Anne C G- 04:22pm Mar 5, 2001 (#1 of 5)

Hello, everyone! I noticed that several of the French students listed words like "famille" and "sociale." In France, does success have more of a social connotation? Does someone need to have a family to be considered successful? Other than that, the American and French responses appear similar -- money, work, power, etc.

Samia A M - 06:22pm Mar 5, 2001 (#2 of 5)

The French responses seem to have a little more negative connotation entwined in them. Examples include "opportunisme" and "jalousie" and "leurre". I don't really understand why they associated these words with "reussite". Does this word have a slightly different meaning in French? Or are they just associating other things with this word and getting their responses from those associations, like possibly "argent"?

Christine L - 12:53am Mar 6, 2001 (#3 of 5)

Hey everyone. I think the French response for success is interesting when you compare it to the response for elite. There were a few negative associations with success which is also true for elite. It's worthy to note that although elite is associated with high society and the French have a negative view of the elite, they relate success to social position. Do the French not associate high society with the elite like Americans do? Or are the associations just a little contradictory? Other than that, I agree with Anne that our definitions of success are very similar. Christine

Lilla Z - 05:42am Mar 6, 2001 (#4 of 5)

I made the same observation as Anne did about the frequent appearance of the word "sociale" in case of the French responses. However, I would interpret that in a little bit different way. I don't think that it means that you have to have a family to be successful. According to me, it just says that success is often associated to the fact of how well one is accepted by others or how well he/she is able to handle human relationships.

--Lilla

Craig M- 11:10am Mar 6, 2001 (#5 of 5)

In terms of success, I was wondering if the differences between the US and French governments have something to do with this. It seems to me that because France has a strong socialist government people would tend to culturally accept more socialist ideas and thus value success in more social, rather than individual terms. I am not sure if this concept is accurate and would like it if the French folks give me their feedback.