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Culture Shock! France: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

Culture Shock! France: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette
By Sally Adamson Taylor

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Product Description

Whether you travel for business, pleasure, or a combination of the two, the ever-popular "Culture Shock!" series belongs in your backpack or briefcase. Get the nuts-and-bolts information you need to survive and thrive wherever you go. "Culture Shock!" country guides are easy-to-read, accurate, and entertaining crash courses in local customs and etiquette. "Culture Shock!" practical guides offer the inside information you need whether you're a student, a parent, a globetrotter, or a working traveler. "Culture Shock!" at your Door guides equip you for daily life in some of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. And "Culture Shock!" Success Secrets guides offer relevant, practical information with the real-life insights and cultural know-how that can make the difference between business success and failure.

Each "Culture Shock!" title is written by someone who's lived and worked in the country, and each book is packed with practical, accurate, and enjoyable information to help you find your way and feel at home.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #870230 in Books
  • Published on: 2005-11-01
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 256 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Taylor is a foreign correspondent with perches in Paris and in Hong Kong. She is Far Eastern Correspondent for Publishers Weekly.

Customer Reviews

Completely impractical1
As a teacher of French, I picked up this book recently because I thought it might provide some cultural insights or funny annecdotes for my students, many of whom go on to study in France. Not only is the book blatantly wrong about the way many things are done in that country, it is also completely useless for someone who bought it in hopes of picking up a few cultural notes before a trip to France. The book is essentially a poor man's psychoanalysis of French behavior (a very faulty one at that) and offers few, if any, concrete suggestions for travelers. Any good guidebook (Frommer's, Rick Steves', Fodor's) would provide more cultural insights and useful suggestions on how to avoid culture shock/ clash.

Easy read and humorous!5
This book was very easy to read. Written so that anyone can understand, it will also have you laughing and rolling around on the ground. It covers practically all aspects of French culture. It will help you if you are travelling to France or moving there.

As I've said, it's very easy to read. And, it's hilarious! You won't regret it.

Confusing in places4
Full disclosure: Though British myself, I live on the outskirts of Paris. I speak French. My wife is French and I have close French friends. I think this gives me an almost unique perspective on the French and their way of life. I am close enough to be able to get an insider's look at them, yet different enough to be super-critical when I feel like it!

Now here's the other interesting thing about my situation: I work for an American Company and I have a lot of American friends. Like many Brits, I feel a certain closeness to USA, even if we find you exasperating at times (just like you probably find us)!

Let's be positive first and give you the good news about 'Culture Shock: France'. I agree with my fellow reviewer (Seattle 29 June 2000) that it cuts to the heart of some of the areas where Americans and the French often don't communicate well. Sally Adamson Taylor explains why some people find the French to be rude and why the French often find Americans to be rude (Don't look so shocked! Or maybe you've not tried to communicate with a New York cabbie recently!) - and remember that in any place some people will be rude no matter what you do.

However, as my fellow reviewer observes, this book offers sound behavioural tips to overcome any cultural differences... like if you're invited to a French person's home, "Don't go sticking your nose into your host's refrigerator" ... hey do you guys REALLY do that?
"Don't open the conversation by telling your host how much you earn."... do you REALLY do that too?
"Try using a knife and fork - it's not as difficult as it looks." ... so what do you normally use - chopsticks?
You see what I mean about cultural differences.

But this brings me to the negative side of the book... Sally Adamson Taylor has, quite simply got some things wrong. Whilst she offers a whole host of useful tips and observations, she describes some of them badly. The section, for example, about the handshake as picked up by my fellow reviewer. I can assure you that nearly all the handshakes offered me are firm with plenty of eye contact. Not the limp-wrist specimens that the author suggests. Maybe she mixes with the wrong crowd.

The one observation that the author has correctly picked up (from Luigi Barzini in his book "The Europeans") is that 'Foreigners have to remind themselves that they are not dealing with a country that really exists... but with a country that most Frenchmen dream still exists. The gap between the two is a large one, but the French indefatigably try to ignore it or forget it.'

That tells you more about France than anything I or Sally Adamson Taylor can say!