I have been studying the cultural differences between European countries for many years. I have lived in 5 EU countries (UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain) and learned each language, which helped a lot analysing cultural differences. I also come from a small country (Belgium) with 3 cultures/languages and lived from 30min to 1h away by car from 4 countries (France, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands).
As a native French speaker with a culturally French education, and having been countless times in France, I know France almost as well as a French person. Not being French helps me see the country as an outsider and clearly seeing what is typically French from what is not. I will thus start this discussion about European cultures with France. I have read several times and would like to recommend you the 2 following books about European cultures by Richard Hill. I have met the author, bought the books from him, and I can say that I agree on almost every sentence he wrote : EuroManagers & Martians and We Europeans.
This little introduction is in itself very French. I will proceed point by point, sometimes introducing a comparison, to define what makes the French what they are. Please understand that when talking about cultures, we have to generalise, and that the view given is what is regarded as normal in a particular country, rather than unusual. It does not work for everyone. It's just a trend and may change with time (over generations).
1) The French like complicated things.
In a political debate on French TV, it was once said "In France it is simple to complicate things, but complicated to simplify them". This summarises to the perfection one of the fundamental aspects of French culture.
- Illustration :
- Example : The Economist describes the French tax system to be of 'fiendish complexity'. They cite, for instance over 40 deductions in the French pay-slip, as opposed to just 2 in Britain.
2) The French are theoretical. They prefer rhetoric, abstractions and ideas to facts and practical thinking.
- if Shakespeare had been a Frenchman, he would have said : "To be or not to be, that is the question. But the question is badly formulated."
- The French favour design over practicality. They like innovation for the sake of creativity, even when there is no practical need for it. (btw, this is all the opposite of the Japanese)
- The French raison d'etre is "measured intellectual performance".
3) The French political dilemma : an autocratic egalitarian society.
They claim to follow the 18th-century Revolutionary values of "liberty, equality and fraternity" (written on coins, stamps, etc.), but France is actually one of the most hierarchical and vertical society in the Western world. The political and economical systems are extremely elitists. A few chosen ones study at the Grandes Ecoles, then join the administration at a high-level from the start to "learn how the system works, and make connections", then become top executives in major public (or private) companies. There are very close ties between big businesses and the government in France, and executives are criticised for knowing better how the government and administration works, than their own company. This creates a huge gap between the top of the company and the rest.
French society and language are also exceedingly formal compared to most other countries.
4) The importance of forging relations.
Like the Spaniards, the French like to create relations with someone over a long lunch before starting making business with them. They need to get to know what kind of the person they are dealing with, and create an emotional bond.
5) The decision-making process
French people (e.g. managers) typically make a quick decision that they might revise later on. This is the opposite of the Germans who think carefully about all the possibilities then make a decision that they will not change afterwards.
6) The râleur character
This also came up in debates on French TV. A Swedish journalist said that one of the first things he had to learn when he arrived in France was "râler", a difficult term to translate as it is so typically French (the word doesn't exist with that meaning in Quebecois French), and which we could translate as "complain about all and everything, not always with justification". The Swedish journalist explained that he had never met people who complained more than French, anywhere in the world.
French people like to strike, protest or demonstrate to voice their discontentment, while the others complain about people striking and demonstrating...
One ironic example of the French râleur is the commuter in his car who complains in the traffic jam about the fact that other people have also decided to come to work by car : "Why don't they all come by public transports ?" In other words, they are never satisfied and don't try much to understand the other person's point of view.
André Gide, a French writer who received the Nobel Prize of Literature, said that "French people are Italian people in bad mood".
There is more to say, but I will stop here for now.
As a native French speaker with a culturally French education, and having been countless times in France, I know France almost as well as a French person. Not being French helps me see the country as an outsider and clearly seeing what is typically French from what is not. I will thus start this discussion about European cultures with France. I have read several times and would like to recommend you the 2 following books about European cultures by Richard Hill. I have met the author, bought the books from him, and I can say that I agree on almost every sentence he wrote : EuroManagers & Martians and We Europeans.
This little introduction is in itself very French. I will proceed point by point, sometimes introducing a comparison, to define what makes the French what they are. Please understand that when talking about cultures, we have to generalise, and that the view given is what is regarded as normal in a particular country, rather than unusual. It does not work for everyone. It's just a trend and may change with time (over generations).
1) The French like complicated things.
In a political debate on French TV, it was once said "In France it is simple to complicate things, but complicated to simplify them". This summarises to the perfection one of the fundamental aspects of French culture.
- Illustration :
EuroManagers said:The American mistrusts complex things and tends to oversimplify. The Frenchman, by inclination and education, mistrusts simple things and tends to over-complicate. It is for this reason that no Frenchman, by American standards, can ask a simple, straightforward question when speaking in public. By French standards, no American speaker can give a full, sophisticated answer.
- Example : The Economist describes the French tax system to be of 'fiendish complexity'. They cite, for instance over 40 deductions in the French pay-slip, as opposed to just 2 in Britain.
2) The French are theoretical. They prefer rhetoric, abstractions and ideas to facts and practical thinking.
- if Shakespeare had been a Frenchman, he would have said : "To be or not to be, that is the question. But the question is badly formulated."
- The French favour design over practicality. They like innovation for the sake of creativity, even when there is no practical need for it. (btw, this is all the opposite of the Japanese)
- The French raison d'etre is "measured intellectual performance".
3) The French political dilemma : an autocratic egalitarian society.
They claim to follow the 18th-century Revolutionary values of "liberty, equality and fraternity" (written on coins, stamps, etc.), but France is actually one of the most hierarchical and vertical society in the Western world. The political and economical systems are extremely elitists. A few chosen ones study at the Grandes Ecoles, then join the administration at a high-level from the start to "learn how the system works, and make connections", then become top executives in major public (or private) companies. There are very close ties between big businesses and the government in France, and executives are criticised for knowing better how the government and administration works, than their own company. This creates a huge gap between the top of the company and the rest.
French society and language are also exceedingly formal compared to most other countries.
4) The importance of forging relations.
Like the Spaniards, the French like to create relations with someone over a long lunch before starting making business with them. They need to get to know what kind of the person they are dealing with, and create an emotional bond.
EuroManagers said:Disregard for the customer is a way of life in the French business world.
...
Indeed, in French eyes, putting oneself readily at the disposal of a total stranger is an affront to one's self-esteem : like the Spanish, the French have difficulty in recognising the difference between service and servility.
5) The decision-making process
French people (e.g. managers) typically make a quick decision that they might revise later on. This is the opposite of the Germans who think carefully about all the possibilities then make a decision that they will not change afterwards.
6) The râleur character
This also came up in debates on French TV. A Swedish journalist said that one of the first things he had to learn when he arrived in France was "râler", a difficult term to translate as it is so typically French (the word doesn't exist with that meaning in Quebecois French), and which we could translate as "complain about all and everything, not always with justification". The Swedish journalist explained that he had never met people who complained more than French, anywhere in the world.
French people like to strike, protest or demonstrate to voice their discontentment, while the others complain about people striking and demonstrating...
One ironic example of the French râleur is the commuter in his car who complains in the traffic jam about the fact that other people have also decided to come to work by car : "Why don't they all come by public transports ?" In other words, they are never satisfied and don't try much to understand the other person's point of view.
André Gide, a French writer who received the Nobel Prize of Literature, said that "French people are Italian people in bad mood".
There is more to say, but I will stop here for now.
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