Skip to main content

Introduction: Why Compare Cultures?

Can we ever really compare cultures? Is it fruitful to say the US does X, and France does Y?

In a conversation with a friend the other day, he brought up that this comparison between France and the US is like comparing apples and oranges.

And yet, it's something I hear French people constantly do, and something I'm obviously doing in this blog. So is this a useful exercise, or are we just looking to draw parallels that don't exist?

It's true that every culture is unique and I think can only be fully grasped in its context. When taken out of this, it becomes meaningless, or much harder to decode. I think of my students watching American films and series and not catching many of the social codes because it's not understood in context, with enough background on American culture.

We can say that this is where stereotypes come from. After all, as Raymonde Carroll puts it well in her book Evidences Invisibles, stereotypes are really just examples of misunderstandings between two cultures. If I say the French typically do X, I'm saying just as much about Americans (and what we don't do) as I am about the French.

I also think that cultural comparison is like language. There are times when it may not be incredibly productive to compare France and the US (say if someone wants to argue that Americans are racist, a statement I've heard often over here). For me, this is in the same way that our native language can cause interference and sometimes, bad, literal translations into a second language.

And yet, I also think these 'bad translations' are inevitable. Our own culture is what we know, and we can't avoid using it as a model to understand a new culture, anymore than we can't avoid using our native language to help us understand the workings of a different language. 

In terms of language, it's important to note where the two diverge (in French we say x but in English we say y). But in culture, I think it's important to explore why and for what possible reasons are the two different?

This is never a finished discussion and it's fraught with possibilities for overgeneralization. Nevertheless, I think the exercise in itself is what's important. Even if you don't end up with a satisfying explanation for why Americans do this and the French do that, the fact that you're interested in understanding in the first place is what matters to me.


If you're here, I hope this kind of understanding is what you're looking for.

Comments

  1. I'm so happy to get a link to your blog because I've missed you these past four years and am looking forward to hearing what's going on in your life. But you should know it took me ages to figure out who JJ (in my head: Jay Jay) could be :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. hooray, can't wait for more to read about! - shi mei

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay! A blog! I couldn't agree more that it's all in the details. The cultural differences are sometimes all the more surprising because of the outside similarities. Looking forward to reading about your experiences :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jess--Can't believe it has taken me this long to read your blog. Merci mille fois pour l'invitation! J'adore tes observations! Continue! Je t'embrasse!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simple comme bonjour

The title of this post Simple comme bonjour (literally 'easy as hello') is a French expression used to mean that something is easy, roughly the equivalent of 'easy as pie' in English.  There are certain things that you need to know in order to function in society in France, and especially, in order to be treated like a normal human being by others. One of these is the importance of greetings and closings, or more specifically, the use of hello and goodbye. This may sound silly, but don’t be fooled.   It is, in my opinion, one of the most important social cues in France. And without prior cultural knowledge, there's nothing simple about it.  Hello and goodbye (bonjour and au revoir) structure your interaction with just about anyone in France.  When I get onto an elevator with a stranger, I say hello and goodbye. When I enter a store, the clerk and I both say ‘hello’ and make eye contact. And obviously, when I meet up with friends or family, I will also

Taking on l'éducation nationale

The past two weeks in France could seem strange to a tourist visiting the country: within days streets that were empty for weeks while most of the country was on vacation all of a sudden became busy again. It’s that time of year again: back to school!  La rentrée (literally the return, or rather, start of the school year) is no small matter in France. Rather than a progressive return to school over the course of a month or so (as I would describe the process in the U.S.), back to school in France happens all on the same day (September 4 this year).  This, like many other things in France, is due to high centralization and the massive establishment that is known as l’éducation nationale. In keeping with the cultural interest of this blog, I’d like to begin to dig into this beast that is l’éducation nationale. As a foreigner, I’ve been lucky to get an inside look into the school system here, both at the high school and university levels. I’m convinced, from what I’ve seen so

Getting Information in France: A Scavenger Hunt

I'm now in the always dreary and often stressful process of renewing my residence card here in France. I have to renew it every year, as this is one of the policies for non-European residents. A familiar scene happened the other day when I began to search for some answers to questions about my particular case, which requires changing the status of my residence card. My first technique was to call directly the administrative office where I would submit my application (called the préfecture ). I got no answer, even after calling four different numbers, several times. The line answering machine, however, suggested a general number, which I called promptly.  First thing after calling, it was announced that I would pay 15 cents/minute for the call, and that my waiting time was under 2 minutes. When I finally got to talk to a person, I realized that this is a general number for all of France, and not specific to my region (where procedures can be a little different). So esse