Cultural Misunderstandings
The French-American Experience
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Full of colorful anecdotes…tells us a lot about the French but even more about ourselves.”—Los Angeles Times
This is an intriguing and thoughtful analysis of the many ways French and Americans—and indeed any members of different cultures—can misinterpret each other, even when ostensibly speaking the same language.
Cultural misunderstandings, Raymonde Carroll points out, can arise even where we least expect them: in our closest relationships. With revealing vignettes and perceptive observations, she brings to light some fundamental differences in French and American presuppositions about love, friendship, and raising children, as well as such everyday activities as using the telephone or asking for information.
“An entertaining, informative book…often witty…a vital source for learning how to establish amity not only between the U.S. and France but among all the world’s nations.”—Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Volk's translation evokes the flavor of Carroll's French in an entertaining, informative book. The author is a U.S. citizen of French origin, an anthropologist and teacher at Oberlin College, who lived on a Micronesian island and wrote Nokoru Stories , about social customs there. Her inter-cultural experiences form the text of this illustrative, often witty book about why the French and the Americanseven when fluent in both languagescan confound each other with what seems uncivil behavior. Carroll explains cultural misunderstandings on such diverse areas as party manners, child-rearing, privacy, using the telephone and, most important, friendship. The examples are eye-opening and all-encompassing, a vital source for learning how to establish amity not only between the U.S. and France but among all the world's nations.
