Do you ever get fed up of being "different"

[FluffyDonkey]

Background : I've lived in France for 6 years. I got my masters here and have worked here for 4 years (for French companies, I rarely use my English). I speak fluent French, with a slight English accent - which everyone assures me is "charming", "sexy", "adorable" (delete as appropriate - or often, not appropriate! ). DP is French, all my friends except 1 are French, and I have no intention of ever leaving. It's my home.

However recently I've started a new project at work, with a new team and I am just fed up to the back teeth of comments on my French, my accent, the UK (bad food, terrible weather, crap football, slow trains - you name it, I've heard it). On and on and on. It's all done in a jokey tone but it's the constant reminders that I'm not one of them. Whenever they use odd expressions they all turn to me to explain what they mean (thanks but I understood). They use very old, archaic words that when I tell DP he barely knows them either. I've never experienced it before and am finding it very tough.

Most Frenchies make a couple of comments on my Englishness, tell me how awful England is (then how they had a great time there) but then they drop the subject and treat me as normal. This team doesn't and I'm getting very disheartened.

Sorry to rant on for so long before getting to the question but : does anyone else experience this?

Lol at Bucharest shouting at the locals. My friend did that last year, to the local yobs who were throwing stones at swans.

OI! ARRET!

Had me rolling about laughing.

Fluffy,
that is what I used to say to the Germans, who remarked on my lack of kilt/whisky/shortbread tin. 'Oh, I am also surprised that you are not wearing a dirndl or lederhosen while drinking bier and eating blutwurst.'

No, I don't get fed up of being different. I do get fed up with inane comments about so-called cultural differences that aren't. However, I can chat for hours about the deeper socio-cultural differences and the advantages/disadvantages thereof.

Once you get beyond clichés about football hooligans, tea and the weather, it all gets a lot more interesting.

The only thing that riles me about being a foreigner after lots of years in France is the small minority of people that assume that everything about me (how I dress, what I like to eat, etc) is somehow representative of the entire British nation.

Other than that I don't mind. When we went back to live the UK for a couple of years part of me missed being different (though at times it was nice to be home).

Oh and I went to Birmingham University too

Yes Castille, representing a nation can be a bit wearing. Sometimes I want to be known for more than where I was born.

And Bonsoir I totally agree that deeper socio-cultural differences are fascinating. It's the round-in-circles conversations that do my head in. And the way they assume their comments are original.

However a good (French) friend has just moved to Cambridge and our conversations are REALLY interesting. She is doing an informal study of the British public (mainly in pubs - she loves a British pub!) and finds us fascinating (and all very unique)

Ooo, Fluffy, tell her to read Watching the English. Got it for x-mas 2 yrs ago. Great bit about pub behaviour! i.e. don't lift elbow off bar when getting publican's attention

I have never not felt accepted, but I usually find that having an child with autism is more isolating than being foreign!
However, some people just accept DD for who she is, and they are the ones who tend to accept me perfectly, too, regardless of my odd accent and occasional stumbling over words. I also find that having to do the rounds of the medical profession and special needs schooling has done wonders for my French!!
We had snow today - 3 or 4 cm. The kids were loving it until the icy wind blew in.

I agree with rosietoes: Watching the English is great book to read if you're interested in British behaviour and mannerisms etc!

OMG I could have written the op post!!. I'm totally fluent my accent is so faint that some people don't realise i'm not french (although i still have trouble with le/la) So why at work have they started saying i'm their very own"Jane Birken" Is it me or is being compared to Jane Birken not really all that flattering.

And as for "vous les anglo-saxon.." when they means americains arrgh.

And the "foods terrible in UK when i went on a school trip they gave us jelly!!"

Yes but that was 40 YEARS AGO!! (and jellys not that bad -petit filous have just started doing it

Think i'd better have a cup of tea (which i hate but of course no one will believe that a brit can hate tea) and calm down.

maman2tom I hate tea too! But they insist on feeding it to me...bleurgh.