I apologize for the great delay between postings, I went on spring break and came home to broken computer! But all is well again, and I've responded to your comments (keep 'em coming).
As many of you know from Lewis' book, language is very important in the French culture. If I remember correctly, at one point he compares it to a fencing match. And it's true, showing a mastery of the language would garner much respect, and there's such a large vocabulary of words to chose from, that you can select the perfect words to give the precise meaning you want to your phrase. To someone trying very hard to learn French, it seems that there are far more nuances in the French language. So I thought I dedicate this post to communication in France- the sounds, mannerisms, non-verbal communication, etc. Emily made a comment about this in an earlier post, and I was surprised how much I had to say about it! (So for you, Emily, this will be a lot of what I already said to you)
Let's start with the French greeting, which is the "bisous" or cheek kisses. There are unspoken rules for these bisous, such as how many to give and to whom. Depending on the region, people are greeted with 1-4 kisses (in Paris it's 4 and in Cannes it's 2). As for to whom gets the bisous, this would be your family, friends and colleagues, but you wouldn't generally initiate a bisous with your boss. Most Americans find the bisous too intimate as a greeting, and I personally felt a little awkward the first few times. If you're introduced to a French person who knows you're American, they often won't use the bisous because they know it can be uncomfortable for us. But now my friends and I love using the bisous!
As for their unique mannerisms and sounds, in Cannes I've noticed that they use their hands
a lot more when they speak than in Paris, which I imagine is another element of
the Italian influence here. Aside from that, the most noticeable things are the
different "space-filler" sounds they use. For example, when we would
use "uhhhh" when we're thinking, they use a sound like
"bahhh". Also, they often use a sound like a "pfft." to
emphasize a shrug. Finally, the phrase "Ohh la la" a million different meanings depending on changes in tone and inflection.
With regards towards their slang, they do have slang words as well as English
words such as "google" as a verb, "follower" from Twitter,
and "fast-food,") that are commonplace and even in their dictionary.
However, you are absolutely right about how they value their language. There's
a group of people called The Academy that decide what new French words should
be accepted into the dictionary and a mastery of the language garners much
respect. Many of their slang words are formed using inversions. One type
of inversion is
to switch the first and last sounds and replace the middle with "eu".
For example, the word for woman is "femme" and the slang term
commonly used is "meuf." A party, or "une fête" is often
called "une teuf."
I'll just add one more note about how they communicate, and that is that they love to express their opinion! Politics, religion, love, - nothing is of the table of conversation subjects! The French are raised to always have an opinion, being neutral or indifferent is interpreted negatively as not understanding. In fact, the French love to debate, that is to speak with some with an opposing opinion. "Se disputer" (their verb for "dispute") does not carry any negative connotation at all. Through their education and upbringing, the French are taught to have an opinion and how to express it to have a supported argument.
Maybe not the most exciting post, but I hope you learned something from it! I'll be sure to add pictures in the one next week!
Bisous!
