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0 pointsjacquesm13y ago0 comments

False Dichotomy.

Hello dear French Person,

We have taken your offer under consideration and have decided we are not interested.

Experience has taught us that we can produce cheaper in Asia which is why we are not going to set up a manufacturing base in Europe.

best regards,

No fake smile, not an ass.

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5 comments · 2 top-level

pcrh13y ago· 3 in thread

You forgot:

Je vous prie de bien vouloir agréer, Monsieur, l'expression de mes honnêtes et respectueuses salutations.

jacquesmOP13y ago

There is a note of subtlety there that I find hard to translate but my French interpreter detects a very subtle note of sarcasm in that carefully worded salutation.

When you've been insulted you can insult back by throwing rotten fish or you can insult back by being very explicitly correct and I sense this is some slight variation of that. Maybe someone who is more experienced in French can confirm or deny that.

pcrh13y ago

Actually, the sarcasm would only be perceived by an Anglophone. That is a fairly standard salutation in French, further, it is one that indicating that the recipient is of higher status than the sender. French salutations are notoriously flowery and with complex rules (which I have probably gotten wrong here, being primarily an Anglophone myself).

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guizzy13y ago

It's a very formal salutation. Its inclusion in an otherwise informal message is very sarcastic, and most native french speakers would take it as such.

That's actually what the minister did in his reply.

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brousky13y ago

I think he felt it necessary to explain in greater details why buying this distressed factory made no sense. If you can read the comments (http://commentaires.lesechos.fr/commentaires.php?id=02025770...) the vast majority said they're very happy to see someone bluntly tell the government what the majority of French people understood a long time ago but can't say publicly because it's taboo to talk about business, productivity and how the big unions are costing more jobs then they're saving.

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