French People and Americans Essay

Exclusively available on Available only on IvyPanda®
This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team.
You are free to use it for the following purposes:
  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment

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.

More related papers Related Essay Examples
Cite This paper
You're welcome to use this sample in your assignment. Be sure to cite it correctly

Reference

IvyPanda. (2020, March 15). French People and Americans. https://ivypanda.com/essays/french-people-and-americans/

Work Cited

"French People and Americans." IvyPanda, 15 Mar. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/french-people-and-americans/.

References

IvyPanda. (2020) 'French People and Americans'. 15 March.

References

IvyPanda. 2020. "French People and Americans." March 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/french-people-and-americans/.

1. IvyPanda. "French People and Americans." March 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/french-people-and-americans/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "French People and Americans." March 15, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/french-people-and-americans/.

If, for any reason, you believe that this content should not be published on our website, please request its removal.
Updated:
Privacy Settings

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

  • Basic site functions
  • Ensuring secure, safe transactions
  • Secure account login
  • Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
  • Remembering privacy and security settings
  • Analyzing site traffic and usage
  • Personalized search, content, and recommendations
  • Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Required Cookies & Technologies
Always active

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Site Customization

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

  • Remembering general and regional preferences
  • Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy.

Personalized Advertising

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

1 / 1