{"id":13,"date":"2013-02-25T18:42:43","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T18:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/wordpress\/?p=13"},"modified":"2013-02-25T18:42:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T18:42:43","slug":"how-to-make-friends-and-bonjour-people-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/?p=13","title":{"rendered":"How to make friends and bonjour people (in France)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’d heard the story so many times I was starting to think it was an urban legend among Americans in Paris.<\/p>\n

\"When<\/a>
When you walk into the patisserie, say “Bonjour, Madame” !<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the last time I heard it \u2013 from a young half-French, half-American fellow \u2013 I gave it my full attention.\u00a0\u00a0 This was definitely a winner in my collection of cultural differences.<\/p>\n

He told me he\u2019d always thought he was more French than American (he was raised by a French mother in the States) but it was confirmed in the metro when he asked an employee what line to take.<\/p>\n

Bonjour\u00a0\u00bb, the agent replied, looking him in the eyes.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Bonjour\u00a0?\u00a0\u00bb What on earth\u00a0?\u00a0 The young man thought he hadn\u2019t heard correctly.<\/p>\n

But the agent, he told me, just stood there, waiting.\u00a0\u00a0 He decided to see what would happen when he uttered this obviously important word.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Bonjour\u00a0!\u00a0\u00bb he said, looking at the employee \u2013 who smiled and proceeded to answer his question rapidly and efficiently.<\/p>\n

The young man went on his way, his thoughts twirling.\u00a0 Now what was THAT all about\u00a0?<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t you just get your information and get out of there\u00a0?<\/p>\n

The reason is that France is a country where form, how you do things, is as important as content (what you do).\u00a0 And in the metro, or stores, acknowledging the existence of the person to whom you are addresssing a question is an important matter of form.<\/p>\n

I told this to an American friend who guffawed.\u00a0 \u00ab\u00a0The French can be really rude, \u00ab\u00a0 she said.\u00a0 \u00ab\u00a0Why should they be such sticklers for polite behavior\u00a0?\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

It was then that the little light went on.\u00a0 Americans often tax the French as being rude, snotty, and superior.\u00a0\u00a0 But when someone walks up to them, doesn\u2019t even say hello or acknowledge them as a person and asks directions as if they were entitled to the information, well, they consider that person rude.\u00a0 Works both ways\u2026.<\/p>\n

Anyway, whatever you do: \u00a0say “Bonjour!”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’d heard the story so many times I was starting to think it was an urban legend among Americans in Paris. But the last time I heard it \u2013 from a young half-French, half-American fellow \u2013 I gave it my full attention.\u00a0\u00a0 This was definitely a winner in my collection of cultural differences. He told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":783,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20,"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/20"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harrietweltyrochefort.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}