Being American has its advantages

March 21st 2007

Last week my boss informed me the the CTO of a Fortune 500 company was coming to visit our office and he asked me if I’d be interested in giving a presentation. My boss was supposed to be on vacation that day, and my coworker (who is my mentor and has been teaching me a lot about the subject of the presentation) didn’t want to do the presentation in English. I love to do presentations so I jumped on the opportunity! “Yes, I’m interested.” I said. “It’s not ‘Yes I’m interested’, it’s do you want to do it or not?” “Sure!” Ok, so I didn’t sound too enthused, but that’s only because I didn’t want to take this opportunity from my coworker, who frankly should be the one pushing our services, especially since I had only been in this business unit for 6 weeks now. He assured me he was OK with it and agreed to coach me, so I couldn’t refuse.

I spent a day translating an existing presentation into English and then revamping it, learning it top to bottom. For some unknown reason I was a bit more stressed about it than usual. I think it was because this was a very high profile person, and also because it was in English. What? Yes, you heard me right. I’m so used to speaking French when talking about my profession (information system architecture) that I actually find it hard to do it in English. This is because I’ve been here for almost 7 years now and a most of what I know about architecture I’ve learned in France, in French.

I practiced with my wife both Monday & Tuesday night, and with my coworker during the day. Then the hard part: Finding a few jokes. I tried them out on my wife and she didn’t think they were funny at all. Nothing. A big zero. On the second joke, she even said “You’re not going to say that one are you?” I said “Why sure!” Hmmm.. usually the jokes just come to me on the fly but I like to have a few planned just in case. I find starting off a rather technical presentation with a bit of humor puts people at ease and at the same time gets them interested. You know, different is good.

So this morning I go and we set up and they come in, the CTO and 3 of his associates. I make my first joke, which wasn’t even really that funny but it was a hit and they laughed. Ok, cool. Now I’ve got the momentum to carry me through. Keep it going. I show the agenda and slip in the second joke very casually as I continue to the next slide. This one really gets them and they all start laughing, while I slyly carry on as if I didn’t even realize I just said something funny! Sorry but I won’t say the jokes here because without my delivery they just won’t be funny. Plus I may have to use them again. So now two jokes down and I do the mandatory audience participation. I asked where they’re from, because I was presenting a topic that is not popular outside of France and I wanted to know if they had heard of it. They say they’re all living in the US. “Good, that will make this a lot more interesting.” More laughter. Then one of them asks me where I’m from. Then another asks if I’d be interested in moving to the city of their company’s headquarters. “I don’t know, I’ve never been there.” I reply. “It’s great!” they say. And we’re all off to a great start.

Now I may be wrong but I have a hard time imagining these exchanges with a French audience. Don’t get me wrong, the French laugh at my jokes (usually), but while the part about asking me to move to their city may seem very subtle, I believe it’s a big difference between the American & French cultures. The Americans are kind of dreamers, anything is possible, and they are casual enough to say it and talk about it. The French are more realistic, even pessimistic, and generally think things over a great deal before making such a statement. The thought process kind of kills the spontaneity and then the moment is gone.

The rest of the presentation wasn’t as animated but it went real smooth and I was definitely at ease. My performance was pretty good, and at the end they commented on how much they enjoyed my presentation. A big success.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve been asked to do a presentation because I’m American and the audience was American or English. And I’m sure it won’t be the last. It’s an advantage I really enjoy, and I must admit there was an instant bond between me & my audience that just wasn’t there with the other French presenters. This was the first presentation that I’ve done in English in over 4 years. Usually when presenting in French I get a pretty good feeling too, and I think that’s because of my accent. That and I smile too much a lot.

Anyway, not much point in all this except to say sometimes Americans get the break. And when we do, we must enjoy it!

I’ll be writing more on this topic, so follow the tags. It’s like Seinfeld’s gorgeous blonde girlfriend Nikki who gets whatever Jerry wants just by her good looks. Well I’m not attractive but fortunately for me the French love the American accent.

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