Cultural Awareness

Ok, something more serious. I submitted this for a cross-cultural communication assignment.

Although the United States and France are both highly developed, G-7 member states with significant cultural, economic, and linguistic ties, Hofstede’s model reveals significant cultural differences.
These differences are most dramatic in power distance and uncertainty avoidance. In terms of power distance, French society is more hierarchical than is American culture. French organizations, according to Hofstede’s model, could be predicted to be more vertically-organized than organizations in the United States. This is because the model predicts that power is less-dispersed through an organization in France than it likely is in an American organization.
The higher sense of power distance in French culture manifests itself in several ways. First, it manifests itself linguistically. At the very least, to vouvoyer is expected with those in authority in France. The direction of the causal arrow in this sense can be debated, but it is clear that the French language reflects and reinforces the idea that authority figures be given not just respect, but also an additional verb tense to describe their actions. Although most languages in the world have such a tense, it is interesting to note that English, whose American speakers are noted for their flat organizational structures, simply does not contain a notion of such a tense. English speakers such as me awkwardly try to create one (you all in the North, ya’ll in the South), but still do not encapsulate any of the respectfulness of “vous” in our attempt to pluralize the second person singular.
The relationship between French and power distance also manifests itself in the form of linguistic institutions. For example, the Academie française is charged with the definition and preservation of the French language. This cultural authority, to which millions of Euros are required to be given every year, guards the linguistic gate against the barbarian menace of foreign lingo creeping into French expressions. In 2003, email was officially made into courriel (with the acceptable usage of mél as an abbreviation for message électronique). Although courriel is used rarely in France, the presence of such an institution and the spirit under which it operates suggests vastly different idea of the authority’s role in social institutions than that of the United States. Witness the late 1990s and 2000s in American English: website, to blog, blogging, to surf (the internet), surfing, to friend (someone). Such verbs and nouns becoming accepted rapidly in American English attests to the flexibility (for good or bad) of English to a changing world whose words need not be approved by elites.
Perhaps I have made too much of these linguistic considerations. Few French speakers, in my experience, use the word “courriel” (Though our friends in Quebec do). However, the existence of a linguistic body such as the Académie française and a native French person’s innate distinction between those he/she uses the vous-form and those he/she does not suggests something powerfully different in the way French citizens regard their relationship to others. English’s Mister / Mrs, “Yes Sir,” and “No Ma’am” still do not reach across French’s power distance between a person whose very actions constitute a different pronunciation, spelling, and the very sense of being that verbs encapsulate.
Beyond linguistic manifestations of higher power distance than is characteristic of the United States, French culture also exhibits its preference for power centralization through its governmental institutions. I have personally experienced this in my application process for my Carte de Séjour. In order to be a legal student in France for over ninety days, I have to submit myself to a two-stage medical checkup.
The second of these stages was particularly interesting. After waiting for a few minutes in a state-run medical clinic, I was greeted by a doctor and escorted to a consultation room. There, I was interviewed for 30 minutes regarding my family’s medical history, my medical history, and my personal habits.
It was a linguistically interesting process --- describing medical problems in the past tense, trying to achieve some subtlety in French as I described my diet and why it really was not as bad as it sounded – was challenging.
However, I perceived an immediate disconnect between myself and my doctor in terms of the doctor/patient relationship I was used to in the United States. I did not seek out this doctor for medical treatment or advice, as I would have in America. I was assigned this doctor by the state in order to both certify my health in the country and something far more interesting: to give me counseling.
I mentioned that I have seen doctors in the United States for counseling, so what made this session any different? It was the fact that I was assigned this person, a complete stranger, to describe my personal and family history to. She was looking out for my best interests, it seemed, or at least those interests deemed the best according to the French state.
This is the most interesting dimension in terms of power relationships: I was (and still am) a ward of the state. She imparted medical wisdom on me, not as a counselor in the traditional sense, but as a learned person, walls full of degrees and with a long waiting list, to whom I was required to report.
Yes, many people in America have similar doctor-patient relationships. The doctor sits at the corner of the room, listens occasionally, and leaves after fifteen minutes. But many do not. The family doctor, with whom there exists a voluntary relationship, counsels many counsels well, and counsels as a friend.
And it is not as if I did not appreciate the advice of the state-provided doctor. She was friendly and listened attentively. But I can no more call her my medical counselor than I can call a stranger my friend. Power distance expresses itself in areas outside of the boardroom.
Elements of individuality differentiation, another point in the model, also exist in this medical example. As a foreign student, I was assigned this particular doctor, as I have mentioned. I had to attend a session with her, regardless of the state of my health. Because a level of medical care is provided to all in France through taxation, it makes sense to consume this health care because it has already been paid for.
Broadly speaking, the American medical system does not contain this notion. This is well known and not interesting in itself. In terms of individuality, however, the American system reflects the individualist notion that people are not obligated for the health needs of other people.
In France, however, the individual is obligated by the state to pay for the health needs of strangers. These strangers, such as me, may not have paid a single euro of state taxes into the national treasury. So, the French system reflects the idea that people, regardless of income or need, should be provided with a level of health care by other individuals who do pay taxes.
Finally, the French tax system reflects the notion that individual efforts are, in percentage terms, more subject to the needs of others than the American tax system. Because French citizens are taxed at a higher marginal rate than Americans, the state has determined that individual labor ought to be redistributed at a higher rate to other individuals. Thus, in terms of Hofested’s own analysis, French people project their feelings of collective identity more strongly through a taxation system that links their productive labor more highly to other individuals.
As such, one could say that the individual works less for himself and more for others in France than in America. Put another way, because more taxes per hour of labor are incurred by French workers, French citizens work more hours per year for the benefit other people than do Americans. Judging by higher French marginal taxation rates, I find this to be a tenable conclusion independent of one’s ethical judgments whether or not such a system is ethically good or ethically bad. Such a judgment, while potentially interesting and certainly desirable, is outside the scope of this paper.
This idea of more apparent concern for the poor, or at least, less-well off, is also a characteristic of relatively lower level of masculinity in France. Thus, less masculinity, though not as differentiated from the United States as power distance and uncertainty avoidance, is also a characteristic of France vis-à-vis America. French express a preference for more equalization between the sexes through positive gender discrimination laws in areas such as political parties. Specifically, a 1999 French law mandated equal men and women in all but the smallest elections throughout France. Due to the higher preference for masculinity, such as law would have been less likely to pass the legislature in America. Because sexual inequality in France is not seen as beneficial, traditional barriers for women in the workplace have gradually been eliminated in order to equalize their participation in society. Taxpayer-funded crèches and payments variable to the number of children a family contains have freed women to work outside the home away from their “traditional roles,” as such. Laws such as the 1999 gender equality law have allowed them, at least de-jure, better access to elected bodies.
Finally, having examined the differences between in the United States and France in terms of power distance and individualism, I will now move my analysis to uncertainty avoidance, the other drastically-different characteristic the model predicts between the two countries.
I have already discussed how the state acts as an arbiter in medicine in France and how this relates to power distances. But the state also plays an important role in minimizing uncertainty in French society. To the extent that individuals in France support this idea and maintain it through voting for representatives who keep uncertainty-minimizing policies around, the idea that uncertainty should be minimized to a greater extend that allowed in the United States reflects French values in this area.
French contractual law is a perfect example in this arena of uncertainty. The typical French contract requires three signatures of the same document, each with “lu et apprové” written near the signature line. Additionally, to minimize even more uncertainty in contracts, significant portions of the contract must be re-written by the contractee in order to assure absolutely that they have understood the terms of the agreement. Such time-consuming procedures reduce ambiguity in order to control social and legal behaviors.
This practice is different in America, where boiler plates, though extremely long, are rarely read and never re-written. Mortgages (though perhaps less so now!), tenant agreements, and sales verifications are many pages long yet frequently contain post-it notes indicating where to sign. “Read and approved” is simply not as values as signed in the right places as quickly as possible. Reading, then, is really not practically mandatory in so much the deal terms were clearly discussed and both parties trust one another. Of course, the higher the dollar value, the more such contracts are scrutinized.
Thus, the French appetite for risk is less than that of Americans. They demand contracts that are well-read in order to maximize both parties’ knowledge of the contractual terms.

Strasbourg Two

This clock inside the cathedral depicts Peter's denial of Jesus through moving figures and most shockingly, a crowing rooster. At 12:00 sharp, the show starts. A huge crowd gathered for the event. The silence was interrupted by the crowing rooster, and the quiet of the cathedral was broken by laughter each of the three times. The rooster noise was in need of some repair.












If I ever slip into a coma, at least I can design car color patterns.

Strasbourg

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been unable to upload pictures to the blog, and as you will see, I had a few! This past weekend, I visited Strasbourg, France for four days. It's on the German border, north of Switzerland. Results below...

Strasbourg's Petite France just after sunset. This is the Rhine River flowing through the center of town. Because of its position on the river, Strasbourg houses the Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine. Unfortunately, I could not find a museum dedicated to this privilege. However, I did see this group of people yawning, which would have had the same effect.

Despite the fact that I couldn't find that museum, the city had a delightful other museum dedicated to the city's own history. There, could wear a variety of ancient helmets, but my head was generally too big. Clearly, this is due to the amount of knowledge I accumulated during my visit, or perhaps, my toasty toboggan. Global-warming types should visit Strasbourg in November.

I only have a picture of the second-best restaurant we tried in Strasbourg. Sorry I don't have one of the first best. Here, I had French-onion soup, prime-rib cutlets, and French fries. Dessert? Creme brulee.

Of course, although I reveled in this meanl I was impoverished afterwards and lived on bread for the next three weeks to make up for it.






The Strasborg Cathedral, completed in stages between the 14th century and the 18th century. It is one of the most impressive structures I've ever seen. No photo could capture the detail. It is truly shocking to round the corner I pictured here and to look up at the cathedral looming above.