandable if one keeps in mind the dominance of British pubs in British life. (By the way, alcohol on the breath is an offense punishable by instant dismissal on the job. Why? If the offender hurts himself on the job, the company has to foot the medical bill)

As you have noted, complaining is a national British pastime, which explains it all, really. I don't think they'd be 100% content anywhere.

"Friends are for you when you need them, it is pathetic to make appointments to visit your best friends. ( I am talking about real friends no acquaintances) If they are busy, very simple they'll tell you, no offence done to anyone , that is why they are friends.

And listen to me , and listen good. A good friend is not selfish, is there to help you even if they're in the middle of something or have other plans. And you are expected to do the same, is mutual friendship."

Isn't that doing things the hard way? Telephoning is the easy way; driving six or eight miles to his house, and dropping in, is the hard way. What if he isn't even home? Do the French and Italians always do things the hard way?

If a friend is in deep trouble, he will telephone; his troubles can be discussed for an hour, two hours, if necessary and--if he's in great enough trouble, you will invite your friend to your house.

In America, if you need some salt and your friend is your neighbor do you need to telephone him before knocking his door?