This semester I’ve had the pleasure of teaching a course that compares French/American culture. During my research for this class, I discovered a new book on the subject of French/American relations by Pascal Baudry, called French and Americans: The Other Shore . Baudry, like many people who have written on the French/American topic, has extensive experience in both the US and France, and previously worked as a psychoanalyst in France. Baudry’s book is essentially written for the French, to explain to them their own culture and help them understand some of the basic foundations of American culture. One of his ideas that I’ve found particularly intriguing is the concept of implicit vs. explicit culture. Baudry claims that French culture is inherently implicit, meaning that there are many codes that are not transparent to the uninitiated observer. This is contrasted with American culture, which is much more explicit. This idea of implicitness permeates many facets of Fr...