Americans and French have different ways of saying how much they like something (in a positive way). This has been brought to my attention several times, and it’s often a way people like to make fun of me. Let’s say an American & a French person are eating a cake and they both enjoy it very much.
The American: This is the best cake I’ve ever had!
The French: C’est pas mouvais! (“It’s not bad!”)
Another example, just to clarify the point: An American woman & a French woman both see a really attractive guy:
The American woman: He’s great lookin’!
The French woman: Il n’est pas moche! (“He’s not ugly”)
This may seem kind of funny, or even silly, but it really does show just how different French & Americans see things. Americans are, in general, very optimistic, give out compliments very easily, and are quick to use superlatives (“My mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies!”). While on the other hand, the French are, in general, pessimistic less optimistic, are stingy much more conservative with their compliments, and never rarely use superlatives. And the French find it quite funny when Americans do these things. They find it “fake”. On the other hand, when everything is compared to something worse, I find it a bit depressing.
Now this is interesting, not knowing about my blog, my wife shared with me a little story about finding these shoes for our daughter. She was with her coworker, an English woman, who found the shoes on their lunch break. So she calls her husband (also English) on the telephone “Honey, I found this fantastic deal on a pair of shoes!” My wife told me that if she had called me, she would have said “I found some shoes that are pal mal” (“not bad”).
So she shares this with me and I can’t believe it. “Guess what I blogged about today on the bus on the way home?” “What?” “That!” So I read my blog to her and we couldn’t believe that only a couple hours before her sharing of the story, I was writing about the same thing!
As the story goes on, the husband wasn’t too impressed (how excited could a guy get about a description of a pair of shoes over the phone?) and she didn’t buy them. So my wife bought a pair. My wife says that this is why the Americans are much stronger in sales & marketing than the French, and I think she’s right.
So which way of seeing things is better? Well there is no better way, there are just different ways. And what do I think of the shoes? I guess they’re pal mal!
This actually used to really bother me, the way they always have to look at things from the negative standpoint, but I’ve eventually gotten used to it.
Another cultural difference is that a French person will never admit they are wrong – they are constantly transferring the blame to others. Case in point, yesterday at work, this man came storming in and slammed the door into someone who was standing behind it. The injured man said “Hey, ouch!” and the other one, instead of apologizing, said “That’s what you get for standing behind the door”. Same thing happened when a lady backed into my car – she said “Well, you should’ve parked elsewhere” (I was in a perfectly legal spot, btw). You gotta love it!
That is a great point and one worthy of a series of blog entries. Thanks for the example, they are exactly in line with my experience. Thanks for a great idea, my wife may not like it but I’m going to have fun with this one. Check back soon!
Yes, Americans use so many superlatives. And everything is an extreme (the best, the most outrageous, etc including “nightmare” when nothing worse happened than the person stood in a long line). Perhaps the French are “negative” but surely not everything is as extreme as Americans claim? Some things actually are “not bad.” Most things, in fact. Sometimes it just seems foolish to say everything is “the best” or some other superlative.
I’ve noticed you use a high number of exclamation points when you write. This seems related and very American as well.
I agree, Americans are more interested in marketing and selling.
I think you are very observative. I use a lot of exclamation points because I try to write with the same passion that I have in conversations. I’m often telling stories and jokes, sometimes funny ones, so I try to keep the same mindset when writing.
And I do say “this is awesome” “this is the best” etc. However, I won’t say that about the dinner I had tonight, it was pretty bad.