It is really funny that the French put down bacon as one of the things that 
Americans are obsessed with. It's kind of really true, but it's still funny because I would not have thought of that at all. I don't think religion came up in any of the American responses. From an outsiders perspective, how much do Americans talk about religion? Is it quite frequent?

I was surprised that the responses were quite similar - both included money, power, sucess, work, and TV in the list. However, I thought the American responses were a bit more negative ("inequality, injustice, discrimination" for example). Perhaps this is because the French responses are mostly only based on what they see on the news and in movies/ TV shows?

Also, Americans do like fast food and bacon in general, but a lot of people try to eat more healthy food (salad is very popular).  I was curious about the source of your "bacon" responses. What made you think that Americans are obssessed with specifically bacon? 

What are some of the specific media sources that influence your impression of American culture?  Are there specific internet sites or television shows that are popular?

On a en effet l'impression que la religion est présente partout aux USA. Comme l'état et les institutions sont laïques en France, il est par exemple curieux pour nous de voir le président des états-unis prêter serment sur la Bible.

Yes religion is big in the US. Many people are proud of their faith and where I come from, all regions are respected. At the same time, there are many people who are atheist and agnostic. So while many people do have very strong religious views, their views are respected, but the same cannot be said about political views. People are much quicker to yell about others political views than their religious views.

Although most of the ideas were similar, I was surprised that none of the French responses included "burgers."  One of the first things a French student in my engineering class asked me was where he could try an American burger.  I assumed that all around the world people assumed we were obsessed with burgers and fast food since we are the ones who started the McDonald's franchise and other sources of unhealthy food.

I usually feel like TV totally distorts American life. Yet the responses of the American and French students were very similar, and I imagine much/most of the impressions of French students came directly from watching American TV shows. Both sides agree that Americans are obsessed with money and we eat really unhealthy food.

My question to the French students: Would you like to be an American? Why or why not?

It's interesting that a lot of the French seem to think that we are focused on work and success - it is quite accurate though... I was looking at the "greatest worry" responses and we definitely worry a lot about being successful. 

Les français sont généralement assez friands des grosses séries américaines ( Dr House, Dexter, The Big Bang Theory, HIMYM, ...) qui reflètent assez bien l'esprit américain et la vie de tous les jours et ce de manière très répandu chez les jeunes. Les séries françaises visent très peu souvent le public jeune ( 12 - 30 ans ) et ou sont innintéressantes bien souvent. Même les chaînes télévisuelles à grande audience préfèrent diffuser avec du retard des versions traduites.

La nourriture est assez présente en France par l'intermédiaire de McDonal's, KFC et Quick... pratique et assez rapide. On trouve facilement ces fast food en France donc on imagine que c'est aussi le cas aux USA.

Pour répondre à Deb, il y a des bons côtés comme toute la consommation et l'innovation que j'apprécie mais la précarité et tous les problèmes qui en découle m'effraie un peu sur le système parfois un peu trop libéral.

L'argent est-il vraiment une composante principale de l'éducation aux USA ?

Yes, money for education is a serious concern in american families. A lot of families apply for financial aid to get some help in paying for college education. Some forms of aid include federal loans, work-study, and scholarship from the university/college. 

In-state (public schools in the state in which the family resides in) schools are a lot cheaper, so a lot of families with financial needs tend to send their children to a local school.

To show an example, I have a friend who was accepted into a rather prestigious school that she wanted to go to, but instead she had to go to an in-state school because of financial reasons. She is doing well in her school, but the prestigious school was the school she had wanted to go to throughout high school. I think this sort of things happen often in the US. 

Yes, money is definitely an issue for students in the United States. Even though financial aid is available, like Sumin said, sometimes it is just not enough. Some people can receive academic scholarships or sports scholarships.

Is money an issue for French students as well?

Tuition at state and private colleges/universities have exploded in recent years and students often leave college with such huge debt that they will be paying for decades unless they default. A lot of students are defaulting on their loans and Congress is terrified this is going to be a huge burden on the taxpayer! Another serious problem is that young people leave college with so much debt that they can't buy homes, which affects their wealth in the long term, or feel they can't choose jobs they might like more than much higher-paying jobs. The level of debt that some young people have is heart stopping! And it's really hard to make good money decisions when you already feel you owe so much that you will never be able to break even!

Question to French students: Would you rather have everyone pay really high taxes so young people have cheap or even free education, as in France, or make individual people pay for their choice to go to college and the advantages that brings them, as in the United States? Americans hate taxes! No one wants to pay taxes, but we all want the roads to be fixed, the bridges to be safe, our food not to be contaminated and police to be on call if we are mugged!

Ooops, I notice in rewriting my first sentence, I have a grammar error (and I am a professional writer!). I should have written, "Tuitions ... have" or "Tuition .... has." Sorry!

Yeah, maybe the response of 'bacon' is due to the fast food culture exported from US to Europe and the world in general. If mcdonald's sells lots of bacon and one associates american culture with mcdonald's, it's easy to make the conclusion that most americans are obsessed iwht bacon, I think.

Je ne pense pas que McDonald's vend beaucoup de bacon ... peut-être un peu le matin et encore... Si je devais me réferer à mcdonald's, j'aurais plutôt pensé aux "pan cakes" ( avec du sirop d'érable, c'est délicieux :) ).

Pour revenir aux problématiques d'argent, je ne pense pas que beaucoup d'étudiants soient réellement bloqués par l'argent. Seulement dans certains cas, où par exemple un élève a un enfant... cela complique les choses... mais sinon les bourses aident beaucoup pour se loger / nourrir et les élèves boursiers sont parfois exempts de frais de scolarité ( ou ceux-ci sont réduits selon les établissements ).

Le problème de tout payer... est que cela défavorise encore les défavorisés. On creuse alors le fossé entre les riches et les pauvres. Celui-ci n'est généralement bénéfique pour personne et provoque généralement des instabilités politiques.

le mouvement des 99% et des "occupy" en est un bon exemple. A quoi bon être riche si 99% de la population veut votre tête ?

The occupy movement is more of a political movement than anything. Not everyone agrees with it. 

What is the French interpretation of the occupy movement?

Christophe, I wanted to check what you meant by "Le problème de tout payer est que cela défavorise encore les défavorisés." Are you talking about the French system where almost everything is paid for for students, or are you talking about the American system where almost all students pay for school?

If it's the first, I'm confused about why such a system would be harmful to those already at a disadvantage...it seems like this would be a great way to help level out the playing field. If it's the second, I'm curious to know, how is the economic gap in France between the richest and poorest people? Is it a huge gap, and if so, is that a problem that people worry about a lot? If the gap is smaller compared to the US, what are important factors that you think contributed to that? (so that we can learn! :)  )

Christophe --

You ask why would you want to be rich if 99 percent of the people want your head. Well, actually, it's more like that 99 percent of people want your rich life, I think many Americans would say back to your point.

And in America, most folks -- other than the tiny number in the Occupy movement -- want to be rich and believe that at least in the ideal America they -- or their children -- can become rich. The Occupy movement is tapping into the past six or seven years in which average Americans have seen the very rich get very very very rich while they themselves have lost jobs, had to work harder to not lose their jobs, and seen their own wages either cut or stay flat during the troubled economy.

The Occupy movement has gotten a lot of press attention because it was new and because it was the bookend to the Tea Party movement. We have yet to see whether the Occupy movement can sustain itself and whether it will have a serious political impact. The Tea Party, for example, was very, very powerful in the 2010 congrsesional elections, but now political commentators would say it can't claim to have anywhere near the same influence.

I fully agree with Deb. 

The Occupy movement was a very small group of very vocal people. The '99%' statistic does not mean 99% of Americans agree with them..it is a catch phrase that they used to get noticed. 

The Ninety-Nine-Percent-ers want money, and they focus their frustration on people who have money. They just channel their energy into being mad at people with good jobs rather than getting an actual good job.

A vinnie,

en fait les hamburgers ne sont pas américains. C'étaient des sandwichs typiques de Hamburg (Allemagne), et les habitants de Hamburg s'appellent les Hamburger. Après le nom a été repris aux USA, et les gens devaient penser que "ham" signifiait jambon, d'où le mot "burger". Voilà je sais pas trop si ça fait avancer le débat, mias ça fait une pause culturelle ^^.