Dreams-Visions
Member
Is the shock so dramatic because everyone in Japan is friendly or something?
Japanese tourists stricken by Paris Syndrome
- Thread starter Raist
- Start date
- Status
AlimNassor
Banned
I loved Rome too. I went to visit relatives before my Grandma passed away. We had a huge party and stuff. The people in Rome were even nicer, the Police were actually helpful too. Great food, real Italian food is pretty much perfect, better than the stuff at Olive Garden. Even the worst of Italian food in Rome was much better.
BaronLundi said:
I changed my mind because you mentioned that frog eating coward Zidane. Stay away from bella Italia!
Just kidding of course. I don't hate any of you, just your football team 
btw I share your love of Roma. There are many great city's around the world but nothing compares to Roma. Sadly, nearly everything there is pretty expensive.
btw I share your love of Roma. There are many great city's around the world but nothing compares to Roma. Sadly, nearly everything there is pretty expensive.I refuse to believe this.AlimNassor said:
Brofist
Member
Here is my take. In the past most Japanese people's idea of taking a vacation would be to join an all Japanese tour and have the guide basically handle every aspect of the trip, save the trip to the duty free shop at the airport.
Now more Japanese are taking regular vacations, exploring areas on their own, therefore more cases of culture shock. Add the fact that Paris is a very popular destination for Japanese tourists and the French notoriety of being angry arrogant snobs and you get "Paris Syndrome"
Now more Japanese are taking regular vacations, exploring areas on their own, therefore more cases of culture shock. Add the fact that Paris is a very popular destination for Japanese tourists and the French notoriety of being angry arrogant snobs and you get "Paris Syndrome"
When I went to Paris all of the Japanese tourists walked in single file following a lady with an umbrella stuck in the air, following it obediently to the safety of the vacation bus, only spending 5-10 minutes at landmarks to take photos and then leave.
Nobody in Notre Dame was taking in the atmosphere or looking at the stained glass, they were just taking photo after photo and then leaving without seeing anything that wasn't through a lens.
Still, different strokes for different folks I guess.
Nobody in Notre Dame was taking in the atmosphere or looking at the stained glass, they were just taking photo after photo and then leaving without seeing anything that wasn't through a lens.
Still, different strokes for different folks I guess.
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
Thats because people are suffering from Paris Syndrome Syndrome.SmokyDave said:
Shouta
Member
BaronLundi said:
I think France was the only country to issue a general evac order or so. Britain and the USA had 80 kilo recommendations and had charter planes for folks that felt they absolutely needed to go back. Of course, you had to burden the cost after the fact. The US also evac'd military families which is totally silly to me considering that they were in places they were far away but they didn't a lick for us folks in Tohoku. Fucking government.
Zoramon089
Banned
Dreams-Visions said:
SatelliteOfLove
Member
A France trip only requires your plane to touch down in Paris. I'm sticking by that sentence should I go.
I've never had a problem in France. If anything, I'd say that these tourists just wear on the patience of people and the bus loads of tourists are complete and utter shit.
These morons always overpay for some cheap, rushed visit to some place. What's worse is that they spend all this money to travel to a country they don't know about, don't give a shit about, and won't bother to do anything about that ignorance in the future. They visit because it's popular. If the local sewage plant was popular, they'd go there and take a photo of themselves standing in front of a septic tank.
Take the Louvre. The only exhibits that you'll see large groups of Chinese or Japanese tourists gather around are the ones picked out in the pamphlet.
Is the Winged Glory really all that good that each person needs to spend 3 minutes in front of it to take a picture? Is the Venus De Milo? No. The Mona Lisa is probably the worst of the popular exhibits. Literally a ton of drooling idiots gathering in one room for a painting that's popular and shielded by a large reflective pane.
The other Da Vinci works are in the main hallway and there are no crowds. The Musee D'Orsay is close by and yet I didn't see any of these tourists visit despite it being much, much better than the Louvre for art lovers. I can only imagine that the only reason that these groups are absent is because the Musee D'Orsay doesn't allow photographs of any kind and as a reward the works are unprotected.
These morons always overpay for some cheap, rushed visit to some place. What's worse is that they spend all this money to travel to a country they don't know about, don't give a shit about, and won't bother to do anything about that ignorance in the future. They visit because it's popular. If the local sewage plant was popular, they'd go there and take a photo of themselves standing in front of a septic tank.
Take the Louvre. The only exhibits that you'll see large groups of Chinese or Japanese tourists gather around are the ones picked out in the pamphlet.
Is the Winged Glory really all that good that each person needs to spend 3 minutes in front of it to take a picture? Is the Venus De Milo? No. The Mona Lisa is probably the worst of the popular exhibits. Literally a ton of drooling idiots gathering in one room for a painting that's popular and shielded by a large reflective pane.
The other Da Vinci works are in the main hallway and there are no crowds. The Musee D'Orsay is close by and yet I didn't see any of these tourists visit despite it being much, much better than the Louvre for art lovers. I can only imagine that the only reason that these groups are absent is because the Musee D'Orsay doesn't allow photographs of any kind and as a reward the works are unprotected.
Ether_Snake
å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®
French people yell at each other, then kiss each other.
All. The. Time.
So they yell at everyone else too.
All. The. Time.
So they yell at everyone else too.
POWERSPHERE
Member
Man, i'm in paris for the first time at the moment and i'm loving it. Cool people, cool town. I thought it'd be a hellish hole of snobbery and bullshit, but it's quite lovely.
Pastry said:
The bus tours are expensive, not cheap at all, and designed to fleece unsuspecting tourists of cash and leave them with little to no time to do anything. In several, they don't even have translators and even abandon the said tourists at locations like a group at the Catacombs, yet people always overpay for them because they don't actually give a damn.
Its basically making yourself a target and allowing unscrupulous people to make a living off of your ignorance and stupidity.
I'm not as much of a fan of condoning said stupidity and ignorance, and yes these people DO get in the way. Take a place like the Palace of Versaille for instance where for no other reason the hallways to the Hall of Mirrors are jam packed with fly by photographers who are taking pictures of things so they can claim some primitive sense of ownership over it and claim that they've been there.
To quote an Australian guy that was equally pissed "What the fuck is the point of coming to a place like this if you're just going to run through it like a random mall".
Salazar said:
Good to know you're on the side of ignorance and stupidity then. Thanks for being part of the reason the rest of the world has to put up with anti-flash barriers, and nanny guards that have to babysit crowds to ensure basic pictographic instructions are obeyed.
Devolution
Member
Atrus said:
People taking photographs in remembrance? How dare they.
Dali said:
I take pictures because it's fun to see new things and photograph them in interesting ways. Especially artfully crafted stuff. I took an architecture class that had field trips every other week and brought my camera with me on a couple visits.
Dali said:
I should have clarified that they'd be photos of random objects you stand in front of and yes, by and large I do think it's silly for people to do that.
Do people really need pictures of them standing infront of right facing candelabra's and then left facing candelabra's and then random exotic vase? It seems very superficial and misses the forest for the trees.
One man's trash is another man's treasure. Something mundane and commonplace to you may be interesting and quirky to a foreigner. I take pictures of random things that are unique to different places, but I'm sure the people around me think I'm a moron for snapping a photo of a street sign or a sticker on a train.Atrus said:
Dali said:
It's not about the mundane but the mentality behind the need to itemize things as possessions or property and in turn make things superficial.
Gertrude Stein mentioned the noted phrase "There is no there, there" and using that idea of 'there' you can easily point people who've been to a place but were never actually there. Were all of the visitors actually there? I don't think so.
We can all fall back on relativism and say well... to each his own. Fine, but there is a spectrum of things from the superficial to the profound and most people reduce everything to superficial. I'm not talking about you taking pictures of random things but the fact that when you do you probably find some profundity in it.
This is a far cry about people jammed together to take futile pictures off of a reflective surface for the perfect shot of the Mona Lisa because there's a belief that being somewhere or possessing something significant makes us significant by relation and has nothing to do with any sort of inward growth.
It's like Rutger Hauers character in Blade Runner talking about the things he's seen in his life and then stopping part way to show Deckard the photos he took standing in front of the Tannhauser Gate.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Ok I'm being serious here. What the fuck are you talking about? Do you imagine that people who take a picture of the Mona Lisa believe they are somehow "possessing" it or the Brandenburg gate or the St. Louis arch? You don't think perhaps they get a good feeling looking at these things and wish to preserve that feeling somehow?Atrus said:
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I have to learn fluent French to go to Paris?SmokyDave said:
Angry Grimace said:
No and people are exaggerating the hostility 'The French' have of non-French speakers. The city alone receives 30+ million tourists a year and most places near landmark areas actually know English, have English speaking staffers or have English menus or guides. I've also found most willing to help the errant traveler out as well.
Knowing French makes it so you can do more, faster and is more convenient when moving around but it's not necessary. Some of the nicest people in France that I've met were the North African French-only speakers in the south of France. Despite not knowing anything other than French, they were good hosts and were willing to try to communicate to the non-French speakers like my brother.
Paris isn't really a great city and I'm sure the French themselves would point to better places in their country but I don't accord it poor marks for hospitality. Price yes, but the people were more than fine.
lunarworks
Member
So the answer is just to kiss them?Ether_Snake said:
BaronLundi
Member
POWERSPHERE said:
Glad you're enjoying it and sorry for the shitty weather (although this way you get to see the real Paris).
arnoldocastillo2003
Member
Ok I have a serious question, i am planning to go to Paris this December, i don´t actually speak or understand french, will I be really fuck if I go to Paris because the GAF consensus is that french people hate turist that don´t speak french? So what the fuck do I do, i cannot change my plans because i have already bought the plane ticket and all, can any FRENCH GAF advice me in what to do, and please don´t tell me to learn french because i can´t, don´t have the time or money to learn french, thanks GAF.
arnoldocastillo2003 said:
Man I seem to find you everywhere in threads recently
You don't have to learn french. It's purely a myth. I'm a Parisian. People really suck at english here, but they'll try to help and you'll get around quite easily. Most young people absolutely LOVE doing so.
You will be fine, don't worry. Most people have a very basic understanding of English, as long as you don't act like an asshole like too many tourists do, there is no reason why you should get any hostility because you don't speak French.arnoldocastillo2003 said:
And since we use the same Alphabet, it's easy to get by. In Tokyo for example if you get out of the popular sites, good luck finding your way around
arnoldocastillo2003
Member
LOL! yeah dude whats up with that hahahaha, thanks for the advice, well at least i speak english and spanish so lets see in what language it goes better.Gabyskra said:Man I seem to find you everywhere in threads recently
You don't have to learn french. It's purely a myth. I'm a Parisian. People really suck at english here, but they'll try to help and you'll get around quite easily. Most young people absolutely LOVE doing so.
Ok will try not act an asshole, would really love to see some kind of example.Blimblim said:
Frankenstrat
Member
oh hey, avatars are back. also, what the crap? disappointed to the point of psychiatric breakdown? I guess I can see it, given the apparent culture shock, but damn :/
I've lived next to Disneyland Paris for 10 years, I know a lot about people acting like assholes.Gabyskra said:
Don't be loud, don't call each other from 50 meters away, don't let your children wander all around, respect the lines, don't get drunk and puke everywhere, don't feel entitled to anything more than the guy next to you. Basically act like a human being, and not like a moron just because you are on a vacation.
BaronLundi
Member
Blimblim said:
So basically don't do what a true Parisian would do
I've never had any bad experience with tourists (and at least they never had any with me).
Learn how to say hello (bonjour), thank you (merci) and please (s'il vous plaît) and speak slowly and you'll be fine.
Pro-tips :
- don't look up all the time when you're walking around. Yes it's beautiful but there are dogshits lying around.
- do not tip waiters that gave you a hard time.
- asking for directions to young people is preferable, they are more likely to speak English and be helpful.
- do not go to restaurant that look like they cater for tourists or where you don't see any locals. Do not go to restaurants with waiters on the sidewalk trying to usher you in.
- the "English spoken" sign is not to be trusted !
- if you intend to go to the Louvre, try to go early and during the week. Do not try to see everything.
- depending on how long you intend to stay, buy a weekly/daily public transport pass and make use of it (way better deal than the "hop on/hop off" tourist buses, everything in Paris is within walking distance of a metro station).
I doubt a french waiter would shout at me, the french and scottish go way back, But if i did get shouted at i'd punch the waiter in the nose.
I can't handle verbal abuse.
I'm in the place to eat not be abused.
I can totally understand a country who got a hard time of the Nazi's hating on the japanese.
I can't handle verbal abuse.
I'm in the place to eat not be abused.
I can totally understand a country who got a hard time of the Nazi's hating on the japanese.
- Status