Editor's note: Youri was born and raised in France near Paris. He is studying at USD to learn more about American culture. The following are his observations, intended to shed a humourous light on our cultural differences.
The 60,646,413 inhabitants is just one of the many differences between my hometown of Paris, France, and Vermillion, South Dakota. As you can imagine, France and the United States have a lot of differences. Not only are the language and size different, but the cultures are polar opposites.
Born from an American father and a French mother, people often ask me the same question: which country do you like best? Unfortunately this is a question I cannot answer, for it would be like asking which one of my parents I like better. However, there are many differences, including manners, way of thinking, behaviors and food, that I haven't been able to help noticing after living in Vermillion for two months.
First, there are a few stereotypes about the French that I would like to mention, just to set things straight, once and for all. There are lots of things that are said out there, but they are not always true. To be honest, it always made me laugh, for I have no idea where they come from. This is probably one among hundreds of the most popular (false) rumors around here and is one of the questions I have been asked many times: Are French women very hairy? The answer is no. French girls do not look like monkeys; they do shave their armpits.
On the other hand, there are stereotypes that are partially true and have often been exaggerated. Let's start with the bad ones. French people can be rude, snooty and smelly every once and a while. But this only applies to a minority.
This can also apply to romance. Sorry to disappoint you, ladies, but if you expected to go to Paris to find romance, 80 percent of the time you will only find very forward guys. There is hope, though; 20 percent of romantic French guys are still out there waiting for you.
This being said, I have to talk about food. We do eat smaller portions, for we choose quality over quantity. As everybody already knows, the French eat stinky cheese. We have hundreds of kinds. A cheese for every meal, but even though it is stinky, it is still good and edible. I am living proof it won't kill you.
France also has its own stereotypes about America, like, "All Americans are fat, lazy and eat fast food all the time." Well, obviously not all Americans are fat and lazy, which is good, because that would be sad otherwise. However, fast food is definitely a big thing here. I must say that I am having a hard time getting used to the food here, for it is often greasy, not healthy and not really diverse. Everything here is pasteurized, which I think is sad, for you are missing out on great non-pasteurized food, including cheese! Strangely enough, in France we have hundreds of kinds of cheese and only a couple of ways to pack it, but here you have four kinds of cheese and hundreds of ways to pack it.
Some other things that really surprised me, but made my friends laugh, is burping in public, which I believe not everybody does. There are plenty of other things I could talk about, like alcohol and how big it seems to be here (sometimes being more of a problem than anything else) compared to France. It must be a cultural thing.
Reach Youri Noël Nelson at Youri.Nelson@usd.edu.
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