The Gallic Shrug

I suppose everyone is aware of the infamous Gallic shrug, and unlike many stereotypical characteristics, it not only exists but is an essential tool in the conversational armoury of a French speaker.

Before I lived in France, I had a concept of the Gallic shrug as a gesture encompassing an attractively laid-back attitude; a wry, "Well, that's just the way things are and it's not worth getting your knickers in a twist about it"; a charming counterpoint to the Anglo-Saxon drive to fix everything. It was laissez-faire and c'est la vie and que sera, sera.

The reality of the Gallic shrug is subtly but crucially different. After 10 years here, I have mastered its use. This is what it is really for:

The shrug is a way of disavowing responsibility. The shrug says "Look, you are not seriously expecting me to try to sort this out for you?". The shrug says "Oh, for goodness' sake, it's five to twelve and I want my lunch and I really can't be bothered to try to find a way around this problem". The shrug says "Please, do not attempt to lay this issue at my door because I am perfectly sure without even thinking about it that it must be somebody else's business and not mine".

It is a powerful tool and its judicious use can work wonders. When faced with a builder playing dumb about unsatisfactory work, an obstinate shop-worker refusing a refund for faulty goods, a local government official pursing his lips about some trifling irrregularity in his paperwork or similar, there is no mileage in insisting too forcefully on your rights or pointing out the idiocy of their stance. Simply sit back, adopt a polite and rather vague half-smile and then at just the right moment, throw them a shrug. It will, almost without fail, neatly volley the ball out of your court and back into theirs.

Just make sure you get your shrug in first, though.