Originally Posted by
ChristiaanJ
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I should know.... I spent about half my life in France, and most of that in the aviation industry.... I still remember being baffled, when I first arrived here, by the confusing use of so many near-synonyms in documentation and reports.
If one comes from a Nordic or Germanic country, it used to be quite a difference. Not that much anymore, at least with the latter....
A French intellectual may say that:
French have a somewhat different education, in that arts, prose and poetry have a more important role than in other educational systems
French have a Balzac, a Hugo, a Proust, to name a few, which are revered more by the regular people than in other cultures significant writers would be....
French are more artistically and romantically oriented relative to their practical orientation. That shows, that even the simplest technical writing can become a little piece of art prose, with turns and meanders, rather than a very practical, straight forward, concise, easy to read piece of information.
That's what a French intellectual may say...