The Internaut strikes again
The relationship between the French and the Internet is an uneasy one. One reason is the old Minitel, a wonderful invention at the time, but a technology that became a dead end and made France waste several years off-line. (And it seems most of that time was spent looking for casual sex). Another reason is of course that most web-sites are in English, something that many French regard as suspicious, if not an outright attack on their culture.
To use the Internet has remained such a weird and specialized thing, that the French have invented a special word for internet-user: "internaut" (think "astronaut" and you get the context). The French are all the same scrambling to catch up. However, as I have been unable to ignore for the last couple of months, it is a rocky road.
Take for example Orange, formerly the state-owned PTT, or France Telecom. They still provide fixed-line installations, and the majority of internet connections in France. This year the ADSL came to our village, after us having collected the requisite 100 names for Orange to bother installing the necessary switches and other technology for broadband internet.
But several times each month, during daytime, the net simply disappears. For everyone, not only one or two surfers, but whole regions at a time. The first two times it happened, I called after a while to report a malfunction. The person answering at Orange was mildly surprised: "But monsieur, it eez just maintenance", she said. I almost fainted.
They actually – deliberately – shut off the internet for hundreds of thousands of people, companies, universities, private and public, to change a server or flip/unflip some switches?! If that had happened in Sweden, or South Korea, people would have been outraged. In France it didn't even register.
Shut off the TGV (the fast trains) and commuters get upset. Shut of the French motorways and truckers will become seriously pissed off. Shut off the internet, and there isn't a single protest. Weird, weird, weird.
Sometimes it gets more than absurd. This summer I was biking in the Southwest of France. We eventually ended up in Cap Ferret, a posh beach community south of Bordeaux, where the real estate is as expensive as in Paris. We went looking for an internet café.
Now, Cap Ferret isn't the biggest town in France, far from it. But it is one of the major tourist destinations in the summer, and in season it has *a lot* of visitors. There was ONE (1) internet café in Cap Ferret! When we finally found it, my friend went in to check his e-mail.
He came out looking slightly unfocused, and told me what happened:
– They have ONE computer inside, he said. There is a waiting list. The nice lady said I could have it for half an hour, tomorrow at noon.
At about that time I lost it and collapsed on the pavement, giggling.
Yes, I can assure you that all of this is true. Every word. And I haven't even begun to tell you of my experiences in Vietnam, one of the poorest countries in Asia, where there is broadband connection all over the country, and internet cafés everywhere, full of hooked-up computers and helpful, knowledgeable staff. Their former colonial masters should take note.
To use the Internet has remained such a weird and specialized thing, that the French have invented a special word for internet-user: "internaut" (think "astronaut" and you get the context). The French are all the same scrambling to catch up. However, as I have been unable to ignore for the last couple of months, it is a rocky road.
Take for example Orange, formerly the state-owned PTT, or France Telecom. They still provide fixed-line installations, and the majority of internet connections in France. This year the ADSL came to our village, after us having collected the requisite 100 names for Orange to bother installing the necessary switches and other technology for broadband internet.
But several times each month, during daytime, the net simply disappears. For everyone, not only one or two surfers, but whole regions at a time. The first two times it happened, I called after a while to report a malfunction. The person answering at Orange was mildly surprised: "But monsieur, it eez just maintenance", she said. I almost fainted.
They actually – deliberately – shut off the internet for hundreds of thousands of people, companies, universities, private and public, to change a server or flip/unflip some switches?! If that had happened in Sweden, or South Korea, people would have been outraged. In France it didn't even register.
Shut off the TGV (the fast trains) and commuters get upset. Shut of the French motorways and truckers will become seriously pissed off. Shut off the internet, and there isn't a single protest. Weird, weird, weird.
Sometimes it gets more than absurd. This summer I was biking in the Southwest of France. We eventually ended up in Cap Ferret, a posh beach community south of Bordeaux, where the real estate is as expensive as in Paris. We went looking for an internet café.
Now, Cap Ferret isn't the biggest town in France, far from it. But it is one of the major tourist destinations in the summer, and in season it has *a lot* of visitors. There was ONE (1) internet café in Cap Ferret! When we finally found it, my friend went in to check his e-mail.
He came out looking slightly unfocused, and told me what happened:
– They have ONE computer inside, he said. There is a waiting list. The nice lady said I could have it for half an hour, tomorrow at noon.
At about that time I lost it and collapsed on the pavement, giggling.
Yes, I can assure you that all of this is true. Every word. And I haven't even begun to tell you of my experiences in Vietnam, one of the poorest countries in Asia, where there is broadband connection all over the country, and internet cafés everywhere, full of hooked-up computers and helpful, knowledgeable staff. Their former colonial masters should take note.
posted by Pelle at Wednesday, December 20, 2006
1 Comments:
Brilliant. It just sums it all up here.
I'm in Rennes & have a cable connection (the only one in my apartment block). It is regularly 'switched off' - recently for a week! Recent requests for forward warnings have fallen on deaf ears, apparently as it was off for another few hours last night.
The aversion to English is also evident when a French friend or student, already reasonably competent in English, does a search, in Google or elsewhere, obstinately refusing to try English search-words despite the possible 30 times more addresses returned (my rough average).
I teach English, and if I give my students a subject to research, they will inevitably bring in bad translations of French websites - a lot more work for them, but the obstinacy is amazing!
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