I worked on EU business across 8 countries and talked seriously to hundreds of people.
Some liked the English and some did not. Many respected us and our history, especially the defeat of nazism. But my abiding impression was that we baffled them. They struggled to understand us culturally.
There are several reasons for this of which the most important is exemplified in our completely different legal systems. Theirs is a codified system with roots in Roman law and more recently in Napoleonic codes. Their stance is have a rule for everything, don't worry too much about compliance, but come down hard when a breach results in serious harm. Ours is have as few rules as possible, but comply at all times. In business terms, that made agreement difficult to reach. How on earth do you live without a constitution they would ask. We have one, I would reply, it is just scattered across many common law decisions and some conventions, but you wont find a codified version anywhere.
Finally, they thought we were an old tired power still with a touch of big player arrogance. (I laughed at that coming from the French).
They were genuinely shocked at Brexit and were sure the gov would not implement it. They were happy with May's super soft brexit and Boris just boggled them and confused them with his hard stance. They still cannot quite believe it.
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