Cross-Cultural Exploration

Life in France is different than life in the US, yet it is also so similar. I am generally surprised at the differences. Here are a couple of examples.

At the primary school where the girls attend - The girls each has a hook with her name and picture. They color pictures, play with Play-Doh, and play on the playground. They go to the potty as a class. That's right - as a class. The bathroom literally has a dozen or so potties and several urinals all in one room. The girls and the boys all go at the same time! Recently this lead to an interesting anatomy conversation at lunch.

With our neighbors - I feel very blessed in the fact that we have some great neighbors. Natalie and Michelle are very willing to talk to me, and they are VERY patient with my budding French. They are much more open and welcoming than I was lead to believe that any French person would be. Unfortunately I committed a faux pas with them. It seems that they have invited me to have coffee with them more than once. I either did not understand the French, or did not realize that they were setting up a coffee date. I am still not sure if I actually missed a set date, or if it was an open-ended "drop by some time for a cup." It seems that the French generally set a specific time for that cup of coffee while we Americans tend to go for the "it'll happen when it happens" attitude. Last week, I happened to see them outside, and made a point of asking about having coffee this week. Michelle responded that they have tried to do that a couple of times. Uh oh. They were very willing to come to our house today though and chat while the girls napped. They even brought a tarte (kind of like an apple pie). I must not have offended them too badly! And Natalie was sure to speak very clearly when she told me that I was welcome to come by any afternoon after the girls wake up to chat some more. No mistaking THAT invitation. :) She even invited us to join them for an aperatif (a French custom sort of like a cocktail hour) on a specific date, but the aperatif is another cultural topic for another day.

Our coffee was very enjoyable. We talked about many differences between France and the US. One of the topics was guns. It is illegal to own a gun in France unless it is used to hunting, and there are very heavy restrictions on those guns. We also talked about the differences in the French and American school systems. Children here go to school for about 3 years before they learn to read. Granted, they are in classes similar to preschool in the US, but the focus is on learning how to act at school, not actually learning to read and write. The girls seem to be enjoying themselves at school. I just hope they won't be behind when we return to the US.

Now I wonder what my next cultural lesson will be.