Cultures
Games tell you a lot about one's personality, and it's especially interesting to see people from many diverse countries playing games together. Several times over the last couple of days we played various versions of Taboo, Pictionary, and Scategories to help solidify our vocabulary. Today it was especially apparent that we Americans are some of the most competitive and creative people.
Our teacher told us to pick a group of 3-4 people to work with. Most of the room looked around quietly, but one girl looked down the row and said, "Team USA?!" We agreed. 4 Americans made up a team; 2 Koreans and a Japanese woman formed another team, girls from Japan, Switzerland, and Sweden joined forces, and another a team of 2 Russians, a Cambodian, and another Swede completed the groups. As we raced to come up with Names, Countries, Fruits/Vegetables, Objects, and Professions that began with a given letter, there were a few times that our American team jumped the gun. "Stop!" we yelled to the group before one of us realized that we had neglected a category. Another time we were given the letter "Q" - you'd think that words beginning with "Q" would be easier in French, but they're not. "Quiche avec legumes" one girl replied (translated: Quiche with vegetables). And a profession? "Quelqu'qu qui enseigne" (translated: Someone who teaches). The other teams laughed and shook their heads at us. When the games were completed and the scores were calculated, Team USA won. There was no prize, no real incentive for winning, yet we were happy; we were proud. The other teams didn't seem to care too much. It's a picture of our culture.
Being in language school has given us glimpses of other cultures - not just the French culture, but also the cultures of our classmates from countries like Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Turkey, New Zealand, England, Russia, Thailand, and even the United States. For example, the Japanese are full of respect - even if there is not a deep relationship. The Russians are good students, proud of their language abilities, and great at French pronunciation. Americans are the first to speak their mother-tongue, though most everyone speaks English. You can even hear other students, which are not native English speakers, speaking English together outside of the classroom (it's no wonder when ~43% of movies in France are American, with similar statistics in other countries, too - according to a document and discussion we had this week in class). The Asian students are soft-spoken; American students speak the loudest; other European students are somewhere in the middle.
Language school has been a positive, difficult, challenging, and necessary experience. And language learning is life-long. But, we are glad to say that, as of today, school is out for the summer!
Our teacher told us to pick a group of 3-4 people to work with. Most of the room looked around quietly, but one girl looked down the row and said, "Team USA?!" We agreed. 4 Americans made up a team; 2 Koreans and a Japanese woman formed another team, girls from Japan, Switzerland, and Sweden joined forces, and another a team of 2 Russians, a Cambodian, and another Swede completed the groups. As we raced to come up with Names, Countries, Fruits/Vegetables, Objects, and Professions that began with a given letter, there were a few times that our American team jumped the gun. "Stop!" we yelled to the group before one of us realized that we had neglected a category. Another time we were given the letter "Q" - you'd think that words beginning with "Q" would be easier in French, but they're not. "Quiche avec legumes" one girl replied (translated: Quiche with vegetables). And a profession? "Quelqu'qu qui enseigne" (translated: Someone who teaches). The other teams laughed and shook their heads at us. When the games were completed and the scores were calculated, Team USA won. There was no prize, no real incentive for winning, yet we were happy; we were proud. The other teams didn't seem to care too much. It's a picture of our culture.
Being in language school has given us glimpses of other cultures - not just the French culture, but also the cultures of our classmates from countries like Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Turkey, New Zealand, England, Russia, Thailand, and even the United States. For example, the Japanese are full of respect - even if there is not a deep relationship. The Russians are good students, proud of their language abilities, and great at French pronunciation. Americans are the first to speak their mother-tongue, though most everyone speaks English. You can even hear other students, which are not native English speakers, speaking English together outside of the classroom (it's no wonder when ~43% of movies in France are American, with similar statistics in other countries, too - according to a document and discussion we had this week in class). The Asian students are soft-spoken; American students speak the loudest; other European students are somewhere in the middle.
Language school has been a positive, difficult, challenging, and necessary experience. And language learning is life-long. But, we are glad to say that, as of today, school is out for the summer!
That sounds like such a fun experience! I never thought of Americans being way more competitive than other cultures, but it makes sense!
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