United States Opinion and Comparison

09 A French exchange student opinion on the USA

Are these stereotypes about France true?

“French people are mean and always complain.” F: If you ever get the chance to visit France and go to Paris, you might think people are not very nice. But Paris is not all of France, and I would think it is just the case in most big cities.

“As you live in Europe, you must travel to other countries all the time.” F: It seems to be a common belief in America that because Europe is made of a lot of small countries we get to move more. I got lucky to travel to different countries. It is not the case for every French or European citizen.

‘‘French people are gourmets.’’ T:(almost). Food is a big part of the French culture. I wouldn’t necessarily use the term gourmets, and I wouldn’t use it for every French person. But I think most of the people in France grew up eating typical French recipes, homemade dishes in sauce, and traditional meals on certain holidays.

“French women don’t shave.” F: Some people don’t shave but it’s just as infrequently as people in the U.S.A. It is not a cultural thing.

“You say ohlala all the time” T: if « oui oui baguette » is American’s favorite expression to represent us, it is far from being accurate. But the expression is indeed used a lot. People say it when they are surprised, shocked or upset. “American and French flags” by Pierre.Augustin is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Lucie Michel, staff writer Pledges of allegiance and flags in front yards are far from common occurence in France. The USA is well known for its patriotism, but being able to see for myself how proud Americans are of their country is not less impressive. However, because French people are not like this, most of them would agree there is not much to be proud of. From the educational system to social welfare, some of the main concerns of a government are being questioned all the time by most Europeans when it comes to how the United States deals with them. But as a French person, what astonished me the most is the relationship people have with weapons. In most European countries, guns are considered highly dangerous and are not accessible to people. Walking to stores and seeing the gun aisles was a real culture shock. But waking up to the news these past weeks was a different type of shock. Contemplating all the damages done, all the innocent lives being taken, and how guns only strengthen issues like racism makes me really scared. But still, when the National Anthem starts, everybody stops, faces the flag and touches their heart. heard one of my teachers this year say; “This is probably the darkest moment of our history” is also something that made me wonder what was there to be so proud of. For one of the youngest countries in the world, the United States has a quite dreadful history. And still, with fewer than 300 years of existence, I had people candidly ask me what we were learning about in French history class if not about the United States, like if the world only revolves around them. Common belief in Europe has it that Americans think they are the center of the world. And I concluded they do, and indeed they might be. The USA is probably the most powerful country in the world; moreover, its cultural influence is gigantic -- from the movie industry to the music industry, as well as social media. It offers a lot of life opportunities and is still really loved and admired by a lot, which is why I wanted to come here. There are a lot of things I discovered and learned here and would love to bring back with me to France, but living here made me realize there are no such things as utopias, and the USA is just a country among others dealing with its own big issues.

Stereotypes French people have about the USA

1: Every French person would agree on saying everything is bigger here. The cars are bigger, the roads are larger, the buildings go higher, the stores are wider. From our perspective everything is disproportionate.

2: French people think most Americans are overweight because they eat in large quantities and always have snacks. They also think there are fast-foods everywhere and meals are made only of junk food.

3: Most of the people in France think American people are dumb. My friends often refers to American people as “the people who shoot into hurricane to stop them” or “the people who thinks chocolate milk is made by brown cows”.

4: A lot of people just think everything is cool, thanks to pop culture mainly. There are little things in your everyday life you don’t even care to look at anymore, some of them are even things you don’t like. But know that French people love them and envy you for it; prom, green bills, yellow school buses… baseball and American Football...

5: Obviously the idea of the American Dream is still really present in our representation of the United States. A lot of French people travel over here to embrace their professional life or just to enjoy a new lifestyle.