|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stéphane D- 04:28am Oct 12, 1998 (1.)
La famille est une notion très importante aux yeux des
deux pays, comme en témoigne le foisennement de mots présents
dans la liste. Elle se présente comme une valeur importante,
et le terme d'amour revient très souvent. Cependant, les
Américains semblent être plus matériels. Je
veux dire qu'ils s'attachent plutôt aux personnes : parents,
frères, soeurs. Ils intègrent également les
amis. Au contraire, les Français retiennent plus volontairement
des valeurs familliales : confiance, soutient, aide, solidarité.
L'idée de groupe soudé est très présente.
Enfin, de part et d'autre de l'océan, la famille suggère
l'idée des fêtes, et de la sécurité,
parfois même de la nostalgie. On touche là visiblement
à un point sensible, mais les différences de point
de vue entre les deux communautés apparaissent minimes.
Le mot famille/family semble évoquer des deux côtés
la notion d'amour, de protection, de sécurité et
rappelle pour la majorité les parents et les frères
et soeurs. Il est amusant de trouver dans chaque pays une référence
à Noël/Christmas, cela évoque probablement
un des moments de l'année les plus favorable aux réunions
de famille. Une réponse me paraît typiquement américaine:
dog; effectivement, nous pensons en France qu'une très
grande majorité des américains vivent avec des animaux
domestiques et les considèrent comme des membres de leur
famille... Le mot famille/family a pour tous une connotation très
positive, ce qui rend d'autant plus étrange la politique
française à cet égard... Le gouvernement
américain est-il plus encourageant envers les familles?
The first thing i noticed while comparing the responses to
the word "family" was the absence of "mother"
from most of the french responses. Otherwise, the responses were
rather similar. Do you, as french students, think that this difference
is significant? If so, why do you think that "mother"
does not come to mind as readily among french students?
I also noticed with the lists of the word "family"
that the word "mother" never once appears on the French
lists, while the word "brother" appears a lot. Why do
you think that this happened? In class, we were hypothesising
the perhaps in France, the word "family" applies more
to friends and neighbors than just the immediate family, whereas
in the United States, we tend to think of a "family"
as being a mother, father, brother & sister... Do you agree
with this?
Actually, in class we also came up with the idea that French
students used the word "frere" more to describe "family"
because of the fact that the concept of "fraternite"
is so important in France (Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite). Also,
we thought that Americans used more the word "mother"
to describe "family" because she is seen often as the
center of such entity. Do you think the "fraternite"
idea makes any sense at all, or can you give further explanations?
The most frequently associated word was love. Therefore, both
the french and the americans hold positive viewpoints regarding
family. However, I did notice that the word sister appearred less
frequently than did the word brother. (I don't understand why).
In both cultures, family was associated with parents, and home.
I understand that we tend to generalize our concept of family
throught these words but we don't realize that it is not right
to adopt a sole point of view ignoring that our opinion is only
an average of individual voices .Each one of us probably has a
different mentality. Although some of our words for family tend
to be sometimes negative that does not mean that we do not conserve
family values .Remember that the US is composed of an heterogeneous
population , many descendants from distinct cultures who are loyal
in mantaining their family bonds. Making generalizations of a
culture can sometimes be harsh.
In response to Hubert's point about animals, my family has
a dog, and he is very much part of our family. To us, he has a
very vivid personality, and sometimes he does things that seem
very human. Do many French have pets? Would one call a pet part
of the family?
I also would like to add that the word family has a universal
meaning: it is rarely associated with negative terms. Family is
at home. Regardless of culture, family has the same connotation.