Transcript

When you drink with a Frenchman, you must absolutely respect these two rules. First, you have to look him in the eye. It's quite rude to say "me and my husband went to the movies". Always put yourself second.

Hello everyone, I hope you are well. Today, we are going to talk together about politeness, rules of politeness to respect in France.

I'm sure that some of these conventions and rules of politeness are common to your country. But I'm also sure that some of the customs, some of the rules of politeness will surprise you.

The first rule of politeness, when you enter a waiting room, for example at the doctor's, is to say hello to the other patients, to the other people who are waiting. Generally speaking, we say "good morning" very often.

When you enter an elevator, you also say "bonjour". Likewise, when you pass someone in your building in France, you always say hello. If someone doesn't say hello to you, it's because they are rude.

When you address a person you don't know, you must address them as "polite". So use the second person plural. So I know that in some countries, you can only be addressed in a very specific way, where even in English you can't be addressed in that way.

But in France, it is very common to be polite to all the people you don't know. Then, another rule of politeness, when you are invited to dinner or when you are invited to a party at someone's house, it is not very polite to arrive right on time. So if the person says 8:00 pm, it's not very polite to arrive at 8:00 pm sharp or to arrive a little bit early because the person who is organizing the dinner or the party might not be ready.

So it's normal to arrive about ten minutes late. On the other hand, if you plan to arrive 30 minutes late, you absolutely have to warn, otherwise the person will be very annoyed. Except of course if you are invited to a party where there is no real time, they tell you "you can arrive at 9 pm" for example, and it is with young people, obviously, it is different.

Another convention is that if you are invited to someone's house, you have to bring something. So for example a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers, something for dessert, for example chocolates. But it's really very common to bring something when you're invited to someone's house.

You probably know that in France, we love to have aperitifs. Once you've been served your drink, you can't just start drinking like that. It's rude. When you have several people around a table, you have to toast before you drink. Toasting means that you have to raise your glass and clink it with the other people's glass. But be careful, it's not as simple as that. If you toast with a Frenchman, listen carefully, you must absolutely respect these two rules. The first one, you have to look him in the eyes. And the second thing to do is if, for example, there are three or four of you, you must not cross your glasses. It's bad luck.

When you are eating with other people, it is very rude to speak with your mouth full. So when you have food in your mouth, you must wait until you have swallowed it before speaking.

In the same style, it's not polite to eat with your mouth open, we often tell our children that. Again, when you are invited to someone's house, the convention is that you finish your plate. The person who invites you, the host, could take it badly if you don't finish your plate, you have to eat everything.

Of course, you don't want to make yourself sick either. I sometimes don't finish and it's not a big deal either. It depends on who you're with.

Next rule again when you are at the table and you want to refill and finish a dish, so take the last portion of something, so for example a piece of cake or mashed potatoes, finish a bottle of Fanta for example. You should always ask other people if they want it.

That's the convention. Most of the time, they'll tell you no. It's a kind of polite game. So even if one of them wanted the last piece of cake, as you asked first, you can take it. Or if someone says "ah, I'd like some more cake", you cut the piece in half for example. But you have to ask if anyone wants more and not just help yourself and take the last piece. That's very rude.

Then, another rule of politeness, and this, I hear a lot of foreigners who make this mistake when they speak in French. If I want to talk about myself and another person. For example, to say that we went to the movies. It's pretty rude to say "me and my husband went to the movies". You always have to put yourself second. So, I should say "my husband and I went to the movies". So for example I could also say "you and I have a lot in common" and not "me and you have a lot in common". It's not very polite to put yourself first.

Another thing that comes to my mind when you have a runny nose, when you have a cold, it's impolite in France to sniff. So sniffing is when you go like this. It's really rude in France. You have to take a handkerchief and blow your nose.

I have a friend who lived in Brazil for a few months and she told me that it was the opposite there, that it was impolite to blow your nose in front of people, that it was better to sniff. If there are Brazilians who see this video, tell me in comments if it's true.

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See you soon!