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As a French, studying in Danemark was a nightmare, espcially in groupwork. I knew I loved my debate mais MON DIEU, I found a nation even more into debating that we are !

You think FRENCH are time flexible? You clearly never been to Brazil...

Although Americans like in theory to take risks, the way their health system is set up means that, in practice, lots of them are stuck in jobs they don't dare quit because they would lose what coverage they have. In France (and generally every developed country that isn't the US), since health care access isn't an issue, people have more practical freedom to pursue their professional calling.

So if you find the American culture to be very direct, you'll need a whole new scale for Germans ;)

I'm sorry and I usually like your site... But this time, argh... I worked for an American company for 22 years, I also studied linguistics in Canada, where I did my PhD, and I worked in England as well. First the implicit/explicit notion is totally bizarre. For a Frenchman, American communication style is full of implicit stuff, which takes for ages to decipher. I remember for instance, the first time some colleagues were fired, the formulation was that they were considered redundant??? An other example is when you propose something and the person responds: "it is interesting", which usually means: it is not worth it. Languages are full of these implicit elements of language, which a native speaker will decipher immediately but will be opaque to a foreigner. The problem is that the kind of book you mention takes Anglo-saxon culture as a reference point and compares the rest of the world to it, and the authors simply overlook the implicit nature of their language, because they speak it. When I was in Canada, I often had conversation with people who would say things such as: we Québécois are much more straightforward and natural than you Europeans, taking their culture as a reference and understanding my own culture as a weird unnatural derivation of theirs. The last point is: please refrain from stating this old lantern that English has 7 times more words than French, it is totally misleading. The size of the lexicon in both languages is much larger than the number of words that people usually know passively or actively. The English culture puts a lot of emphasis in the size of your vocabulary, and we put more emphasis on the grammar. But, nobody knows every single word in the French language, that would be insane. When you say that English has a lot more words than French, it is a projection of what it means to be cultured in your society onto French. If our vocabulary size was an issue, why are we that obsessed with the "mot juste"? The rules to consider a word to be part of English are different from the one in French. In English, it suffices that a word has been printed once in a book or in an article to make it a word of English. Furthermore, very old words which are no longer used or understood are still part of the official lexicon. In the French tradition, old words are usually kept in separate syllabus (Trésor de la langue française) and trimmed from official dictionaries.

The French are the only ones who go collectively on vacation in August? In Romania everything is closed in August too. With some exceptions nothing moves. Tbh I think it's pretty common in Europe.

I've been watching Emily in Paris and it's made me even more curious about the French cultural differences. I love cultures in general.Just fasinating.Thanks for your informative and entertaining video.🙂

I'm a geek cuz I watched till the end! Thoroughly enjoyed these thoughts on the 2 cultures. As an American, I agree with you that we're about the time is money and getter done mentality. One thing that always puzzles me is that in my experience, the higher ups in the workplace/ company never ask the workers what can we do differently to to support you or to help make your work more efficient. It's as though they think they see it all and know it all and they come up with new ways for the workers to do things that are mostly not helpful but make them feel good, often creating more inefficiency and bog people down with rules and busywork. I'd like to see more teamwork between the stratas in the hierarchy.

After 14 years working for an American compagny And now back to a French one, I suffer tremendously 😣. It is time consuming doing nothing except ego massage, sorry political way to say it would be “taking care if your network” it is not based on performance but on who likes you..

It may be true that American are more individualistic at work , but I found United States much more collective in their personal lives. For instance, it is very rare to find people that are not part of a community, whether it is a religious one(a particular church), a school (college sweater), a team, a gender, a political group etc.... Status defines people and they tend to stay in their community (except in the military which is actually the biggest melting pot).

Rosie, about the "cadre" and "non cadre", you should also state that the requirement are different. The "Cadre" category is not under the same regime as the non cadre, with generally more responsabilities associated. When we talk about the 35 hours/week (or 37), it's only for the non cadre jobs. Most of the "cadre" are under a "day package", which means that you work 218 days per year, and you are supposed to adapt the working hour to your job. Which mean, basically not paid overtime, but also recovery days for that overtime (basically 11-1days /years), but also more flexibility, you can't be taxed of being late for 5min and so on. There is also some technical specification about retirement pension and unemployement that are different for cadre and non cadre, since you are not taxed the same way on your income. In france, you have 2 types (in fact 3 but we'll keep it simple) of jobs contracts. The permanent position contract, and fixed term contract. I've never hear of a cadre with a fixed-term contract. So the vast majority of cadre would have a permanent job contract (but with a 4 mont max trial period). Most of the higher education diploma (like engineer for instance) only let you work under the cadre regime. That does not mean that all higher education degree work under the cadre regime. Many lawyer and MD are like entrepeneur (we call it "profession libérale") and have a very different tax regime from regular employee. Just by re-reading what i've said, my god, this look complicated...

Well, I've just decided I must be French and nobody has told me ;)

Super interesting video, especially at the end about the "cadre" positions. As a German I have always found Americans/Australians/etc to be very implicit in their communication though I agree with you that their working style is pretty straightforward

Old American businessman here. This is one of the best videos I have watched on the differences between the two cultures. I regularly help foreign business people understand how to operate in the US. I am going to recommend to my colleagues and clients that they watch this video. Good job!

As someone taking some communications courses as part of my Bachelor's in Psychology, this was a great lesson, reinforcing a lot of what i learned in Human Communications...thank you

My background is in anthropology and I found this video to be really interesting and helpful. I'm traveling to Toulouse soon and wanted to understand French culture before I left, and this really helped. Thanks!

That was so interesting ! I agree on most points except on the implicit/explicit part. I work in a technical enviromnent and in e-mails or minutes of meetings we always have bullet points for the actions needed, the person who it is assigned to and when it is due

I'd be interested in your comparison of US and NZ cultures as well, since I imagine they're much more similar.

Rosie this is a beautiful summary of many books I've read on the differences. It would drive me absolutely mental to hear a "et voila" and to walk away from the meeting without direct and clear actions! Haha, I don't know how you managed it. And congratulations on cracking the art of the French correspondence; I would create career sabotage! Here in Vancouver the French friends I know and my Parisian ex are MASTERS of creating connection and networking. I'm always amazed and need to take a page from their book. Thanks for explaining why they've been taught that! Gros bisous! x

Love the scale (visuals) on the bottom of the screen 👍

Fully geeked! I'm fascinated by cultural differences and you presented this is such an exciting way. :D

It's interesting to get an idea of some of the differences between these such cultures. I can't say that I had heard much about French culture before watching your videos. I live in Brazil and some of the cultural differences are amusing to me: punctuality, this is not a strong point for many Brazilians, leaving parties, also not a strong point for many Brazilians, talking over one another, this happens frecuently here and it can be viewed as rude if we seem overly quiet, touching, It's common practice here to embrace people, especially new friends here, men normally touch cheeks with women and kiss the air or hug. We New Zealanders are not usually so physical, but this is an aspect of Brazilian culture of which I really adore.

I can't speak for all of the Americans, but in my industry and my company, we have frequent team building days, team lunches, and coffee breaks together. Meetings always start with some friendly catch up and chit chat, and while things like deadlines and outcomes are important, we really value our company culture and family-like atmosphere. Our CEO also values work-life balance and gives us plenty of PTO, travel benefits, extra floating holidays, flexible working hours, and other benefits like bringing our dogs to work, etc. We have great benefits and are not only allowed to take plenty of vacation, but we are actively encouraged to take it. I think it's hard to nail down a culture like that, especially for a country with over 300 million people and a land area larger than the entirety of Europe. Things are very different here on the West Coast than they are in, say, the Northeast, or the South, or the Midwest, etc. That said, interesting points.

I worked for a large USMNC with large operations in France. I spent enough time to get to know my counterparts and developed great working relationships. It made it so much more efficient. I come from PR with many of the similar cultural experiences but went to University in the US and have worked in the US my entire career. So although I have the same task driven experience, i believed in developing relationships...so i think that someone who can navigate both work environments fluidly definitely has advantages

Very Interesting. I have worked for the US federal government - it’s a subset of the US that in many ways works more like French culture than US commercial companies.

Nice to see you are doing well. Watched you for a while. Living in Paris, but originally from Toronto, Canada. Always interesting to see and share peoples journeys. And how they get on even after Paris :) It’s all true of course, what you said. I’m still a bit amazed how much the French love their rules. And for the most part they stick to them ! Whereas for me, and probably other Canadians, bending the rules or making an exception is not a big deal. Here it’s pas possible ! 🙂

Oh yeah my last name is French and starts with “De”... où est mon château. :)

This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for, well done! Can you do more like this?

Sooo interesting! I’m curious.... now that you’ve left France and the French workplace and culture, are you seeing France as less inclusive?

Thank you Rosie! Love this kind of content. I’m pretty surprised about the « cadre » and « non cadre « situation and possibility of carrer evolution in France. I didn’t know that!

You say that France is the only country to go on holiday as a nation, but their neighbours to the south do the exact same thing. In Italy there is ‘ferragosto’, where the whole country shuts down and goes on holiday. I’d also be very surprised if other neighbouring countries, especially Catholic ones, don’t also do the same.

Great talk, im traveling extensively through France. If i had to sum it all up - know your role and stay in your place 🙂

America is a big country with big regional differences. Having lived in the deep south, I didn't find Southern people to be direct at all. I tended to come off as too direct to Southerners.

Hi ! French student talking here ! I do not quite agree with your implicit/explicit divide here : Americans do tend to speak directly at a "functionnal" or "practical" level but they will NOT talk explicitly about anything that could hurt someone's feelings - i'm not so sure how it translates in the workplace, but this is what i've noticed in everyday life- because the emphasis is on the individual : his work is his worth and if you're not that guy you have no business trying to help him. Whereas in France, we can and will give you feedback, because the emphasis is on the group and not the individal, and by making the individual improve, we can make the group stronger. That feedback can be quite harsh too.. And then there's the language usage that's completely different, like : "the vase fell". Basic sentence in english, BUT implicit meaning "I/you/(s)he broke the vase". You wouldn't be able to say that in French : "le vase est tombé" wouldn't fly (even if grammaticaly correct, mind you) but "J'ai fait tomber le vase"- litterally "I made the vase fall"- would be what you'd hear.

Wonderful presentation and dissecting of these traits ... best of all, the explanation!

I think the important point (but it's only what I think, cause I never worked in an american company and got insights from friends) is that in France we have a VERY strong sense of loyalty. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in the US, but that in France, it is a prerequisite for anything. If you are the boss, and you arrive in a new team, with new coworkers, you will still have to prove worthy of them. They will never give you the respect and obedience you deserve because of your function, but because of your competence, and ability to give to everyone the place they expect to have. Same thing goes the other way : if your new in a team, and your boss does not give you meaningfull task, that's probably because he expects first to trust you. And he will trust you if he feels that you have some sense of loyalty towards him. It is not only professionnal trust and confidence in your competences, but also something more political. We expect our everyday coworkers to stand with us in professionnal conflicts. If the conflicts is between two services, we expect the entire team to team up together, to defend our arguments. If the conflicts is between coworkers, we expect the people we are used to work with to stand with us and help us in that conflict. (Conflict does not mean here that they are violent). In one sentence : Autority and legitimacy is nothing you have by nature. It's something you earn.

Ah I’ve received the culture map book as a gift, so excited to read it, thank you for a super interesting video, I love culture and culture comparison!

implicit/explicit is wrong. It's just that the people who made these studies are mostly anglo-saxons and are unaware of their own implicit behaviors.

I'm really curious where NZ falls on all of these too! I'm assuming generally closer to the US side than the French side, but I may be wrong.

For the Cadre vs Non-Cadre (Cadre = executive in English I think), there's something that must be mention as well, is that you can easily get an education in France, and you can easily have a certificate of your "acquired knowledge through work" when you're a non-cadre to become one! In France, to climb up the hierarchy you need a higher education degree... but university is free, easily accessible, can be done on the evenings and weekends for people working, if you've work for a few years you can join university without an high-school degree, you can also pass an exam to certify your knowledge and skills... So for example, a non-cadre worker can, because of its work experience, get a degree that is equivalent to a BA and then move on to doing a Ms on its free time for a couple years and after that become a cadre and climb up the ladder! There's plenty of example of people who started working without any degree and were at the bottom of the ladder who ended up much higher up! In US it will depends on your performance, but then mostly on whether your boss will promote you or not, while in France you'll need a higher education degree, which, since it's free, is pretty equitable! oh, I forgot to mention, in France, companies must, by law, offer formations to their employees! So, if you want to make a Ms at university which is relevant for your job it is very likely that your company will have to support you in doing it and that you'll be able to work on it (partly) during work hours. All together, having a degree is more of an absolute proof that you are capable, it's something that will stay with you that no-one will ever took away! If you move cities and job you'll still be able to show your degree. What happen in the US in such case? You have no degree but you were so good at your job in startup XYZ that you got promoted to a management position. Now XYZ close and you apply to startup ABC, a bigger one. What happen? How ABC will know that you were that good? They will have to trust you and they will need to ask your former boss at XYZ if that was true! But maybe XYZ's boss was a friend of you and got you a promotion out of friendliness... ABC can perfectly make you start again from the bottom! If you have a degree, then you have an official document as a proof of your worth! Having the mentality to allow talented workers to climb up the ladder without a degree is a quick fix to a broken system... those talented workers should never have been without a good degree to start with! But maybe they are since in the US it is so expensive to get one! Free education and promotion based on education is much more equalitarian imho!

Amazingggggg video! I too used to work for L’Oreal(Urban Decay HQ) and would report to some France management... totally get you!

Hi Rosie, a book that might be very interesting for you is one written by an American professor, David Fischer, comparing New Zealand and the US. He unpicks a lot of the WHYs for NZ and the US's differences, which will add depth to your understanding of NZ (being 'native'), France (having lived there) and the US. APA Citation is below, and your Uni should have a copy, or be able to get one for you on interloan: Fischer, D. H. (2012). Fairness and freedom: a history of two open societies, New Zealand and the United States. New York, USA: Oxford University Press.

In the Arab world, even when a dead line is coming up in a project , they’d be like : What’s the rush for ?!!!! 🤣

J'aime beaucoup tes vidéos, c'est super intéressant de voir comment notre culture est perçue à travers le monde :)

J'ai adoré cette vidéo, super super intéressant !!

This was fascinating - thank you !

Love this video !! This is very consistent from what I've personnally noticed and experienced so it's nice to see that it's back by research 😉 thank you for taking the time to make that one

When it comes to customs in airports in US vs Australia or New Zealand, then Australia and New Zealand has clear bullet points of what you may take with you and what is forbidden or pohibited. In US it is more confusing and unclear what is prohibited for food to take in or not.

I have a frustrating experience. Not knowing where to begin or hitting a plateau can feel demoralizing and make it hard to hit the books and study like you know you should…Having friends from other cultures makes me more creative. In fresh ways about space and how people create their own world and environment. It is best way to connect between creative thinking and cross-cultural relationships

Seing the Hofstede dimensions of culture on KZfaq instead of at university suddenly makes them a lot more fun :D

I previously learned while doing psychological research on the the commonly occurring mental characteristics of males who have anorexia/bulimia/OCD/GAD that it’s UNBELIEVABLE how much of our (all people’s) various personality traits & behavioral dispositions are essentially already determined at the moment of our conception, and then develop extremely predictably according to age & environmental influences - just like we’re robots who think & act precisely & highly predictably according to the certain “program” (genetic/biochemical influences) installed into our tête It’s literally mind-blowing But my point in saying this is that I find it to be very interesting how many of my mental, behavioral, and physical characteristics clearly mostly take after my grandmother - who is French (that side of my family came to the US from Lille, then my other half is Irish) AND (1) my personality traits almost exclusively/without exception fit PERFECTLY with basically all the commonly known/discussed (as in your other videos, + that of other KZfaqrs) “French langue d’oïl areas” (French Occitan areas towards the south seem to be slightly different, based on my understanding) stereotypical thinking & behavioral characteristics of common French people (2) I’ve always felt (+ observed it as an objective reality) and even often am directly told by many European & Asian friends from various countries that my personality & overall demeanor is “not at all like like common stereotypical Americans” - friends I met abroad would even joke that they don’t believe that I’m a true American... lol Up until very recently, I (as well as others) always found it quite difficult to describe where exactly I’m “not American”, or why my personal demeanor is so different from typical homegrown US citizens, but now - after consciously making efforts to learn my primary ethnic languages (French, Irish Gaelic) & learn more about the culture, suddenly things - quite shockingly - seem to make much more sense... As a basic fundamental “law” of psychology, all aspects of one’s individual brain psychology (including thinking patterns, personality traits, behavioral dispositions due to thoughts, etc) are always determined by an individual’s (A) genetics & (B) environmental influences (both of which directly impact/alter/determine certain biochemical processes in the brain) What is especially curious to me is that I never expected - or vastly underestimated - the immense magnitude that genes have on such psychological characteristics (ie personality, thinking style, etc), since we often simply believe such things to be primarily just the product of unique individual environmental influences exposed to or attained while growing up. But--contrary to popular (overly simplistic) perception--both through my studies on “anorexia & bulimia males” (using myself as a case study, plus of course researching & collecting data in mass online) as well as this recent 🤯😱🤯 discovery (which has much less hard supporting evidence then the former, at least momentarily 😂) genetics evidently also play a HUGE role in personality development (this actually should not come as top much of a surprise, though, for people who are aware of basic human-psychology-related concepts & principles) Also, its important to be noted that I didn’t have the opportunity to often interact with my Grandmother growing up, and most people around me (including siblings, cousins, classmates, etc) were all - more or less - “typical Americans”, so this “very French” aspect of my personality & demeanor seemingly could not possibly be due to environmental influences. And among my various siblings & cousins, my physical phenotype also clearly looks to most resemble this maternal grandmother - thus also showing that my genotypic makeup is also very likely to be “French-leaning” in nature Coincidentally, I will be moving to Brittany 🇫🇷 later this week, where I plan on improving my Parisian (standard Metropolitan) French at University of Rennes, then after a relatively high degree of fluency is attained, learn Breton (a Celtic language closely related to Cornish & Welsh, deriving from Brittonic) & Irish Gaelic (+ maybe even Gaulish😁) in an official undergraduate degree program at the university✌🏼I love languages and currently also have native-like fluency in Mandarin Chinese (but I’m still a dopey dumbass in most areas of life 😅 not trying to sound cocky) But anyway, - not to digress... - I just thought this recent discovery of mine was quite interesting and worth sharing lol Props to anyone who actually read all of this 👍🏼🙏🏼😆😃 Are there any other ethnic French people reading this who grew up in the Anglosphere and whom have similar conditions or experiences??? I’m very curious Really looking forward to moving (at least temporarily) to a place where people **actually** (generally) think & act like me 😬😭😊 To be (awkwardly) honest, ever since I was a kid, I always felt like I didn’t really “fit in” here in many ways.... (although I never had trouble making friends + being widely accepted by my American peers) I’ve just always felt that my personality was very different from the vast majority of other Americans, and that it’s always quite difficult to find other peers who think & behave similarly to me So I’ll be very curious to see whether or not Northern France truly is the part of the world naturally suited / most fitting for me 😂 灋蘭西、布列塔尼、愛爾蘭 萬歲！

Very insightful. Thank you for sharing!

I teach English to French people online and I have had trouble understanding the excessive formality in emails with colleagues and students. I knew that already in a way from when I lived in France and from studying it in college, but sometimes I feel a bit taken aback by their formality even when (for me, I guess) it seems uncalled for. It's taken quite a while to stop my automatic defensiveness to my perception of people's tone sometimes. I just watched the part about the implicit and explicity and also the cadre/non candre employees and my student seems to think some of this is generational. Neither of us could really think of any good examples of the implicit/explicit communication though. I know it's true but it's really hard to put your finger on. I would love to see some scenes from movies or skits or something which can be compared for this communication issue. I think it'd be helpful. Not sure if you or anyone reading has any good examples or videos to direct me to. if so that would be wonderful! Just make sure the @ tag is working or it won't notify me when you comment. :) Thanks

I met this girl whose from France and I want to know how different she is from what I live in (if that makes sense)

I am French but I lived in the US and I really want to say that I also met the most disingenuous people I have ever met there. Explicit or implicit does not necessarily mean that things are going to be said at all. And that is something that is not really clear in the video I think that French people tend to say the things they have on their minds and have much more critical thinking than Americans, even though it is going to be said implicitly. It can be seen as rude, but when you are used to it, it is actually something great to try and be a better person. Then, of course, I have a bias so I would love to read others' thoughts on this. And also, please do not take me for another America haters, I loved my time there and I have kept some great friendships. I loved this video btw, really interesting and besides that point, I can totally agree with what was said.

There seems to be a dichotomy that has me scratching my head: On the one hand, you mentioned that in France there is an increase in the subtextual use of language, importance of relationships, and the attitude of there being more than one way of doing things. Then when it comes to risk taking and rules, it’s like the script has been flipped. How do these two opposites interact?

I agree with you the poise for communication is certainly better among the Americans than among the French. The American assertive style of communicating is often more efficient than the implicit French style to convince an audience. On the other hand, this can lead a US presenter to be blowing smoke in an attempt to remain convincing at the cost of changing the reality of facts, reinterpreting figures, etc. For instance, the recent events with the Boeing 737 MAX is showing the limit of their approach to communication. Based on my experience, Americans believe communicating is selling and they often promote a nice pleasant story rather than sticking to the true unpleasant data facts. They can be seriously misleading their listeners or readers at a very high cost. The words « infox » and « to bluff » have no equivalent in French, therefore we use the American ones. According to me it is a sign... In the US, often the cover of the book is nice looking and attractive but the content is weak, without any consistency. Thanks for this good video and keep on the good job. Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉

seeing USA as a young country is a bit overrated. Their constitution is older than the french constitution. Most of our laws and rules were written after the creation of the USA. And the rules and laws are what protect us from living like in the middle-age. In the USA there are many families who get bankrupted because one of them had a cancer. This is not what I call modernity. To me it's obscurantism. This can't happen in France. Not to mention their units of measurement or their outdated gun policy.

Very interesting!

I literally love every one of your videos!

Aren't you from Australia/NZ? Have you ever lived in the US?

Very interesting. I lived in Asia for five years and return there soon. Asians seem to be more like the French than the Americans. If course not the same but American and Asian are very different.

Rosie dear, I definitely see a book possibility based on your experience working in Paris as a Kiwi. So many people would enjoy all of your stories immensely! Definitely include the story of the Madame Connard because I was dying when you posted that. Also I know you're running your consultancy business but the insights you have are so valuable to Americans working in France; maybe position yourself with a separate simple website to offer this to corporations who blend the two cultures? Just some thoughts! x

Interesting comparison between France and USA culture. As a Mexican, despite the influences of USA/Canada, I identify myself more with the French than the Americans, especially with time punctuality. Whenever we have parties, we always tell people to come at a certain time, but when the time comes, we're not even ready. But it's okay because people start to arrive an hour later. 😂 And we greet people with a kiss, just like the French.

You are so funny & adorable!! I am really enjoying your interesting videos!! And they have made me appreciate my country, America, even more!! Thank you!!

Great video! My husband is the guy that leaves a voicemail and repeats everything he said before hanging up, doubling the length of the voicemail. 😝 The hierarchical thing made me cringe.

I know this video is like 4 years old... but a huge problem in american culture revolving relationships is that it's never about relationships.... it's about networking. like you only ever seem to matter to others if you have something to give them in regards to networking.

I miss you on YT Rosie, I hope you're doing well! :)

As an American, specifically United States, citizen born & raised I can certainly agree that you have it down pretty well on the American side. I don't assume or know anything about France or the people, but I can't help being surprised by some of the comparisons. Not in a bad way, just that it's unexpected. I don't know what the French truly think of America or the people (in the US), but I know quite a large number of Americans genuinely admire France and the people there. Though I couldn't tell you how many do so based on stereotypes as opposed to genuine experience & understanding, I suspect the former is higher. Love your video, warm regards.

Hi Rosie! I loved this video. I live in the UK and the hierarchical organisation/awareness is striking; I’m planning on reading the book you recommended to see how different Anglo-Saxon cultures compare. Would you have any other recommendations? Cheers 😉

All the country going on holidays in August? Have you never heard about "juilletistes" and "Aoutiens"? Apparently not. August is the month when industries and constructions works are halted., hence a large part of the workforce (to some extend the part with lower education, but that has tend to evolve in the last decades) is on holidays. In a sort of cultural and sociological opposition, July is a month favoured by intellectual or "encadrement" position in an attempt to avoid the Aoûtiens' rush. These lines have tended to blur in the past 2 decades with the society in general being less'industrial and the development of jobs where it is easier to have an individual decision as to when people can take their holidays.

very interesting, thanks

It’s so interesting to hear your examples since you have lots of experience in business/HR! I’m an American student and haven’t seen that part of either culture yet, so I love hearing your stories! One of my favorite examples of French risk-aversion is that young kids rarely draw a picture without first being given a modèle, whereas American kids love being given the option to make whatever they want :) thanks for this fun, well-presented video!

Could you do a video on the flash mobs that included French lawyers doing a haka? As someone who lived there and as a New Zealander, maybe you could maybe explain what they were thinking.

But you were correct about relationships part and all.

I disagree that the Aussie/NZ/USA style is more explicit, I find it is ONLY more explicit in a work context in relation to a task. In any other context particularly friendships or social life, it is implicit and very hard to read with no consistency or continuity. There are also a lot of promises made like "Let's do this again I will ring you" with no intention of following up at all, which is implicit as it's not honest feedback on the evening or a shallow interaction. I am fully bilingual in both, having grown up in a Francophone country with a French-speaking family but having lived in Australia all my adult life. I will take Francophone communication as my emotional preference but the Anglo style for my task-related preference.

Nice explanation

As an American, no, people do not often say what they mean. They're more likely to drop hints as to what they mean and then count on you to pick up the clues. It's one of the most frustrating things about our culture.

The focus on the task in the US is a problem for them to work with more Latin European country

Funny, am French and my husband is américain,iam a lot more conscious of time ,my husband is always late ,it does not bother him in the least,It drives me absolutely crazy, also iam a lot more direct than he is ,I find he can talk for ever to explain a point where I just state it and be done.

15:58: I guess I’m a geek! 😆

Your figured out the French culture and the differences with English talking cultures like nobody else. People inside Europe don't even know why they don't understand this French culture (only talking about Europeans). You should be on @TedTalk🌠 So many European friend don't understand why the neighbor country acts/works as it is just because they are not willing to understand the neighbor. This is what I experience on a weekly in my country. Thanks for sharing💐

Rosie, This was fascinating!!! I am impressed by your analysis and understanding, as I think career counseling for the US is (probably) much different from other countries. There are so many subtleties to successful interactions! To me, as a an older adult re-entering the formal workplace a few years ago (with a brand-new master’s degree), success (even just getting hired!) seemed unpredictable. It frequently seemed very much connected to being liked by a boss (so random!) , rather than a person’s ability/education/innovation/cooperation/evaluations and reviews. I also think my age was a huge detriment - in the US it’s hard to prove age discrimination, but it is rampant. Best of luck to you in your new endeavors!!!!☺️

Merci super video.

Filipinos have a very similar work attitude with the French. It must be the Latin/Catholic influence. While we do not take a vacation collectively in August, we have holidays sprinkled all throughout the year and Christmas season in the Philippines starts in September when productivity just drops significantly because the entire country is already in holiday mode. Just like the French, Filipinos NEVER SKIP LUNCH. If you go and try to hail a cab at 12pm, cabs will just ignore you because they are about to take their lunch break. Just like the French, Filipinos are implicit with their language. You have to read between the lines to see what’s not being said. If you are not familiar with the culture and speak the language, you’ll easily get left out. French, and Latin culture in general, is something I’m interested in due to the amount of details and similarities I resonate with.

Bonjour. Merci. ...I made geek status too! I noticed there were a few others. Oui, this was very interesting. In the US there is some of the implicit exchange...(I think that was the part, maybe I should check)...I work in a non profit and there's a lot of communication that occurs in ways that an outsider to our organization may not understand. There is a lot of that in the wealthier circles and people who have been raised more 'proper' if you will. So, yeah, Mmm...you have to consider the context in the U.S. There's a lot that gets decided over a game of golf...

Fantastic, in Toulouse they arrive late and laugh saying it's "le quart heure Toulousain" ( Toulouse's quarter hour )😭😭😭 but your video was really nice to see as I thought I was weird, no it's just the culture 😉

Being American I really hate the hierarchy thing. I like to think of myself as unique--not convetional, not a typical American. Yes, I know, how American that attitude is. Lol.

What are you saying? Qad vs non-qad?

After watching this video, I have a few things to say: As a linguist, I can assure you that englush does NOT have more words than the french. Every western language as around 60k words. The best dictionaries have more or less 45k words. Depending on the level of education a native speaker of any language knows 12k to 15k words and on a daily basis he uses 1500 words. It’s the same for all western languages and it has nothing to do with a given language, it’s just how our brains work when it comes to language. An other point, your video compares french culture to american culture... Me being french and you being from new-zealand (despite your interest for everything french), I find interesting that you only speak of behaviors at work. A culture is much more than just the workplace. But you say somewhere in the video that from a puritan point of view, work is the most important thing...

Nice work... so, regarding the possibilities of career evolution in a french company, my experience matches your observations : no matter my IQ or the depth of my cultural knowledge, or my skills or my results, I have been grounded from start, because I don't have any degree. And, more important, I lack social skills. Some people make their way up, but it's always thanks to their political abilities, not their competence at work. And this is sadly true in each an every level in the hierarchy. Cadres are at war, litterally. They spend more time emphasizing to the boss their accomplishment than anything else. They built "cases" against each others so they can blackmail one another. Personnal relationships, good or bad, are always decisive. As I am on the asperger spectrum... listen how much people complain about this guy having a promotion although everybody knows he's really bad at his job, execpt the boss, who promote him. Anyway... nice piece of knowledge on your part...

Do French guys (or French people in general) take more than a month to reply back to texts? Asking cuz I know a French guy who is doing this now that he moved back to France. He didn’t do that in the USA. I understand that French men are blunt and to the point if he’s interested in a girl, he won’t sugar coat things thou. Also is it true that French guys go with the flow and aren’t planners? Im frustrated I want to visit a guy in France but he’s taking his time telling me where he’s gonna work and when he will be free. I gotta plan cuz I come from far away, I’d be more relaxed if I lived in France

So the French work culture is like "hey let's meet up for lunch". During their version of lunch, they casually chat about work. There's only so much personal stuff you can chat about, the rest of it is likely work stuff. Relationships keep pressure on your work ethic so when you get down to the work part, you want to get the job done well to make your people happy. A French task can accomplish multiple goals, hitting 2 birds with 1 stone while the Americans slave away at every single tasks they feel accountable for. Lunch is for refueling the body vessel to keep pushing until 5pm, nothing more.

I find it interesting that a country so concerned with rules has a communication style that is implicit. However, if that is their style, they must have established rules in order to continue to communicate in that fashion. It seems there are assumptions made about the listeners knowledge of the rules.

When I move from NZ to Paris, is there any mandatory things I need to sort out? Registering as a citizen or apartments, do you have any tips for me? (I leave next month)

3:57 Lol. *Walt Disney France. Emily in Paris syndrome.* Go work in the French industry, don't deliver on time in order to chat and improve your relationship with coleagues, and you'll soon learn how bad you relationship with your employer can get. There is just a little more room for relationship in the french world compared to the USA, to improve competitiveness, but relationship is *definitely not the top priority of the french industry.*

7 time more words in french than there are in english that explains the seek of the right word ^^ So many differences between those two cultures, that must be so hard to find balance at work. Oh and about meetings: it's just a way for managers to justify their wages, most french workers hate that and think it's a waste of time, because has you rightly say they are useless. But manager's decision so you act ! Anyway, I watched until the end and wish you good luck for the future, miss not even french (but still a little) !

What is your master thesis?

All of this felt so true. As an American working in France, my very existence insulted many people at the company. My favorite moment was when a colleague insisted on having a meeting in French because he wanted to be "more precise."