Author: shelbyriehle

How do the French view Americans: our culture and our country?

I heard more than once within my first two weeks from French counterparts, “We work to live while Americans live to work.” That definitely caught my attention. What I have gathered is that the French see Americans as overly preoccupied by money, success, and material goods. According to the French culture, at least according to the French individuals that I interacted with, the American obsession with work takes away from our appreciation of the other enjoyable aspects of living. This is actually represented in various social rules. For example, the French that I met were not worried about being exactly on time to class, events, or meals, whether that was 5 minutes or 30 minutes late, and they saw the American goal of being incredibly structured and on time as representative of our overly rigid cultural mindset ‘time is money’.

I particularly understand why the French may put a negative connotation toward the American value of work and success after better understanding the French culture. Within the French government and society, they place much importance on leisure. For example, offices in France typically close during lunch so that all workers can leave and enjoy a 1 and a half hour lunch either by themselves or with friends at a local cafe or bistro. There is a 35-hour full-time work week compared to the 40-hour week in the states. Wine is a staple at both lunches and dinners, and France is actually one of the leading producers of wine in the world. Governments both locally and nationally prioritize cultural identity and leisure by organizing festivals of music and arts as well as cultural centers. Walking or biking from place to place is common, especially in bigger cities. Every day and night, I walk through the city and see the value of the casual, slower pace of life. I see countless outdoor terraces filled with people, live music, glasses of wine, and both young and old French citizens enjoying delicious food and the company of their friends. In Tours particularly, most everyone at one point of another ventures out to the Ginguette, an outdoor venue right by the river which has dancing, concerts, and restaurants (and even a ferris wheel).

In terms of behaviors, I realize that the French often see Americans as being rather loud and outgoing, both in positive and negative ways. In a positive way, this means kind and agreeable, but in a negative way, this means obnoxious, entitled, or naive. Generally, this comes from the differences in cultural gestures, mannerisms, and rules of engaging. The French more generally put emphasis on being polite, respectful, not overly imposing; therefore, they are more familiar with reserved natures and are a bit taken aback by the perceived imposing personalities of Americans.

Politically, I was surprised to hear some of the opinions of my counterparts. They saw the USA as being more restricted in freedom than we believe, and more restricted in freedom relative to France. This makes sense when taking into account the French belief of the power of the people, as it holds more protests than any other country in Europe and holds some of the most large-scale protests of any country in the world. Further, my counterparts could not fathom the ubiquitous presence of arms and guns, as well as gun violence, within the US population, as guns are not widely desired or possessed by French citizens with the exception of those who hunt. However, with that being said, many French hold a respect for the United States and our influence within the world. They respect our economic power which drives parts of the world economy as well as sectors of our entertainment business, like Hollywood which is a hub of world-renowned music and cinema.

Just like any culture to another, there are certainly negative and positive regards held by the French culture towards Americans. And of course, there are widely ranging differences of beliefs between the French citizens towards Americans as well. Overall, I benefitted greatly from seeing my country from a new perspective and how cultural values bleed into society through the various social rules and opinions towards other cultures.

One thing I have noticed is a type of slang called verlan that I have only heard used by young French speakers. It comes from the word “envers” which means inverse. The word itself is inverted to create ‘verlan’. Essentially, this type of familiar language inverts syllables of words to create the new words. Some of the most popular examples are meuf, the inverse of the word “femme” which means woman as well as vénère which is the inverse of  “énérvé” and means angry. The verlan words always carry roughly the same significance as the original words but can have different connotations. In particular, I would never use verlan in writing or in any sort of professional or formal contexts. Typically it is only spoken and remains between ‘les jeunes’ (youth), although middle-aged and potentially more aged French speakers may be familiar with some verlan. It is considered not “la langue soutenu” or higher level language, and in a classroom setting, my professor would critique this type of speech. 

What I also noticed but did not expect is the amount of English words adopted into the French language as slang. These anglicismes are also used by young people informally in a manner similar to that of verlan. Notably, the majority of French young people have in the least an intermediate level of English due to their schooling but also a substantial colloquial understanding of English due to the popular consumption of American (and British English) media. Because of this, it is common for young French speakers to adopt various English words like crush (infatuation), date (go out with someone), and cool (impressive), which all carry the same significance as they do in English. There’s also other examples like ‘dead ça’ which means ‘killed it’ or ‘crushed it’ in French. My host mom, who is in retirement, has never used language like this, and I would not use any of this informal language with her because in the worst case scenario, she would find it rather offensive, and in the least, she would not be able to quite understand or relate. In fact, my host mentioned that she did not understand much English at all, which is different from the average French young person.

One of the main phrases I have picked up on that my host mom uses is “ça va te faire du bien/ça va te faire du mal”, which literally translates to ‘that will do you well, do you bad’. It is a versatile phrase which just essentially means that something will be helpful/good to you or not good/helpful to you. I picked up on how often she uses this phrase, and I gather that it is only used with people who one knows fairly well, as it is somewhat informal and not a phrase that I would use in the classroom or a social setting where higher professional language is required. 

A heartwarming example is that my host mom uses pet names for my roommate and I. She refers to me as ‘ma fille’ and refers to him as ‘mon grand’ which literally translates to ‘my girl’ and ‘my big’ but intuitively acts as terms of endearment. I find it sweet, and it makes me feel more comfortable in her home.

Based on my prior stereotypical expectations of the French diet, I expected to encounter a fair amount of bread, as baguettes are often the symbol of French cuisine in American media, yet what I have come to quickly realize is that bread is truly a significant, foundational part of the French diet. In fact, à mon avis (in my opinion), the French have perfected the art of bread-making after over more than a couple centuries of practice. 

Thus far, one of my favorite ways of exploring the city has been venturing with friends to a different boulangerie, or bread shop, each day for lunch. In the city of Tours, you can’t travel more than a block without coming across a boulangerie, each attracting the eye and the nose as much as the next. Peaking through the boulangerie windows, you’ll typically find an array of beautiful pastries to draw in customers. There’s the mille-feuille, a layered dessert of puff-pastry and custard, chocolate eclairs, macarons, fruit and custard tarts, and more. You also can’t ignore the other pastry staples like the pain au chocolat, a croissant with a chocolate filling. Above all, on the wall behind, you find the wall of breads, a variety of artisanal loaves which send the nutty aroma that lingers all throughout the shops. Most notably, there is the baguette, which directly translates to ‘stick’ or ‘baton’ in English, as well as the brioche, a softer, sweeter loaf made with eggs and butter, and the pain de campagne, the ‘country bread’ that is a type of sourdough and typically shaped round. The bread is then accompanied by a plethora of sandwich options, usually with a type of fresh cheese, cured meat (such as ham), tomato, or added sauce. My personal favorite right now has been a sandwich called ‘le végé brie’. The base is a whole grain sourdough bread with pesto, fresh sliced brie cheese, tomatoes, and leafy greens. If I’m being honest, it is probably the best sandwich I have ever had in my life (especially compared to the peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches I was used to eating for school lunches from grade school into college).

Yesterday, my professor took our class on a field trip to a local institution centered around cuisine education. We dove into cookbooks and guidebooks which particularly opened my eyes to the aspect of precision involved in the baguette-making process. The bread’s final quality is of the utmost importance, so french bakers make sure first and foremost to pay close attention to where they source the flour. During the process, bakers measure, mix (to develop the gluten), divide, proof, mold, proof again, score (create thin slices on the top), steam bake, and then bake the bread normally. In the end, it is critical that the bread be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, as well as 60 to 70 centimeters long. In terms of ingredients, there is actually a French law, created in 1993, that states the traditional baguette must be baked at the location where it is sold and only consist of wheat flour, water, yeast, and salt.

At the local train station in Tours, I actually found a baguette vending machine. While I let out a chuckle at first, it made me realize just how ubiquitous the baguette, and bread in general, are in France both throughout the country tangibly and also within its culture. I have noticed that my host mom has incorporated bread into nearly every meal she has served to me: baguette and a slice of brioche accompanied by jam and butter at breakfast, meat and salad with baguette slices at dinner. She also told me how she only gets her bread, as well as her vegetables, fruits, and meats, from the market, which is entirely locally sourced, so it is clear how quality of the products and the bread in particular are incredibly important to her. In fact, she even apologized to me when she felt that the bread was a tiny bit stale (which had gone completely unnoticed to me). 

I learned a bit of the history behind the French bread and the baguette. Bread was a staple of the French diet dating back to the 1700’s, requiring almost ¾ of the average household budget at the time. The color of the bread, based on the flour from which it was sourced, began to represent social class. The rich had access to the fine, white bread, whereas the poor and working class were left with the darker grain bread. After a period of economic struggle, the poor faced starvation and lacked quality bread, which of course had been the base of their diet. This essentially incited a national revolution, and after the fact, a legislation was passed that proclaimed there would be no difference between bread served to the rich and the poor, a “bread of equality”. The number of bread specialists and artisans began to increase. Eventually, a law was passed that prohibited workers and bakers from working before 4am, so the bakers created a baguette which did not require overnight preparation. As a result of this law and the invention of the steam oven at this time, the baguette quickly began its journey to becoming a staple in the French kitchen.

In general, it is clear just how valuable the baguette and artisan bread remain in the French identity. There are countless common colloquial expressions centered around bread such as ‘long comme un jour sans pain’ (long/difficult like a day without bread) and ‘partir comme des petites pains’ (selling like bread (quickly)). President Emmanual Macron sums up the value of bread perfectly in his comments, “The baguette is the envy of the whole world… This excellence and this savoir faire must be preserved.”