While I was in France, I noticed many similarities and many differences between our two cultures. Of course French teenagers like to hang out with their friends, play video games, and go shopping like any American teenager, but they do each of these things differently than we do. For example, every time friends greet each other the boys give handshakes and the girls receive a kiss on each cheek. Also, as many of you know, the big meal in France is lunch. French students get an hour off during school to go into town and eat. The school we visited was in a fairly large town, Villefranche, so the students would just walk to one of the many cafés and pick up a baguette sandwich. One difference in fashion that we noticed was that boys like to wear something we call “man capris”, or shorter shorts. Girls do not wear shorts often, even when it is very hot (we were there at the start of the heat wave), because it is considered impolite.

Another thing that struck me as a big cultural difference was that the French seem to pay no attention to time. Maybe it had something to do with the sun setting at eleven o’clock at night, or maybe it is just the culture. It feels like everything in the United States is so scheduled and perfectly timed, but there it seemed like no one cared. For example, my family planned to take me on a tour of the Beaujolais region one day, so I woke up relatively early for someone with slight jetlag and was ready to spend a full day touring. But no, I was way too organized. After playing the Sims on the computer, swimming, and eating a huge lunch, my family decided that we should probably get going. It was definitely worth the wait; the area was beautiful. We got back late in the afternoon, and after we had eaten dinner (about nine o’clock) one of Arnaud’s friends called and asked if we’d like to go to a party. We went and stayed until about one in the morning. It really amazed me how much I had gotten done in one day, without planning!

These are just some little pieces of French culture that I, and the other students who participated in the exchange, experienced this summer. We would like to give our French exchange students the same benefits of experiencing American culture when they come in April. Our exchange students want to visit America for some of the same reasons we wanted to visit France: to improve language skills and to experience a different culture. My exchange student, Arnaud, says “I would like to taste American food because I want to know if it is as strange as we say.” When they come they will visit Washington D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia. We are also planning on showing them what we like to do for fun, like seeing a movie and going to the King of Prussia Mall. They will also visit school and attend classes. This will give them the chance to compare their culture with ours.

I encourage anyone who is considering participating in the French Exchange next year to go for it. It is a great experience that you will never forget.

Reprinted from the Beacon

April 2004