As I struggled to find a topic for my first blog entry, I finally realized that out of everything, my experiences with the Europeans I had encountered thus far were what stood out in my mind. For my entire life, I have never felt like I was an outsider. But now, even as I am enjoying my stay immensely, it’s strange not being a part of the general populace. As someone who speaks little to no French, I’m sure that if my clothes didn’t give away to the French that I’m not a native, my American accent surely will.
The French, of course, have various stereotypes Americans have been exposed to—generally, we get the impression that they’re a bunch of snobs who believe that they’re better than everyone else. So far, I haven’t gotten to experience anything beyond a first impression of the French individuals I’ve interacted with. Seeing as school hasn’t started yet, no substantial interactions have been able to take place. But these first impressions have both dispelled and reinforced the stereotype that I’ve become familiarized with as an American.
There have been plenty of people that have been quite nice, dispelling the stereotype—there have been plenty nice waitresses whose patience I admire for putting up with such a large group (with many members of said group not knowing much French). There have been the smiling sales people and the adorable French teacher who only taught our group for a few lessons. But to counteract these, there have been the extremely rude wait-staffs or salespeople. And, with every one of these negative interactions, I’ve thought to myself, “Oh, that’s just so typical, because they’re French.” I’ve also noticed that people here smile less at strangers, which is something of a common trait in America. This again, only reinforces the stereotype I’ve had the America media push upon me.
However, in retrospect, I now realize that letting negative reactions reinforce a stereotype is stupid. I’ve interacted probably with an equal amount of nice, friendly people as I have rude or cold people. In America, I dealt with rude people all the time—but I never noticed it because it made no impact on me. The only reason I’m noticing rude individuals now is because I’m in a foreign environment, and trying to see if my experiences are living up to what my expectations of the French are.
The French are clearly a proud people. “You must learn to speak French!” is the greatest lesson my brief French class taught me. Everything appears to be a great source of pride to them, and it could be me that’s appearing to be rude to some of them, since I don’t know their great language. While the French so far may appear to be more rude than friendly in my eyes, this may be because I am simply focusing on the negative experiences to reinforce the “French stereotype.” And those that may seem to be rude to me might be rude because I don’t yet fully understand the French culture and the get deal of pride that they hold in everything. In the future, I’ll hopefully be able to look at their entire culture through a more objective standpoint.
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