Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences 
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I am french, married to an american, in the U.S. for 3 years. About the french superiority complex, you are right, fench rudeness?, also…After much pondering of the question I came to a conclusion concerning the incessant french/american ‘clashes’: I believe that in essence we can not stand each other because eventhough we are very different in terms of cultural forms, french and americans are the SAME in terms of national psyche: they both have a somewhat hypertrophied national ego, they both have a tendancy to believe that nothing worthwile happens beyond their borders, they are both fairly self-satisfied, self-centered if not self-absorbed, they both have a more or less justified propension to consider that they are ‘All That’…. I find here in the U.S. every collective psychological features which used to get on my nerves when I was in France…And what happens when you put 2 people with the same defects in the same room? Soon enough, they are biting each other’s heads…
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Name : Vincent Durbin, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian Scientist, Age : 36, City : Santa Barbara, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Front desk clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,The cult of ‘thinness’ is still restricted to western cultures.Now, if you look at other parts of the world, the middle east for instance, the ideal is the woman in her early thirties, dark hair, ‘antelope’ eyes, luscious lips and -very important- a fair degree of ‘plumpness’ or ’roundness’, which is perceived as a sign of health and wealth (unrestricted access to food) and also reassures men on her ability to be a mother. if you have cable, look at the middle eastern news or entertainment broadcasts, you will be edified…Some of their most popular female singers and dancers (belly dancing is a respected art, and its stars are revered) are sometimes just down right fat by western standards. My maroccan and algerian friends at college were all atracted to the plump type, some of them even told me that the european model type was unattractive Same thing in Africa….
User Detail :
Name : Vincent Durbin, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian Scientist, Age : 36, City : Santa Barbara, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Front desk clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,VERY TRUE! I am french and I can tell you that parisian people do not necesserily have the best reputation in France for courteousness. Personnally I was dreading having to drive in Paris because drivers are so impatient and agressive. I can’t exactly say I had the time of my life with parisians met in the street either…
User Detail :
Name : Vincent Durbin, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian Scientist, Age : 36, City : Santa Barbara, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Front desk clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,I am french and i had a hard time dealing with the ‘Smile Thing’: in the U.S. , smiling is an element of the social language, like a handshake or a ‘how are you doing today’, no more no less. It does not necessarily imply that the person smiling has actually something to smile about. In France, a smile is a reflection of your internal emotionnal state, it is a element of your PERSONNAL -if not intimate- emotionnal vocabulary and is not meant to obey considerations of social appropriateness. Americans have a problem with ‘rude’ french people not smiling: for their french conterparts, smiling is a personnal expression which does not have to be included in the field of social interaction, it does not mean they are in a bad mood, it does not mean they don’t like you, it just means that for the time being they have nothing to smile ABOUT. If they do, they WILL… Inversely the ‘american’ smile is perceived as a commercial (fake) smile, dictated by social contingencies, a sort of prostitution of your emotionnal expressions not very far from hypocrisy… As an example, I was totally stunned when, starting to work in customer service in the U.S., my manager asked me to smile,… as a part of my job! I just could not believe he asked me that! Why would I have to fake an eminently personnal expression of myself to comply with a JOB!? I did not get it until I realized that…
User Detail :
Name : Vincent Durbin, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian Scientist, Age : 36, City : Santa Barbara, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Front desk clerk, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,
