<\/a>Du reste, la culture fran\u00e7aise est loin d\u2019\u00eatre imperm\u00e9able. Ce serait m\u00eame tout le contraire. En effet, la langue comporte de plus en plus d\u2019anglicismes et Tristan, lors d\u2019une balade au nouveau centre commercial de Compans-Cafarelli, s\u2019en amuse beaucoup. En effet, le lieu n\u2019est pas encore totalement achev\u00e9 que d\u00e9j\u00e0 des affiches publicitaires font la promotion des services \u00e0 venir. Quoi, un \u00ab french burger \u00bb ? Pourquoi pas un hamburger fran\u00e7ais tout simplement ? Bien que le terme soit d\u00e9j\u00e0 emprunt\u00e9 \u00e0 la langue de Shakespeare\u2026 La similitude peut parfois \u00eatre aussi d\u00e9routante que la diff\u00e9rence culture. En l\u2019esp\u00e8ce, tel est le cas.<\/p>\nLe choc culturel du \u00e0 la cuisine ne saurait se limiter au seul diner. Les \u00e9tudiants ne pensent-ils qu\u2019\u00e0 manger ? Non, du moins pas \u00e0 ma connaissance. La nourriture fran\u00e7aise est leur tout premier \u00e9l\u00e9ment de comparaison tangible sur la th\u00e9matique du choc des cultures. Christie n\u2019\u00e9chappe donc pas \u00e0 la r\u00e8gle. Ce coup-ci, le coupable n\u2019est plus le diner mais le petit-d\u00e9jeuner. Quoi ? Des bols de th\u00e9 et de caf\u00e9s dans lesquels on trempe ses tartines de pain ? L\u2019\u00e9tudiant, pourtant cosmopolite en raison du fait qu\u2019elle a v\u00e9cu dans beaucoup de pays diff\u00e9rents, n\u2019avais jamais vu \u00e7a ! L\u2019explication dite \u00ab terre \u00e0 terre \u00bb serait celle qui dirait qu\u2019un bol est plus large qu\u2019une tasse, et que d\u2019y tremper son pain serait plus facile. Pourtant, une autre cause est tr\u00e8s vite apparue \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9tudiante. Serait-ce la volont\u00e9 de tout simplement appr\u00e9cier son petit-d\u00e9jeuner ? De s\u2019assoir en sirotant son caf\u00e9 plut\u00f4t que de le prendre \u00e0 emporter sans avoir le temps de le savourer. L\u2019explication semble tr\u00e8s convaincante. Du reste, Christie s\u2019est livr\u00e9e \u00e0 l\u2019exp\u00e9rience et avoue, non sans joie, qu\u2019il est bon de prendre le temps d\u2019appr\u00e9cier les bonnes choses.<\/p>\n
Bienvenue en France !<\/p>\n
Micha\u00ebl Capdase<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This quote of the philosopher Michel Serre announces the beginning of a great adventure for the second semester Dickinson students. They had barely set foot on the Toulouse airport tarmac before France entirely filled their lungs. It was as if the Marianne herself was welcoming them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since the airport was situated outside the city, it is necessary to take a car or public transportation to get to their hosts\u2019 homes. Those who travelled by bus remember that even before reaching the city centre, they well and truly felt the presence of French culture. Invisible, undetectable, but nevertheless in the air: how then do we know it\u2019s there? Just ask Ingrid. She will respond, \u201cMerci, au revoir.\u201d It isn\u2019t that she doesn\u2019t want to talk to you or get rid of you, she\u2019s answering your question. This is a commonly heard phrase in French public transportation. The student explains that it\u2019s a sign of politeness, showing gratitude to the driver and expressing that she doesn\u2019t take the service for granted. Is France the land of politeness? Let\u2019s not generalize \u2013 yes, the French are polite, but like anywhere else there are individuals who don\u2019t wish to comply to these rules of moral conduct. Ingrid understands perfectly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finally, the time to share a meal with the hosts has arrived. Now is the long-awaited moment for students to discover one of the most characteristic traits of French culture: la gastronomie<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Josephine signals the importance food takes in contemporary societies like France. For her, more than a simple primary need, food is above all a part of one\u2019s identity. The student suggests that what we eat reflects our way of life, as well as our philosophy. This experience also allows a revelation that seems perfectly normal at this stage of the stay. Yes, the baguette is an integral part of the French table, coq au vin, cassoulet and bouillabaisse\u2026a little less! Josephine is perfectly right, to define a concept as abstract as \u201cthe French culture\u201d in the reality of a meal seems impossible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet Luke has been lucky enough to discover French culinary specialties that, beyond the simple baguette, are relatively characteristic of that which constitutes a typical French meal : the cheese was on the table! While eating Roquefort, Luke was astonished to learn that the cheese is named after the cave in which it is made. He had begun to discover the great diversity that defines French cuisine. Only, like his classmate Josephine, he rightly recognizes that it\u2019s better to not generalize. Just as there are American families who consume local products and take time to savour good food, there are also French families who consume junk food.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Besides, French culture is far from impenetrable. In reality, it\u2019s the opposite \u2013 the French language includes more and more Anglicisms, which Tristan, while walking through the new mall at Compans-Cafarelli, found quite amusing. The space isn\u2019t even completed, and yet there are already advertisements promoting services to come. What is a \u201cFrench burger\u201d? Why not simply \u201cun hamburger fran\u00e7ais\u201d? Although the term \u201chamburger\u201d itself is borrowed from English, the cultural similarities can sometimes be as disconcerting as the differences. That\u2019s the case in this situation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Food-based cultural shock isn\u2019t limited to dinner. Do students only think of eating? Not to my knowledge. Food is often one of students\u2019 first tangible mediums of cultural comparison, and therefore one of their first experiences of culture shock. Christie doesn\u2019t break this rule. This time, the guilty party is not dinner, but breakfast. What? Bowls of tea and coffee in which one dunks toast? Even this student, however cosmopolitan she may be \u2013 having lived in multiple countries, has never seen the like. The logical explanation would be that since a bowl is larger than a cup, it is therefore easier to dunk your toast. However, another explanation quickly came to the student: might it simply be the desire to take the time to appreciate breakfast? To sit and sip your coffee, rather than gulp it down on the go without savouring it? That explanation seems very convincing. Christie has engaged in this experience and joyfully admits that it is good to take the time to appreciate life\u2019s pleasures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bienvenue en France!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00ab Les langues sont un tr\u00e9sor et v\u00e9hiculent autre chose que des mots. Leur fonction ne se limite pas au contact et \u00e0 la communication. Elles constituent d\u2019une part des marqueurs fondamentaux de l\u2019identit\u00e9, elles sont structurantes, d\u2019autre part, de nos perspectives \u00bb Cette phrase du philosophe Michel Serres sonne comme le commencement d\u2019une grande aventure pour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[107324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-la-une-en-francais"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/toulouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fr300printemps17\/files\/2017\/02\/IMG_1799-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/fr300printemps17\/files\/2017\/02\/table-225x300.png\")
<\/p>\n