Summary
French people and Americans have different ways of developing, defining, and appreciating friendship. These differences cause conflicts and misunderstandings between friends from America and France. However, they all value friendship because of its role in life. In America, there is no distinction between a friend, an acquaintance, and a colleague.
In contrast, French people treat friends, acquaintances, and colleagues differently. The French language allows distinguishes between a friend, colleague, and acquaintance by use of certain phrases. This distinction causes problems between friends as witnessed between Michel and Laura.
Laura used the word love to express her friendship with Michel. However, Michel thought that the word was an expression of Laura’s romantic feelings towards him. Michel was surprised to learn that the word was used to express friendship.
French people are very careful with formation ofthe friendship. They get new friends under strict conditions and circumstances. For example, neighbors may not be friends by virtue of living in the same building. They make friends during childhood, at school, and at work. In contrast, Americans make new friends under any circumstance or situation. New relationships last for either a short time or a lifetime.
Unlike French people, Americans take advantage of any opportunity to make friends. For example, neighbors automatically become friends by virtue of living in the same place. As such, Americans are friendly, approachable, and even invite strangers to dine within them. In contrast, French people are unfriendly, unapproachable, and rarely interact with strangers.
To Americans, friendship is all about socializing, interacting, and doing things together. Americans choose friends who share common hobbies and interests that determine activities that friends do together. In contrast, friends in France rarely engage in activities that bring them together. Even though they do things together sometimes, they do not consider it an essential part of friendship.
Americans use these activities to strengthen friendship ties. However, they highly value autonomy and individuality. In contrast, the French do not. Their lives overlap and assume a similar style unlike in America where friendship ties do not diminish autonomy and individuality.
Lastly, Americans and French people have different perceptions about role of friendship in life. Americans perceive friendship as a source of emotional and social support. Therefore, they do everything possible to save friendship from falling apart.
They ignore disagreements and conflicts in order to keep friends. In contrast, people in France use friendship as a way to avoid boredom. They expect disagreements, arguments, and conflicts between friends. In France, conflicts and disagreements do not affect friendship because it does not involve any mutual understanding.
Responses
Harpal
Harpal gives a clear distinction between love and friendship as defined by Americans and French people. He supports it by giving an example of Michel and Laura who perceived their relationship differently. He also presents differences between perception of friendship by Americans and French people.
However, the discussion is shallow and does not cover aspects such as role and scope of friendship. He could have done better by including more similarities and differences. However, the discussion is informative and covers important aspects of the topic satisfactorily.
Chelsea
Chelsea presents a meticulous discussion of the definition of friendship by Americans and French people. She gives a detailed discussion of how French people use certain terms to refer to different types of relationships. Even though the discussion does not cover all aspects of friendship, it is informative. Her reaction at the end of discussion is commendable.