Cultural Misunderstandings

When people don't understand the culture of another nation it is easy for misunderstandings to occur.

The English and Americans are taught that it is bad manners and, indeed, bad form to argue in public and English husbands and wives would normally present a united Front in public. whereas the french, who are trained in rhetoric from their earliest days in nursery school, think that discussion and disagreement are healthy and it is not unusual to hear French married couples in heated discussion or even having a screaming row in the street.

So too it is in politics and international relations, the French see disagreement as healthy a sign of individualism and not following like sheep. They see the Anglo-saxon attitude of presentng a united front in public and disagreeing in private as somehow sneaky and not being true to yourself.

In any cafe, bar, in the queue at the post office, or even in the market in France it is quite normal to hear heated political debate between ordinary french men and women. I once heard a most interesting discussion on whether Sarkozy should be the next President of France whilst queuing in a little village supermarket.

In any meeting of french people whether it's a village association or a town council it is quite normal to argue for hours, each one standing by their own opinion and arguing one another down until a decision that all can live with is found.

Perhaps that is why the British and the American Governments are sometimes at loggerheads with the French it is a simple culture clash. The French expect Les Anglo-saxons to argue for their point of view and they expect the French to go along with their view of the World unquestioning.