European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Ailer All have produced a dozen winners of the Nobel prize in tiler lure this Century far More than an other country including he United Stales Wilh All ils emphasis on creativity parents concerned thai their children May fail he National baccalaureate examinations complain that a school s standards Are nol Tough enough. Politicians denounce principals for offering too Many Nils. President Francois Mitterrand insists that teachers should Force pupils to memorize More Dales in French history. No one seems to think of the school system when the French government launches one of ils periodic campaigns to persuade the French to show More hospitality to Lou risks. Yet the schools in Many ways Musl be blamed Tor the hoary tourist cliche Hal the French Are rude French education posters a defensive attitude in those fearful of failure. It is not surprising that foreigners sometimes run into a defensive waiter or store clerk or lower level bureaucrat. After years of trying to avoid he strictures of their teachers people like this handle every hint of a complaint by blaming someone else French education also makes it very difficult Lor the French to understand foreigners who do not speak French Well. I has been drilled into the French for years Hal they Musl not mispronounce words or mangle grammar. Their minds cannot make much of an adjustment for a foreigner who misses Iho Mark Many French simply do nol understand. In English linguists Kying to assess How Well a foreigner Speaks measure the level Al which to or she will be understood by a sympathetic   the concept of such a speaker simply does note is in French. The cultural capital of the would is a provincial place a bolivian writer said in Paris recently. Nowhere else in the world do people Ireat you like the French do if you cannot speak their language ii would not happen in new York or even London. Paris is a cily suspicious of foreigners in is like the Middle  the problem is compounded because the French especially in Paris Are not an open gregarious people like americans or latins. They ate inward and . They do not like to commit themselves quickly they do nol like to show their feelings openly. All these aspects of coldness infuriate some foreigners. Alter nine years As Paris correspondent of the British daily newspaper the guardian. Waller Schwarz wrote in 1984, i won l miss the rudeness of parisians the Way nobody says sorry there in t even a French word for it. When they Haven t got what you want they seem  his diatribes provoked an onslaught of angry replies from More sympathetic British some of whom supplied him with the French words Lor  the Ruth la that the cliche about French rudeness like most cliches is exaggerated sometimes in a Epi Lefuel Way. Most French Are not defensive intolerant and insensitive Flo so arc nol rude. In is True that most French do nol open up quickly to people they do nol know whether foreign or French. But once con acl is made and renewed they Are As kind and Loyal As any other people. They show i hair  and emotion however with simple civil gestures a Small Gill or favor or acl of kindness bul not in any extravagant Way. Franco is nol the land of Brazos there Are More puzzles Lor a foreigner such As trying to understand what seems like a decline of creativity in France some foreigners blame the magnificence of Paris. The capital of France is probably the most Beautiful City in the world bul most of its Beauly lies in its past. Paris protected by a web of legislation that keeps out most modern buildings has hardly changed since the Lurn of the 20lh Century. A Walker in Paris can sense historical wonders on almost any Street. An Art Lover can find la Ruche the building that offered inexpensive space to painters like mate Chagall and Fernand Loger and Chaim routine before world War i and still offers that kind of space to artists today. Students crowd and laugh in front of the Lychee Condorcet where Marcel Proust once studied and Jean Paul Sartre once taught philosophy. The bars of Ernest Hemingway Are easy to find and so is the postwar Headquarters of Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Wilh a few Lurns of imagination one can bring Back to Paris Iho  Days of writers Guy do Maupassant or Richard Wright or artist Amedeo Modigliani. Outsiders sometimes wonder whether this mood of the past overwhelms the creativity of the present. French writers artists and composers no longer rank among the Best known in the world. No one now has the standing of Albert Camus or Pierre Augusta Renoir or Maurice Ravel modern architects can do Lille in Paris bul restore old buildings. There is another Puzzle. The French in the eyes of Many foreigners refuse to accept their role As a middling Power. On an official and diplomatic level Many americans grow irritated Wilh French leaders for what the americans look on As posturing on the world stage. France was once a great Power. Even As Lale As the eve of world War ii Many analysts thought that Itie French army was the most powerful in the world. But such notions died in the defeat and disgrace of world War ii. Now France is a european county of moderate strength with enough nuclear weapons to count in some councils of War and peace bul hardly enough to Quality As a superpower. Yel ils leaders unlike the loaders of Brilain never seem to accept this. The French sometimes sound Asil world War ii had Nevet come to dash the pretensions of France. Al economic Summit conferences for example. President Millerand is one of the few foreign leaders who islands up to hid United Stales and refuses to Bow to ils Power and influence american officials invariably bristle Al such seeming Sham which in their View began with Charles de Gaulle 30 years ago and never seems to end. Yet French officials usually present their Point of View Wilh great intelligence self Confidence respect for the United states and. At least in the View of some outsiders persuasiveness French officials acl in fact not As if they were trying to Poso As More than they Are bul As if past French grandeur and the potential for future French leadership in Europe Enlil Tes them to More of a voice than a middling Power might expect. The past and Lulu re ought to count for something. The concept is novel but in May make a lot of sense. Ii certainly enhances a sense of nationalism and makes the French As Ever somewhat larger 1han life. The stars and stripes Page 15