The British greetings that confuse and annoy French people – and one way we say hello that makes them CRINGE

A French woman living in the UK has been left baffled by a number of British greetings – and even revealed it took her ‘months’ to become ‘comfortable’ with a common form of endearment.

Lucille Joffre, who lives in London, regularly delves into lighthearted cultural and social differences between Britain and France in videos uploaded to her TikTok page, @lucille_joffre. 

In a recent video, shared with her 200,000 following, the Parisian discussed forms of typical British greetings, including how people embrace one another and say ‘hello.’ 

Lucille admitted that when she first moved to London, she experienced difficulty in adjusting to Brits hugging one another, as she said: ‘It took me months to be comfortable with hugging people to say hello.’

‘I don’t even hug people I know. I know it doesn’t make sense because we French people do “la bise,” which is kissing on both cheeks, but hugging is too much of an invasion of personal space. If you go to France – just kiss people!’ 

Next, the content creator took aim at Brits who say ‘Nice to meet you’ within ‘two seconds of meeting someone.’ 

Lucille added: ‘The French word for that is “enchanté,” but we won’t say it unless we really mean it.’

She toyed: ‘And I guess we won’t really say it the start of the conversation because we don’t know yet if it’s nice to meet you.’

Lucille Joffre, from Paris, admitted that when she first moved to London, she experienced difficulty in adjusting to Brits hugging one another

Lucille’s third and final gripe with quintessentially British greetings involves the phrase: ‘How is it going?’ 

She exclaimed: ‘”Hey how’s it going?” How is what going?! My life?! My day?!’ 

Over 120 viewers flocked to the comment section to share their thoughts, as one Brit joked: ‘How do you cope when someone says “Alright?”‘

Another observed: ‘I think some of these things are American imports… hugging never used to be a thing & “how you doing?” very US.’ 

A third shared: ‘I’m English and I don’t hug anyone to say hello. I get awkward when some of my friends try.’ 

Meanwhile, one American viewer, who agreed with Lucille, wrote: ‘Couldn’t get used to Brits saying “you okay?” as in how are you?, in the States that would mean “what’s wrong?”‘

But another argued: ‘Yeah kissing is more intrusive than hugging from US point of view too

Finally, one person who has lived in the UK for over two decades, said: ‘I still don’t like hugging, or rather, it still doesn’t come naturally to me, and I’ve been in the UK 23 years.’

Next, the content creator took aim at Brits who say ‘Nice to meet you’ within ‘two seconds of meeting someone’

Over 120 viewers flocked to the comment section to share their thoughts, as one Brit joked: ‘How do you cope when someone says “Alright?”‘

It comes after Lucille revealed two ‘efficient’ elements of administration in Britain that have left her pleasantly surprised as person from France.  

In a video shared with her 200,000 following, the content creator was left lost for words after experiencing the swift arrival of an important document that she claimed would otherwise take much longer to receive in France.

In the clip, she said: ‘I think it’s very funny when English people complain about administration here being outdated, slow and painful – um… don’t move to France.’

She playfully described her native country as ‘living in medieval times, travelling by carriage and sending your mail by pigeon’ due to its reportedly slow postal deliveries.

Upon her arrival in the UK, Lucille explained she had made an appointment with her local job centre to get assigned a National Insurance number for work.

Following the appointment, she received her NI number in the mail ‘a week later,’ leaving her dumbfounded.

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk