Next Tuesday I should have something exciting to announce, but before that, I wanted to link to an article in the LA Times about a class at USC to help foreign students integrate into American society.
While I've already kind of touched on the things that make French people French and learning those things would help foreigners integrate, there's a difference between activities/attitudes/habits of French people that are characteristic of the French and things that help foreigners understand French society better.
Someone I know asked on Facebook if a French university was going to have a similar class for American JYA students, what would they need to learn.
This all got me thinking about someone I met: an American recently married to a French man, she moved to France only having visited it once while engaged. She discovered that starting her life in France was much more difficult than she imagined. She did have a number of things against her: not speaking French, separated from her teenage daughter from a previous marriage because her daughter decided to not to move to France but to stay with her father, a career in health management she probably wouldn't be able to continue in France....
But then I realized that probably one of the biggest reasons she found life in France so hard is that she is very religious (Christian Evangelical), and that's just not accepted in France. People who thank Jesus for their recovery from a health problem, or thank the Lord for their good job would be mostly seen as weird in France. Personally I think this private nature of worship in France dates from the time when practically everyone was Catholic. Why broadcast your religious views when everyone has the same?
What else makes integrating difficult, but only becomes clear after some time?
And this is only tangentially related, but I think I discovered why my husband isn't big on Christmas/holiday decorations. My revelation came when I was looking at the ornaments on his aunt's Christmas tree and I noticed they were all generic balls or mini-presents. Of my 11 or so ornaments there's the little mouse dancer I chose as a kid, the sleds with my and my brother's names, the bears I got from my Great Grandmother, and some I received from my Grandmother. My parents have tons of ornaments they bought while traveling, received as gifts, that I made in school, or that they collected through the years. Getting out the decorations for me means putting up mementos and memories of people and times past, at least for a few weeks. Maybe if I explain it that way, he'll be willing to spring for some lights next year....
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