An American Formula 1 Fan In Paris

[DarkLord 0]

yeah...i was also wondering why aussies calls english ppl as POMS...hv read too many sledging incidents where english cricketers are called POMS..if someone can show light....

[aussief1 4]

I think POME = "Prisioner Of Mother England"

or

POHM = "Prisioner Of Her Majesty"

Basically the term stems back to early settlement and the convict days.

Thats all I can remember from school anyway hope that helps you understand where we are coming from now.

[DarkLord 0]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_words_for_British

this is wht i got on wiki

[monza gorilla 1]

I think POME = "Prisioner Of Mother England"

or

POHM = "Prisioner Of Her Majesty"

Basically the term stems back to early settlement and the convict days.

Thats all I can remember from school anyway hope that helps you understand where we are coming from now.

Pom is a reference to pomegranates. That's all I'm prepared to say.

[pabloh20 1]

Sorry. Im abit tired so i didnt notice the joke. I dont know who made the word Whinging but it is a word we often use when describing the English. We often call them Whinging POMS

EDIT: always

Well, excuse my interludity here, but I guess that's the vocabularical limit we can expect from a race descended from convicts!

[Jem of the Shire 0]

I dont know where this stereotype came from but ive had several relatives go to France in the past few years and they have nothing but praise for not only the country but also the people.

when i've been to france, the people are rude, they're complete maniacs on the road, and there are dirty french-africans on the pavements/sidewalks selling knives, one even grabbed by mum

[DriftingGuy 0]

As an anglophone living in France, here are my observations...

French TV coverage is no better no worse than British or US tv coverage of the sport. They have Jacques Laffite doing analysis, and he is no better no worse than all the folks on ITV or SpeedTV in the US. After having watched F1 on Italian TV too, I would have to say that the folks at RAI TV are the most informed and most insightful commentators and analysers of the sport. In anycase, I would not expect anything less from the Italians.

Concerning visiting France, there are three magic words in the french language that will make your stay in France a thorougly enjoyable experience. These words are Bonjour, Merci, and Au Revoir. The french are extremely formal and politeness is de rigueur. Use these words religiously as you enter and leave shops and restaurants and you will think the french are the loveliest people in the world. And do try to speak in french to them. It is the effort that you make that counts for them. Speak in english straightaway to them and you will receive the famous french scorn, arrogance and derision towards foreigners.

Enjoy your stay in the most beautiful country in the world.

[ykickamoocow 0]

Well, excuse my interludity here, but I guess that's the vocabularical limit we can expect from a race descended from convicts!

Thats not very nice Though in reality less than 2% of our population has any relation to the convicts that were sent to Australia in the 18th Century. My family has only been in Australia for about 150 years wjem they immergrated from England and Ireland.

[pabloh20 1]

Thats not very nice Though in reality less than 2% of our population has any relation to the convicts that were sent to Australia in the 18th Century. My family has only been in Australia for about 150 years wjem they immergrated from England and Ireland.

Less than 2%?? <Looks around at the Australians on here> Really, less than 2%??

Ok, I'll stop now!

[ykickamoocow 0]

Less than 2%?? <Looks around at the Australians on here> Really, less than 2%??

Ok, I'll stop now!

Here is a article about Australia writen by Jeremy Clarkson (so you know its got to be good )

Surely, after 20 days of trial by fire, the Australians must now realise that God never really intended this enormous tinderbox to be used for human habitation. Plainly it has created as a giant dustbin, a place far from civilisation where all His failed experiments could be left to their own terrifying devices.

[pabloh20 1]

Here is a article about Australia writen by Jeremy Clarkson (so you know its got to be good )

From this article i get the impression he doesnt like Australia very much.

Yes, there is sort of a hintish flavour that he doesn't like Australia too much!

Hes has a point about your naming conventions, though!

[StoneIsland 0]

Concerning visiting France, there are three magic words in the french language that will make your stay in France a thorougly enjoyable experience. These words are Bonjour, Merci, and Au Revoir. The french are extremely formal and politeness is de rigueur. Use these words religiously as you enter and leave shops and restaurants and you will think the french are the loveliest people in the world. And do try to speak in french to them. It is the effort that you make that counts for them. Speak in english straightaway to them and you will receive the famous french scorn, arrogance and derision towards foreigners.

Enjoy your stay in the most beautiful country in the world.

This is exactly what every guidebook I've read says. I'm going to try and memorize as many additional useful phrases as I can on the plane ride over.

[ykickamoocow 0]

Yes, there is sort of a hintish flavour that he doesn't like Australia too much!

But its so subtle that its easy to miss if your not paying enough attention

Hes has a point about your naming conventions, though!

We do have some obvious naming conventions but we also have some hard ones aswell. I would love to live in Woolloomooloo just to say to people that i lived in Woolloomooloo . Aboriginal names are common in Australia. Names like Canberra, Kangaroo and Monaro are all Aboriginal words and for the most part they sould really good.

[LabradoRacer 2]

Here is a article about Australia writen by Jeremy Clarkson (so you know its got to be good )

Surely, after 20 days of trial by fire, the Australians must now realise that God never really intended this enormous tinderbox to be used for human habitation. Plainly it has created as a giant dustbin, a place far from civilisation where all His failed experiments could be left to their own terrifying devices. "Oh no," said God on the fourth day, "I've gone and made a spider which can kill a man just by looking at him. I need somewhere to put it." So on the fifth day He created Australia.

This then became home for all the horrid snakes and the bitey crocodiles and the baby-eating dingoes. And to make sure that man stayed away, He made the land itself completely infertile and filled the sea around its shores with deadly sharks and killer jellyfish. He even built an enormous barrier reef. Frankly, He did everything possible to ensure that humans never went there, short of putting up a sign saying "Trespassers will be eaten".

Nobody knows what drew the Aborigines but we do know that the first white man to sail this way was the world's most useless explorer, a Dutchman called Abel Tasman. In a three-year voyage he found Fiji, New Zealand and Tasmania, but in one of the most inept pieces of navigation ever he completely missed the big bit in the middle. That was discovered by Captain James Cook who stepped off his ship, sniffed the air and declared, "Yes. This would make a fantastic prison."

He was right, of course. For millions of years Australia had harboured all the world's dangerous animals so why not use it as a waste disposal unit for dangerous people? And even when the transportation of convicts stopped, it was still a good place for people who couldn't get on anywhere else.

Think about it. Nobody ever went to live in Australia because of the success they'd made of things at home. "I have thousands of friends, endless party invitations, a wonderful, happy family, a great job and even better prospects. So I'm off." All Australians are descended from Billy No Mates.

You'd expect them to have some sympathy with the refugees from central Asia. But no. They've turned their former prison into a fortress and the doors are now firmly closed.

Australians stand on their porches with flames licking at their back door, telling us that life over there is peachy. "It's always warm enough for a barbecue," they say. Never mind that the most recent barbie was so enormous and so hot that it had to be extinguished by a fleet of helicopters.

They're even using the wildlife as a scare campaign, telling the world what we already know: that the 10 most deadly snakes found anywhere in the world are all Australian. They run PR campaigns throughout Asia, showing pictures of boats used by refugees marooned on beaches with big fat crocodiles lolling nearby.

However, the reception from the indigenous wildlife is as nothing compared to the reception you'll get from the locals.

It's bad enough for a British person who's only there on holiday. Every time you walk into a pub, you get the same reaction. "Backs to the wall everyone: there's a Pom in the bar," followed by: "Hide your wallet under the soap. He won't find it there."

Not desperately imaginative but then what do you expect from a people who named a blue spotted ray that lives in lagoons "the blue spotted lagoon ray", or a range of mountains with snow on them "The Snowy Mountains". And that's before we get to "The Great Barrier Reef".

Anyway, if we have a hard time, imagine what it's like for Abdul. In a recent poll, 96% of Australians said they wanted the refugees out, dead, buried, eaten, anything. Last summer an advertisement appeared in one of the newspapers there asking people with a military background to join vigilante-style patrols.

Refugees who get caught by the proper authorities are sent to a fantastically remote detention centre near Woomera, where the British did their atomic tests in the 1950s. They can get out easily but it's an 18-day walk to the nearest telephone box and that's doubly hard when you've grown two heads.

So what sort of volume are we talking about here? Well, last year the number of people who arrived in Australia illegally from the usual refugee hot spots was 4,500. That works out at one for every 666 square miles. You could put the downtrodden masses from all over the world in the Northern Territories and not even know they were there.

Australia says that it took in thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people in the 1970s and 1980s, along with most of Britain's displaced trade union leaders who were no longer welcome at No. 10 for tea and buns. It won't now fulfil the legal and moral obligations of other nations.

Well, Europe has a falling birth-rate and can take a few refugees. The Americans are dropping food parcels on their heads. Africa is hopeless and Asia is the problem, which leaves either Antarctica, which seems a bit anti-social, or the very place that was specifically designed to be home for misfits: Australia.

From this article i get the impression he doesnt like Australia very much.

Ykick,you & your mega posts! This post seems like an EULA!

[LabradoRacer 2]

The title of this topic reminds me of the movie "An American Werewolf In Paris".

[goferrarigo 0]

Ykick,you & your mega posts! This post seems like an EULA!

I have told ykick earlier to provide a summary or brief to the article but he just wont listen...

[StoneIsland 0]

Paris was awesome and better than I had expected. I missed the race, but since I have it saved on Tivo, it's not a big loss.

[Max Mosley 2]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! It's a great city. Did you see M

[goferrarigo 0]

Paris was awesome and better than I had expected. I missed the race, but since I have it saved on Tivo, it's not a big loss.

The race was crap... its not a loss at all...

Was language a problem in Paris?

[Max Mosley 2]

I hear they have their own Ankit.

[Jez 0]

Pom is a reference to pomegranates. That's all I'm prepared to say.

[goferrarigo 0]

I hear they have their own Ankit.

I'm sorry, i'm just being a bit daft today....but what do you mean?

[StoneIsland 0]

The race was crap... its not a loss at all...

Was language a problem in Paris?

No, because my wife has some college French. Also, it can't be stressed enough: being extra polite, saying the two or three French words I do know, got most of the people there to remember that they have a fairly good grasp of Tourist English. It made me feel ashamed that I'm monolingual.

The only thing that I wish I did have, which I ordered from Amazon.com, but never came, was a guide for translating menus. There are some technical terms used that even my wife had trouble grasping. Of course, all the food is excellent (butter makes everything better) and even mistakes turned out all for the good.

Paris is expensive and the exchange rate of the dollar vs. the euro makes it even worse for Americans.