Polite terms.

Polite terms

You probably think that French people always do things in the correct way. If you didn't, you were wrong, and right in the inverse case. Anyway, There's something important when you talk to a French monsieur/madame/mademoiselle. In countries like Spain, not to give thanks or not to be pleased for something can be well taken. In France, everybody can look to you like if you were a rally unpolite person.

Education, seen from a scientific point of view, studies and groups a series of social behaviours between individuals after express the appreciation of others, Education can also be defined by a code. It shows the knowledge of some rules wich are learned to respect the rest of individuals. It has two purposes. The first one is make communication easier and let the individuals create a formal relation; the second one, is to show the knowledge of something known as "savoir-vivre" et "savoir-être", sentences which are refered to a correct way of life. These rules have changed a lot over time, and they're often collected by certain authors. These ones classified educational rules in civic treatment and the "savoir-vivre". Civic treatment refers to the use of terms (in the case of French) like "bonjour", "au revoir", "S'il vous plaît"... Its origins arise long before writing, so it's very difficult to know where did they born. Its conservation is due to the following phenoms:

-Conformity, consisting of the thought that if most of people think somethink is right, it's really right. In fact, this is one of the main drivers of educational rules for a long time.

-Principles; Educational rules are principles, not laws, so people don't usually try to change them.

-Education. It's so easy to make children think somethink is right, and they're very receptive so most of them will think it's right for the rest of their lifes.

-Force, a very basic reason. If you don't follow these educational rules, people will think you're a ill-mannered and won't treat you as they'd do who behave as they like.

Let's suppose a case where an individual A is at individual B's home. A Doesn't like B, but still with that he'll try to use terms like "Merci beaucoup" or "Très gentil". He'll even smile. This will create an hipocrisy relationship, something not very possitive. This can also be applied to compliments, which today aren't really honest and are just another way of making relationships.

Education is considered something neccesary and profitable for life in society. However, it makes certain problems related with intolerance.When somebody doesn't say "Bonjour", for example, everybody will think that he/she is a ill-mannered. The absence of a conventional frame of educational rules also makes that a somebody can be ill-mannered or well-mannered, but never neutral. This makes some problems, most of them due to the ignorance of the educational rules in certain area, and they'll be related with the nul success. In fact, if it wasn't like that, rules would have already disappeared.

Another example of what can educational rules derivate in is that they generally show sexism. In France, gallantry is a very important skill. But, apart from its sexual implications, it gives the women the only function of reproduction machines. As a last implication of educational rules, we can see that those rules make individualistic individuals something that implicates the delete of original things and the preferency by odd thing and not by the original ones. Here are some general rules that you should use in France if you don't want to look like an ill-mannered person.

The first advice or way to be polite is to be able of difference between "mademoiselle" and "madame". A "madame" is a lady which has already got married, and a "mademoiselle" a one who hasn't. Feminists want to delete the word "mademoiselle", but when the text was written the word still existed.

The second advice has already been mentioned, and it's about saying "merci" when somebody does something for you, even if you paid for it. When you are telling the person what do you want him/her to do, you'll have to include the particle "S'il vous plaìt".

The third of them, and maybe the most important one, is that you always have to start your chat with a "Bonjour" or saying "Bonjour" if another person started the conversation. At the end of it always include the particle "Au revoir" as the English "See you later".

The fourth one is about how french people are. This is a "general law" and you can apply it in every country. French people have their own way of behaving, and you can't modify it. That includes acts like that French people don't usually smile. Lot's of people thing that this is caused by the rudeness of french people, but that's definitively not true. We can't think like this, because french people aren't at our country and they've got different valors.

The fifth principle about polite terms in France is about leaving money in restaurants. It's something that, for french people, means a lot, and it's about leaving money in the restaurant, something a bit like the Spanish "propina". Leaving some cents usually means an insult, and leaving more means that you were pleased with the service.

The sixth one is about using "vous"(courtesy "you") and not "tu"(nomal "you") if you're talking to people that you don't meet really well, like a boss or a person in the underway. It causes many problems to people who isn't very familiar to the language because "vous" also can mean the normal form of you the 2nd person singular.

The seventh one is about using the rest of the terms in the proper situations; for example, if we think that with behaviour we can disturb another persons, we have to start our request with the particle "Excusez-moi".

The eight one is about the use of "bon nuit" (in the night) and "bon jour" (in the morning).