email from my french coworker regarding my move

after sending out a goodbye email to let everyone know i was moving to england, a french colleague sent this response:

Good luck in England! I am sorry for you that you have to live there. Fortunately that at least means that you will be closer to so many wonderful places, as soon as you cross the sea or the Adrian wall.

uhhhh?!?! who sends a response like that after i made it clear that i was excited about this move?! 

 

That is shocking! I'm sorry you had to receive that!

Could she just be joking? The old French vs. English rivalry?

A mean response would be: 'Thanks for your kind wishes!  It could be worse; at least I'm not moving to France!'  But of course you would never stoop to her level. 

Could she just be joking? The old French vs. English rivalry?

That was my first reaction too.  Especially if English isn't his/her first language, perhaps they were just trying to make a humorous comment which fell really really flat via email?  Given that they started out by wishing you good luck, my hunch is that the follow-up comment wasn't meant seriously.  

I don't use a ton of smiley faces when writing email, but they do do wonders in situations like this where the intent could very easily be misconstrued if the recipient doesn't realize that the message was intended to be a joke.  Too bad your colleague didn't include something that could have cleared it up.

That being said, it could also be true that this person is just rude and annoying, in which case you should be glad to not have to work with them anymore!  

im thinking that maybe your coworker is sorry that youre leaving......at least thats the way i took it

Knowing the French, it's said with tongue in cheek. I don't think he/she is being serious. I'd probably follow up by joking about it the next time I see him/her ("It's gonna be tough, but I'll have to make due!" kind of thing...)

I was having brunch with a very close friend who is French about a week or so before I moved to England. She proceeded to spend the entire time telling me how much I was going to hate it and how awful the English people are. Then she finished off with a, 'But, I'm sure you'll have a great time!'

I haven't spoken to her since.

This sounds like a joke to me. My English husband speaks the same way about Scotland. (He really thinks Scotland is beatiful.)

What your friend said about England was tame compared to what comes out of my mum-in-laws mouth when she speaks of France and the French.  Won't elaborate, but it has something to do with the reason the French created perfume. She is not joking either.  She has an absolute disdain for them.  Of course, I wasn't too impressed with the reaction I got from a few of the French when they found out I was married to a Brit and living in England, while on holiday in France.

I'd say (also based on years of studying the French and their language, history, culture, etc) that her tongue was firmly in her cheek and that the French and English have been squabbling for centuries, but that doesn't mean that they all truly hate each other.  It was meant as a joke, try not to be offended.

thanks for all of the replies...

after looking more closely, i do see how this could have been meant as a joke or how the language barrier could have affected the way it came off as... it just really caught me off-guard though--I hardly even know this man!  I think we've spoken maybe three times ever.   

Hmm...I wonder if he meant Hadrian's Wall?

Hmm...I wonder if he meant Hadrian's Wall?

in that case, did he mean that all would be okay if i were to go to scotland instead of england? 

in that case, did he mean that all would be okay if i were to go to scotland instead of england? 

Apparently so.