You are walking down the street and someone in front of you discards some trash on the sidewalk. - Vous marchez dans la rue et quelqu'un devant vous jette un papier gras sur le trottoir.
Henri - 08:13am Nov 2, 2004
Qu'est-ce que l'on peut faire, ce sont des actes anodins qui entraînent la saleté dans nos villes. Chaque personne est responsable de ses actes donc c'est à chacun de prendre ses responsabilités et de respecter sa ville.
Delphnie - 08:29am Nov 2, 2004
En effet, chaque personne est responsable de ses actes, mais apparemment certaines n'ont pas encore intégrer toutes les notions. Les français et les américains sont partagés entre le fait d'ignorer la situation ou de réagir. Personnellement, si je prends la presonne en flag et qu'elle est à deux pas de moi je lui fais remarquer qu'il existe des poubelles et que les trottoirs ne sont pas des décharges publiques.
Pablo - 08:36am Nov 2, 2004
Je pense que aujourd'hui il faut agir contre ce type de pollution et surtout je fais la rémarque quand je vois le cas du maître et chien à paris, "c'est dégueulasse"...tu ne peut pas marcher tranquille sans marche sur une crotte.
gregory - 08:46am Nov 2, 2004
Suivez Pablo, Vote for "World Wide Forest"!!
pierrehokayem - 08:49am Nov 2, 2004
en fait ,ce que j'ai trouvé bizarre que il ya des gens qui vont donner des conseils en leur prechant,, je ne trouve pas une tres bonne idée ,car c'est pas a nous de faire apprendre la politesse aux gens et de leur conseiller ,moi dans cette situation je prefere continuer mon chemin tranquillement et je fais semblant que j'ai rien vu,
Edgar - 04:53am Nov 3, 2004
Personally, I think reactions are different depending on where you are. For example, if you live in a clean, nice suburb (remember, American forums are not like French suburbs), then if you see someone throw something in the street, you may not like it too much.
However, if you come from a heavily populated city, then garbage is always on the street. For example, if I see someone in New York throw something in the street, I would disagree since I was raised with principles, however at the same time I would think it's normal because everyone does it. That is why New York has an extremely serious rat problem.
So, in summary, I think a person's reaction depends on where they live, what principles they were raised with, among other things.
Megan - 11:59pm Nov 3, 2004
I thought it was interesting how on the American side, a lot of the people responded that they would pick it up "if it wasn't too gross," or something similar to that, yet on the French side, if the response was "pick it up" then there were no strings attached. Is this true, or is it just that the Americans stated what the French assumed?
Angela - 04:02am Nov 4, 2004
seems the attitude is remarkably similar overall, given that many people said they would do nothing, several said they'd say something, and several said they'd pick it up. The most noticeable difference was that more of the french would request that the person pick it up, while more of the americans would pick it up themselves.
this similarity actually surprised me, because I was warned when i went to paris that often people would throw trash in the gutters of streets because they clean the gutters every day. should i assume that this isn't generally the attitude after all? i can't really distinctly remember whether i actually observed this occuring while i was there or not.
Frances - 08:12am Nov 4, 2004
Though some MIT students indicated that they would confront the person, it seems most would either pick it up (contingent on it's not being too gross!) or do nothing. I would probably not say anything to the person because I am very hesitant to confront a stranger for fear that they could become violent or otherwise unpleasant. From reading the responses to this situation and others, it seems the French are less inhibited about approaching strangers. Is this the case? For others, if you would not confront the person, why not? Pièrre mentions that it's not his place to give advice to the person and would continue to walk by. Is this the main reason, or are there other reasons why one ignores the situation?