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>>Thank you for clarifying this. I thought (mistakenly) that in french as in Russian there is the same word for "please" and "you are welcome".
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>Like the German "bitte" and, I think, the Dutch "uistubleift" (sp?)

When I was stationed in Germany I would say "Thank you" and they would respond "Please." It took a little while to get used to, but I've talked about several times to describe the way people learn foreign languages.