Two Countries, Two Ways of Thinking

This past weekend, while I was visiting my former, French host-family, I had an interesting discussion about differences in the way that French and Americans think.

Apparently Americans are more pragmatic in their thinking while French people prefer to discuss ideas.

Jean-Luc, the father in my host family, mentioned that he had noticed this while living in the US.  It was at the start of  the Iraq war.  American newspapers would title their articles with “40 Killed in Bombing” and French newspapers would title the same event with something to the effect of “Iraq Struggling Under Terrorism.”

Americans want the fact, while French people want the idea in the title.

Additionally, Jean-Luc was a member of a religious group in the US that was organizing a retreat.  The members were told to come for a meeting to plan the retreat. Jean-Luc expected to arrive and discuss the topic for the retreat, but to his dismay, they talked about the logistics (food, location etc.) for two hours and about the topic for two minutes!

I think it’s really interesting that not only the habits, food, and social interactions are different between countries, but that thought processes are different as well!