Stereotypes & Similarities

September 11, 2007

(photo: "Magzilla/Mini Underground City," compliments of the Musee d'Orsay)

Today, a man on the street yelled at me (in French) to be careful! I might get fat if I continue to eat the quiche I got “to go” (en porter) and was eating in transit.

It’s amazing, the stereotypes we set up for each other’s cultures. I know I am not fat. Just because I am American doesn’t mean you have reason to yell at me in France for eating. Since I’ve arrived, in fact, the French meals I have eaten have been bigger and unhealthier than what I am used to. The funny thing is, the man who yelled it was pretty well-fed himself. So much for stereotypes.

So I was just reading my homework for Intercultural Communications, which tells about the cultural differences between Americans and the French, and I got a little depressed. The article told stories about how it’s hard for the French to accept an American student, even one who is staying with them for the semester, as part of their family. It told about the necessity of doors (how to close them), and how it’s normal to be excluded from the family.

Then I sat down to dinner with my host family. I guess I was surprised at how—according to the article—American they were. They spoke with each other, but they also included me in the conversation, slowing down so I would understand what they were saying and allowing me to answer. After dinner, Monsieur Palayret helped me fix the Internet on my computer. When I apologized yet again for the trouble (this was after he spent like an hour setting it up on Saturday), his jovial laugh and simple gesture of touching my elbow while saying it was not a problem—it really made me feel welcome.

Today is September 11th. It’s been six years since the first 9/11, and I haven’t really felt the pain as much in the past four years as I did today. Strange, how being in a foreign country really makes you think about your foreignness, about your ties to you own country, and about being an American. I read in a French newspaper a few quotes from French students—teenagers, in fact—about the sorrow and shock they felt on that first 9/11. These quotes exactly mirrored my own experience, which I found both interesting and perplexing. It made me realize that I may be American and different and obviously foreign (no matter how I dress or try to act), but there are some things—more important things—that actually do register across cultures. These are the things that keep me going here.