Cultural Differences

It's very interesting to have a conversation with someone of a different culture and see the reactions of various people when you tell them about some typical aspect of your own culture. The French, for example, are always very surprised to hear that it's not uncommon for us Americans to eat dinner at 5pm--and that 8-9pm is considered a little late for dinner (which is about the normal time for dinner in France). Similarly, I conversed with a girl from Sweden today who was absolutely surprised that there is a 6 hour time difference between France and where I live in the US--and that the United States has several different time zones. Above all, I've realized that it's very difficult for people of other cultures (except people from China and Russia) to comprehend the size of the United States. In France, it takes one hour to cross the entire country by plane, and maybe 10 hours by car. For us, 10 hours doesn't even get us to New York City, or Washington, D.C., and not even anywhere near Los Angeles. This is something that is just mind blowing for someone living in Europe.

Americans, however, would probably be surprised by the little things we do in the US that are unheard of here in France. Shower curtains, for one, are among these "amenities." It takes some serious diligence for me to ensure that there isn't a puddle of water outside of the shower when I get out. Also, good luck finding a hotel with a shower in which you can stand up. Most have a little hand-held nozzle that requires one to either sit, or risk spraying large amounts of water on the floor, or potentially your clean clothes for that day. Showers in general are somewhat of a luxury in other countries too. And for all of you crazy-long shower takers (me being one of them), you won't find people doing that here in France.

One thing I do enjoy here are the bathroom facilities at businesses, schools, and restaurants. When you use a stall, you actually close a *real* door with *real* walls around them. The walls even go from the floor to the ceiling. It's like your own private office for the time you are using it. When will we Americans wise up and install real walls and doors around our bathroom stalls instead of the fake, junky, often graffiti-ridden, sorry-excuse-for-privacy walls that are in our public facilities.

I really do enjoy seeing the differences between my culture and another. It's something important that everyone needs to do at least once in his or her life. It definitely allows for a greater understanding of why people do the things that they do. And as the American author Henry Ward Beecher once said "[t]hat is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all."