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Blog Post #6: Themes, Threads, and Thoughts

Hello again! I am officially back in the United States and am still a little jet lagged from all the travel. One of the benefits of my extensive layovers and long flights, though, was that I had quite a bit of time to reflect on my experience studying and living in France. In some ways, my last blog post covered some of the deeper thoughts and take-aways I have had, but I thought here I would share a list of other reflections from my time in Grenoble. 

  • Learning a language is a humbling experience that requires a high degree of patience and embracing the unknown. My pride definitely took a hit each time I attempted to ask new questions and engage in conversation with native French speakers. But those were of course the times my language skills developed the most. 
  • Words are one of so many ways we can communicate meaning. Oftentimes, when I struggled to understand what my instructor or a stranger was trying to say to me, I relied on their body language, gesturing, and the context of the conversation. This is helpful for me to remember as I continue trying to work as a teacher myself.
  • Stereotypes often go both ways and it usually takes getting to know people on an individual basis to break them. Most people appear to have a bias towards their homeland and way of life, and I found it usually takes friendship and/or deep conversation to question negative assumptions about others’. 
  • “Culture” is a hard word to define in the twenty-first century West. Discerning the line between French and American culture is difficult when Burger King, Hollywood movies, L’Oreal, Michelin, and many other American and French companies/productions have a good deal of influence in both places (and around the globe). Getting to know a smaller Catholic community of French mountain-lovers helped me remember that it is neither possible nor productive to label a nation as all one thing or another. In France as in the United States, there are so many layers to and of community; whether it be a mountain range or national park, a dialect or a tradition, a religion or a football team, the Constitution or national history, there are also myriad sources of identity in both places. It was neat for me to see bluntly that even thousands of miles and a language barrier does not take away this reality.

These are just some of the many thoughts I have had upon returning home. I look forward to continuing to reflect on my experience in the years ahead––both at Notre Dame and back in France. Thank you so much to anyone who took the time to read any of my posts this summer!

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Halfway

In my time so far in Japan, I definitely think the biggest difference I’ve noticed is the overall desire to not impact those around you, lest you disturb the general public and inconvenience others. This is very different than in America, where normally in my experience it’s accepted for someone to act the way they want to even if it does impact others. Thus, there is definitely a stereotype that Americans take up more physical and audible space than they should. I definitely have to agree with this, as this is an auto-stereotype I also hold. While I definitely appreciate if it were a social taboo to speak too loudly or even speak at all on public transport in America, I can’t imagine this ever happening. This is to say this stereotype is very firmly founded on experience, as the few times I have heard locals being too loud on the train it was either a child or a very drunk person. I think in America we’re not as used to (or at least not conscious of) the most seemingly innocent actions bothering others as we on average in a much more spread out country and thus aren’t impacted as profoundly by those around us. Still, I do find it inexcusable how loud much of the world is, and it does get very annoying having to remind a certain few people not to speak at a volume where they can probably be heard from across the building. The other big difference is in the amount of physical space we take up. I definitely see where this stereotype comes from although I don’t really agree with it, unlike the first one. I think this stereotype comes from two places: first, most Americans are physically bigger than most Japanese people (at least in my observation) and second, most Americans take up more space on their work or school desks when they work because there is more space. The first reason is definitely true, but in my experience the second isn’t, as I’ve met fewer messy and sprawling people here, although there certainly are a fair few. On the first point, I’ve noticed that people here tend to be in better shape, not only just to be in better health but also because its rude in a sense to take up too much space. In my daily commute on the subway, a few stops before I have to get off the train becomes fully packed, as in you literally cannot move because there are too many people. In this environment, taking up too much space prevents people from getting not he train and could make them late for school or work. Also, those who do have seats always in my experience try to take the minimum comfortable amount of space in order to fit more people onto the train. In this sense, a lot of us do take up too much space. The second idea, however, I don’t see as fully true. I definitely have seen tourists taking up too much space on a seat on or a sidewalk, although in my experience most people do not do this, and therefore I don’t have as much to say about this.

As for a stereotype I held, I’ve thought for most of my life that most Japanese people are kind of cold and will avoid others. While that is true to some degree, namely in my experience from older people, I don’t think it is that true overall, or at least in certain environments. A lot of Japanese restaurants only seat around 10 or less people in a confined area, and in my experience even if people are in different groups they will interact occasionally between groups. Every time I have been to an Izakaya (kind of like a traditional Japanese bar) people have always been very friendly and talkative towards me while still respecting boundaries by not talking too excessively. Also, I’ve talked to a bunch of younger people at night on the street, and I definitely think for people my age this stereotype is untrue.

I do think it’s interesting how often we tend to make generalizations and stereotypes about not just other groups but ourselves as well, as I think generally we do so in order to have a blueprint for how to interact with a certain person. Of course, they carry negative connotations, but at least in my experience times where I could obviously tell that someone held a stereotype about me the experience often was not negative, although I know this is different for many others. I also found it interesting that even when traveling across vast swaths of land, stereotypes about foreigners tended to remain the same. My experience has definitely made me consider more the numerous generalizations I hold about foreigners and has also made me want to find out why many people do things that I find strange, as there is almost always a good reason for differences in standard everyday behavior.

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Blog Post #5 – Analyzing Cultural Dimensions

One cultural dimension I have thought about while being in Costa Rica is “Indulgence – Restraint.” People here seem to express emotions and creative personality more than in the US. I first realized that I go to a school filled with art majors, who publicly express their creativity through school projects or even the way they dress (everyone’s a fashionista, then there’s me with my athletic shirt and shorts everyday because it’s hot out). As another example, there was a day when my host family each had different things making us stressed and irritable. We all ended up blurting these things over our afternoon coffee in the kitchen. In the US, with my family and friends, we typically avoid sharing stress and worries if we think it will add stress to someone else’s life. We really have to pry to get each other to talk about feelings back home. Here people seem much more indulgent, at least from these examples of sharing feelings and expressing personality.

In addition, I’ve realized that there is a difference between the US and Costa Rica’s Short – Long Term Time Orientations. When I meet someone my age in the US they usually ask what I’m studying and, almost immediately, what do I plan to do with that. Here people ask what I’m studying and the response is “aaah que bueno.” It feels like that response tells them a bit about me and that is enough. Even when my host brother and I talk about our plans for the future, the conversation always comes back to center on what we’re doing right now and why we’re currently in good shape. The culture here seems much more oriented towards on the present moment and the short term, whereas back home, and especially in college, we are oriented to have a one year plan, a five year, plan, and a 10 year plan.

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Cultural Incidents (Paris, the city of love)


Looking at the theme for today’s blog post and considering what I am about to write, I think my readers should determine if it is a cultural incident or not.
Hearing the phrase Paris, the city of love and actually witnessing the love is amazing. Now, I feel this is a cultural incident because it is very much different from my country of origin. Don’t get me wrong, couples show affection for each other but in France, I am a witness to the fact that they love public displays of affection for their partners/spouses.

On my arrival to France, I noticed couples (French) always holding hands and I thought to myself “these are probably just lucky couples”. Getting to my city of residence, it was like a Nigerian slang “the pressure is getting worser”. I could literally see most couples working hand in hand.
I reside in Vichy, a few minutes walk from the famous Napoleon III park. Whenever I am at the park, I take pictures of lovely couples, mostly elderly, and gradually I fell into the habit of doing so in order to prove my point.
Compared to the society I was born into, men and women rarely display affection in public. We see it as being “disciplined” or having control over our emotions/feelings.

This can be likened to the cultural metaphor of a computer’s inbuilt software. Every command carried out is based on the configuration of its CPU. The French see public display of affection as being normal. From our point of view, it can be seen as letting people see too much of their private lives. I do not disagree with holding hands though. It is possible that it has always been that way; children imitate their parents and the cycle goes on and on. In the same vein, we imitate our parents’ stance on public affection and the cycle goes on till someone decides to change the order of events.
I see both cultures as unconsciously imbibed which has succeeded in becoming a core part of our existence.

In all, not just Paris, but France in its entirety, is a country of love!

Picture evidence of PDA