'Paris Syndrome' (Visitors' Stress / Depression Reaction To Paris)

[ramonmercado]

'Paris Syndrome' strikes Japanese
By Caroline Wyatt
BBC News, Paris

The reality of Paris does not always live up to the dream

A dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what's become known as "Paris syndrome".

That is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations.

The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown.

Around a million Japanese travel to France every year.

Shocking reality

Many of the visitors come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris - the cobbled streets, as seen in the film Amelie, the beauty of French women or the high culture and art at the Louvre.

The reality can come as a shock.

An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures.

But for the Japanese - used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger - the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much.

This year alone, the Japanese embassy in Paris has had to repatriate four people with a doctor or nurse on board the plane to help them get over the shock.


An encounter with a rude Parisian can be a shocking experience
They were suffering from "Paris syndrome".

It was a Japanese psychiatrist working in France, Professor Hiroaki Ota, who first identified the syndrome some 20 years ago.

On average, up to 12 Japanese tourists a year fall victim to it, mainly women in their 30s with high expectations of what may be their first trip abroad.

The Japanese embassy has a 24-hour hotline for those suffering from severe culture shock, and can help find hospital treatment for anyone in need.

However, the only permanent cure is to go back to Japan - never to return to Paris.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6197921.stm

 

[Anonymous]

To be fair, Parisians can be very rude. I have found that the best approach is to treat it as part of the experience and it becomes almost enjoyable. I would now be disappointed if a waiter didn't treat me like dirt.

 

[Xanatico]

Yeah at least among europeans French are supposed to be rude and arrogant. I´m sure the English might get a shock if they came to France and everybody was nice to them.

 

[Yithian]

Paris Syndrome

'Paris Syndrome' strikes Japanese
By Caroline Wyatt
BBC News, Paris

A dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what's become known as "Paris syndrome".

That is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations.

The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown.

Around a million Japanese travel to France every year.

Shocking reality

Many of the visitors come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris - the cobbled streets, as seen in the film Amelie, the beauty of French women or the high culture and art at the Louvre.

The reality can come as a shock.

An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures.

But for the Japanese - used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger - the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much.

This year alone, the Japanese embassy in Paris has had to repatriate four people with a doctor or nurse on board the plane to help them get over the shock.

It was a Japanese psychiatrist working in France, Professor Hiroaki Ota, who first identified the syndrome some 20 years ago.

On average, up to 12 Japanese tourists a year fall victim to it, mainly women in their 30s with high expectations of what may be their first trip abroad.

The Japanese embassy has a 24-hour hotline for those suffering from severe culture shock, and can help find hospital treatment for anyone in need.

However, the only permanent cure is to go back to Japan - never to return to Paris.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6197921.stm

 

[Iggore]

"Many of the visitors come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris - the cobbled streets, as seen in the film Amelie, the beauty of French women or the high culture and art at the Louvre."

Bwahahaha, those poor nippon bastards. I can't imagine anyone having a romantic vision of the french, unless, of coure, the only thing you know of France is from Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. That, is not Europe. :3

 

[Beakmoo]

To be fair, the rest of France is populated by very friendly polite people. I say this every time the French get slagged off here. It seems somehow to be an acceptable form of racism, but I can't stand by and say nothing. Parisians can indeed be very rude, just as Londoners can, but the French as a whole are lovely people.

 

[Stormkhan]

Perhaps it's just the "cosmopolitan" Parisiens who are surly, but the rest of the country are friendly.

 

[Quake42]

Yes, I never understand all this "the French are rude" stuff - every time I have been there people have been charming. Even in Paris, OK people are a little more brusque, but I've never encountered actual rudeness.

 

[OneWingedBird]

iirc don't the japanese actually recognise 'xenophobia' as a mental illness? seem to recall some case of a jap serial killer in europe quite a few years ago who was later deported and eventually released as he was considered to be suffering from it?

 

[MaxMolyneux]

No wonder when I went in 2003 that Paris had signs saying welcome Japan System. Especially in the Sex shops.

 

[ramonmercado]

Yes, I never understand all this "the French are rude" stuff - every time I have been there people have been charming. Even in Paris, OK people are a little more brusque, but I've never encountered actual rudeness.

The only rude French I've met are at the airports. Hey, even the gendarmes in Paris are polite and helpful.

 

[Rubyait]

I'm sure their all lovely! I'm spending NYE in Paris...

 

[Xanatico]

Being rude is the stereotype of the french. But in southern france they are actually very nice, though Paris people might not be. And of course it depends in if you try even a bad attempt at speaking french.

 

[cokker]

An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures.

Yeah id laugh it off, right in his face :lol:

Id tell him to eat a snail an get over it :lol:

If the Japanese are ment to be really polite id rather go there than paris.

 

[Xanatico]

I saw a french wine at the supermarket with the wonderful name Arrogant Frog. The front had a graphic of a humanoid frog with a beret on it´s head.

 

[filcee]

If you can't beat 'em...

A guide to understanding rude Parisians

Thu Jan 4, 11:35 AM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - You don't need to speak French to understand the Parisians. You just need to know how to gesture.

Or so claims a new guide issued by French tourism officials to help foreign tourists understand Parisians with a list of commonly used gestures with meanings like "shut up." ...

...source
Link is obsolete. The MIA Reuters article can now be accessed at:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...standing-rude-parisians-idUSL0439524320070104

I'm with Cokker on this. The Japanese I've met have been much nicer, and more polite, than any of the French.

 

[Rubyait]

Well I don't know whether it was because it was NYE, I had been drinking and was oblivious to it, but I didn't meet any arrogant Parisians! A few smelly ones and some guy dribbling on the Metro but apart from that. I was there for four days as well.

 

[McAvennie]

For some reason this original news story was in the BBC's Most Read section today and so I've just read of this syndrome.

What strikes me as odd is why Paris? Why isn't there a London Syndrome or NY Syndrome? Surely Paris is not the only city that fails to meet up to people's expectation?

And just because a city turns out to be a bit rubbish, why would you get in such a fix about it? Seems bizarre. Is this really a 'real' syndrome or just something that has been invented and then once people know of it think they have it?

That said, while I was flat hunting I went out one afternoon to get some lunch and became very disorientated, dizzy, started sweating profusely and the area I was in - which I traversed every day - suddenly became very unfamiliar, almost like a movie set version of the place I knew where everything was just not quite right. So maybe there is something in the air here. Or maybe I was just having a diabetic hypo... :lol:

 

[Mythopoeika]

That said, while I was flat hunting I went out one afternoon to get some lunch and became very disorientated, dizzy, started sweating profusely and the area I was in - which I traversed every day - suddenly became very unfamiliar, almost like a movie set version of the place I knew where everything was just not quite right. So maybe there is something in the air here. Or maybe I was just having a diabetic hypo... :lol:

You might be part-vampire, and you're in a city with a particularly high concentration of garlic.

Yes, I think that's the most likely explanation.

 

[McAvennie]

That said, while I was flat hunting I went out one afternoon to get some lunch and became very disorientated, dizzy, started sweating profusely and the area I was in - which I traversed every day - suddenly became very unfamiliar, almost like a movie set version of the place I knew where everything was just not quite right. So maybe there is something in the air here. Or maybe I was just having a diabetic hypo... :lol:

You might be part-vampire, and you're in a city with a particularly high concentration of garlic.

Yes, I think that's the most likely explanation.

Almost certainly...

Now to find a disorientated Japanese tourist with a nice throbbing neck...

 

[amyasleigh]

Having seen this "bumped" thread for the first time -- vampires aside; if Japanese tourists have this problem with Paris, I envisage them faring much worse in China. Am given to understand that many folk in China, especially among the more elderly, harbour strong resentment against Japanese people, because of Japan's doings in China circa 1937 -- 1945; it's not uncommon for visiting Japanese to get an outright hostile reception.

 

[Little_grey_lady]

Having seen this "bumped" thread for the first time -- vampires aside; if Japanese tourists have this problem with Paris, I envisage them faring much worse in China. Am given to understand that many folk in China, especially among the more elderly, harbour strong resentment against Japanese people, because of Japan's doings in China circa 1937 -- 1945; it's not uncommon for visiting Japanese to get an outright hostile reception.

I agree, and the same goes for Germans in various parts of the world. I went to Amsterdam with some Germans and was quite shocked at how rude some people were to them. It was particularly bad because once they realised I was English, the people would generally then turn to me and speak to me politely. (It wasn't a language issue as my friends could speak fluent English).

I wonder if the Paris Syndrome is because Paris is seen/imagined as a romantic city, more so perhaps than most other cities which are seen more as cities. Therefore the gap between the imagined and the reality of city life is bigger and more noticeable than in other cities.

 

[amyasleigh]

World War II memories die hard, I suppose, especially in countries which were given a bad time by their Axis occupiers in that conflict. Suspect that inhabitants of the once-occupied countries "see with their head", that most citizens of the one-time occupying power, whom they may meet, were not even born in 1945; but what they "feel with their gut", is something else.

The Paris Syndrome -- agree, maybe the ultimate in the often-met-with "lovely place, shame about the inhabitants" phenomenon. Perhaps travellers abroad might be well advised to expect totally vile treatment from the people in the places to which they go -- then whenever anything better happens, it will be a pleasant bonus.

Paradoxically; regarding some countries generally viewed as awful hell-holes -- brave folk who venture there, are often amazed by how friendly and hospitable they find the locals to be (Colombia, and Iran, come to mind).

 

[McAvennie]

The thing is, I have found Parisians to be generally no less rude than Londoners, New Yorkers etc...

You get some who are arses, but you get that in every large concentration of people.

And it is a beautiful city full of wonders, so I find it hard to see how people could be that let down by it that they slip into a 'syndrome' and have to be rescued by their government! :shock:

 

[liveinabin]

I think it's because Paris is thought of by the Japanese as being the height of sophistication and elegance.
When they get there and find it's nothing of the sort.
Also, when I was in Japan I found that the people there were polite to an extreme, especially in shops. I don't think any European country can compete with it.

However I think it is a bit bizarre to believe that the sensibilities of the Japanese are so fragile that they can be broken by France not living up to their expectations.

 

[Yithian]

Being rude is the stereotype of the french. But in southern france they are actually very nice, though Paris people might not be. And of course it depends in if you try even a bad attempt at speaking french.

I agree completely with this. The south is still a welcoming place, but the north has had its fill of tourists and grumbling is often heard.

From all my travels I've often reported that the people who are most positive, receptive and welcoming to the Brits are those who have experienced them the least - especially those whose faint impressions were formed many years ago when our travellers weren't such degenerates. I should imagine the same goes for most places and foreigners: fewer guests, warmer welcome.

 

[Quake42]

I agree completely with this. The south is still a welcoming place, but the north has had its fill of tourists and grumbling is often heard.

I've said this earlier in the thread but it simply isn't a picture I recognise. I've travelled extensively in northern and southern France and have never experienced rudeness from the locals.

From all my travels I've often reported that the people who are most positive, receptive and welcoming to the Brits are those who have experienced them the least - especially those whose faint impressions were formed many years ago when our travellers weren't such degenerates.

Again, I'm pretty sure this is a myth. There was a Europe-wide survey of those working in the tourist trade a few years ago (sorry, I can't find the link). The results showed the Brits as the most welcome of any nationality. The Dutch, I recall, were the least welcome, apparently because they are seen as tight-fisted.

I'm pretty sick of people constantly running down the UK and its people. There's a whiff of snobbery about it... "we don't like the oiks travelling".

 

[Yithian]

Oh, I'm certainly not claiming we're uniquely bad.
That I remember, I've seen Brits/Irish/Americans/Australians and Germans acting shockingly in different places worldwide.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...I'm pretty sick of people constantly running down the UK and its people. There's a whiff of snobbery about it... "we don't like the oiks travelling".

Yes, I'd have to say that generally Europeans seem to be inclined to like me in the first place because I am British. It actually surprises me - probably because I've been inclined to believe the largely self-generated propaganda. I've worked and travelled all over Europe and never really had a negative response to my nationality (apart from a couple of instances in Germany).

Paris, though, is a different matter - I don't know, maybe everyone had a really nasty headache when I was last there, but I did find myself wanting to take everyone outside and explain to them the basic tenets of good manners.

 

[Floyd]

Yes, I'd have to say that generally Europeans seem to be inclined to like me in the first place because I am British. It actually surprises me - probably because I've been inclined to believe the largely self-generated propaganda. I've worked and travelled all over Europe and never really had a negative response to my nationality (apart from a couple of instances in Germany).

Paris, though, is a different matter - I don't know, maybe everyone had a really nasty headache when I was last there, but I did find myself wanting to take everyone outside and explain to them the basic tenets of good manners.

I think Parisians perhaps get a bad rap with this.

If you walk into a shop or up to someone on the street to ask them something and don't preface it with a simple 'Hello', then they are going to assume that you are the ignorant one. And when you consider the huge numbers of pesky, swarming, loud and often obnoxious tourists, this happens a lot, which probably wears them down after a while.

It's akin to asking for pineapple on you pizza or ketchup for your pasta in Italy- both of which are quite rightly capital offences.

Also, to go around smiling means, in their eyes, that you are deranged, which is understandable really.

Having said that, I was once kicked by a Parisian copper- although to be fair I'd have probably done the same, but much harder.