In the collective American mind, the French are complainers. We suggest that the stereotype of the French complainer could be partially constructed by a discrepancy in the use of indirect complaints in conversation in each culture. Indeed, “to complain” is a strategy considered both risky and useful in a social context according to previous pragmatic research. Therefore, teaching the strategies to favor and to avoid in each country could help improve intercultural skills and limit the creation of bad perceptions. By collecting authentic conversations during “Speed Friending” events organized in France and in the United-States, we have been able to analyze the use of complaints in each corpus. Although the global quantity of complaining was nearly the same in both corpora, we have observed interesting differences related to the object of the complaints.