Living in another culture can be stimulating, frustrating, enjoyable and relaxing-all at the same time. We know France and French culture pretty well by now but it is always surprising to reflect on the cultural differences, especially given the common heritage through history of England and France.
Language differences here in France, and last month in Scandinavia, mean that most of our international news has come via the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and Financial Times (English) papers and French newspapers and TV. This is where you can easily see the differences. There is currently English envy of France when reports cover France. Several articles on how Sarkozy tries to compensate for being somewhat height challenged (by using pre-planned height challenged workers when in factories for a PR visit, wearing special shoes) and by UK talking up the basket case UK economy in the face of improved economic conditions in France and Germany especially.
By the same token, there is evident glee in French news reports on the imminent release from prison of the Iraqian who threw a shoe at G W Bush a few years ago. I must have seen the same report 6 times tonight where the Iraqian is about to return home as a hero with offers for a new car, job, marriage and celebrity status. Whilst in the last month the US and UK seem to be focused on the latest stuff ups in Afghanistan, the release of a Lockerbie bomber and where the UK is heading financially. France seems more internally focused on swine flu precautions, EU farm policies affecting French farmers (currently milk production), troubles (cat fights between women in the main) in the political parties on the French left and troubles with French football as they face a battle to qualify for the coming world championships in Africa. And culturally French free to air TV is almost the same as it was in the 1980’s when we were living here.
Language differences here in France, and last month in Scandinavia, mean that most of our international news has come via the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and Financial Times (English) papers and French newspapers and TV. This is where you can easily see the differences. There is currently English envy of France when reports cover France. Several articles on how Sarkozy tries to compensate for being somewhat height challenged (by using pre-planned height challenged workers when in factories for a PR visit, wearing special shoes) and by UK talking up the basket case UK economy in the face of improved economic conditions in France and Germany especially.
By the same token, there is evident glee in French news reports on the imminent release from prison of the Iraqian who threw a shoe at G W Bush a few years ago. I must have seen the same report 6 times tonight where the Iraqian is about to return home as a hero with offers for a new car, job, marriage and celebrity status. Whilst in the last month the US and UK seem to be focused on the latest stuff ups in Afghanistan, the release of a Lockerbie bomber and where the UK is heading financially. France seems more internally focused on swine flu precautions, EU farm policies affecting French farmers (currently milk production), troubles (cat fights between women in the main) in the political parties on the French left and troubles with French football as they face a battle to qualify for the coming world championships in Africa. And culturally French free to air TV is almost the same as it was in the 1980’s when we were living here.
No comments:
Post a Comment