Toutes Directions

One of the things I've been thinking about recently is the divergence that exists in France between how things are presented and how things actually happen.

I'll give you a couple examples:

-In the University cafeteria, there's a large permanent sign on one wall announcing warm entrées, except in the 5 years I've worked at the University there have always been yogurts there.

-The reimbursement form says you don't need to provide any food receipts, but accounting returns all requests that don't have them.

-The website said the store was open today, but when you actually get there it's closed.

-The schedule says class is 8:45-9:45, but the teacher always teaches 9-10.

It's like there's a permanent disclaimer "Don't pay any attention to what we said."

After much internet searching, these kind of differences can be explained by the fact that France is a high-context communication culture. I know that class doesn't really start at 8:45 because I've been going to the school for 3 years. I know where the different dishes are in the cafeteria because I've been eating there for a while. You're supposed to know about the store being closed because you would of course go there regularly for your groceries or daily bread and thus know from chatting with the cashier whether or not the store would be open.

I found a well written summary of high/low context culture as well as a lot of the other theories in work here at this link.
These kinds of cultural differences used to drive me insane. Now I'm used to them, but I'm beginning to wonder what that says about me that they don't bother me any more. If you push these examples of high-context culture to the extreme, you end up in a kind of Kafkaesque/fantasy world: reality isn't as it appears, disregard what you see, anything's possible.

I feel like I've given up on truthfulness in some sense, or in scientific thinking. Being exact or correct isn't essential. I used to be horrified by websites that gave incorrect information, for example, and now my first reaction is to shrug my shoulders.

I've also been thinking about who benefits from this structure, and I think the reason this system works in France is because it is a relationship-based culture and not rule-based. Because there aren't rules and regulations for everything, you can negotiate things in your favor or use your connections or superiority to get what you want. There's also an idea of judging each situation as it comes and making a unique decision, instead of applying a universal rule:

"Why enslave oneself to a piece of paper, when the world constantly changes?"

In my small corner of the university I've tried to create a microcosm of a low-context, rule-based culture because that seems so much more efficient to me. I try to lay out the rules, and I expect everyone to follow them because they're professionals, and that way everything should work better. But am I setting myself up for failure? My using my American low-context, rule-based culture I've had several professional successes at the university, but I don't if rowing against the current will always be a positive. Or maybe the fact that the European Commission is low-context will save me?