On my second to last day at work (today), I had an interesting talk with some colleagues. We started off talking about the personalities of various colleagues, and ended up talking about me and then cultural differences.
A couple things came up:
What would you say is the compliment your significant other gives you the most often?
I had to answer this question in my interview for the job, and we talked about the fact that I really didn't know what to say. Not that my husband doesn't compliment me, but rather, saying he finds me pretty doesn't mean anything for the professional world. What do you say?
Is it French to give your opinion frankly and American/Anglophone to be nice about it? Or is it just me?
I said in American schools teachers would never tells kids their stupid/wrong like French teachers do. My French colleague answered "But what can I say when something isn't done correctly? Just that, that it's wrong!" So would an American manager try to coach someone more? Tell them where to improve? Or say "It's bad/wrong" just as often as a French person?
Food for thought
4 comments:
Is it French to give your opinion frankly and American/Anglophone to be nice about it?
Yes, it is very French. Anglophones are taught to not give unwanted opinions because it could be rude, and that's where the "rude French" stereotype comes from. Americans would focus more on helping someone get better at whatever it is s/he's attempting to do. But I think French people would tell that same person to just give up and find something else to do. Two approaches to the same problem, but I don't know which one is better.
Was that really an interview question?? Because people tell each other all the time how much they appreciate each other's oganisational skills and promptness, lol.
My internship boss kept telling me how she appreciated my "franchise" but I think she meant that I wasn't afraid to have an opinion, where other students might still be not be very "autonome". So while I always avoided politics and religion and immiration, I had no problem sharing my ideas on education and language, while French students might have been happier to just do/repeat what they were taught. Not sure if that's a French/American thing, or just a me thing.
Whooaaa... I'm with Andromeda and totally was shocked that they'd ask that and immediately imagined myself frozen in the interview chair too.
As for the question of franchise, I think Americans are quite honest too. In my eyes, the difference is that most Americans tend to take into consideration the emotional impact of what they're saying or how they are saying it. Perhaps this is a form of "babying" people or being less honest, but in a professional setting I think that this sort of sensitivity pays off. Sure, someone did something wrong, but is it necessary to shame them? Furthermore, is unapologetic bluntness an effective way of preventing future errors?
I think my Americanness shines through here, haha. I believe that being honest about things does not require you to be jerk about it.
I ended up chatting about this with a Scottish woman and she said she agreed it was an Anglophone/French thing. She used to oversee a bunch of managers and she said when there was a new project/changes in policy she would tell her boss "I'm going to announce this and they're all going to tell me it's terrible, they can't do it, they don't get paid enough, and then eventually they'll be okay with it". And of course the French managers would bitch.
I think my colleagues also interpret negative comments as an opinion, but not positive comments. If you say you like something or it's fine, that doesn't count in their eyes, but if you criticize it then you must be sharing what you think.
For the question about getting compliments, I guess it's a way to get an idea of how other people see you, but I think it's more a call to make up an answer to put yourself in the best light.
Post a Comment