There are many similar words between the two sets of answers, like music, art, food, traditions, and history. Nevertheless, It's interesting to see the Americans' perception of what culture is to be full of diversity and individualism. The french do not mention individualism nor diversity at all, which lets us observe how the Americans relate culture to their idea of a "Melting Pot" of cultures which created them, while the French clearly have a much more concrete view of what they are as a culture.

In general, I noticed that Americans usually used adjectives, such as diverse, unique, and individual.  The French, on the other hand, preferred to give examples of culture (or at least the mediums through which it is expressed), such as art, movies, books, museums, and especially music.  Americans, however, mentioned music far less than the French, but instead, thought of food.  I think it's funny but appropriate that we put food as a sign of culture because I think the "American culture" is based largly on food, probably in party because we as a country are preoccupied with food.  We see food as an identifying feature, even distinguishing different regions of our country. 

~Hillary Jenny

09.29.09

I noticed that while the Americans associated culture with words such as individualism and diversity, the French used used that are mostly indicative of a collective form of culture like music and arts. They made very little mention of food or diversity.Do you think the French culture is intolerant of diversity or it is just too small as aspect of the culture that it just wasn't one of the first words to come to mind?

For this prompt, I noticed that Americans used a larger variety of words, while the French primarily used the same words such as music, museum, and books.  As one American student said, culture is 'mixed, melting pot, undefined', suggesting that the U.S. is very multicultural with a lot of variety that is difficult to describe in a few words.  However, despite the lack of uniform ideas about culture, essentially all the words use by American students were positive.

Salut,

moi d'un point de vue culturel.je suis d'accord avec Claire Nauman par rapport à ses remarques.Et je dirais que, la culture pour la majorité d'entre nous est vue comme etant artificiel alors que pour certain c'est comme espase de divertissement.

Il est vrai qu'en france nous voyons la culture avec des mots et des choses concrètes alors que vous, c'est vraiment l'idée du "melting pot". Ne serait-ce que dans les films nous voyons bien toutes les cultures américaines qui se mélangent (hispanique, afro-américain ...).

Personnellement je vois ça comme quelque chose de positif pour le pays. J'aimerais tellement qu'en france les étrangers aussi apportent un plus à la culture francaise de part leur pas d'origine (les portuguais, les maghrébens ...).

En comparant les deux listes de mots nous pouvons observer que les français ont cités differntes formes d'art comme le cinema alors que les éléves américains ont plus souvent évoqué l'origine de la culture tels que les coutumes; les traditions;... Je trouve ça domage que en France il n'y a pas autant de diversité qu'au Etas-Unis.

Marina,

It may be sad that there exists little diversity in France interms of culture but I should also mention there are also many negative aspects associated with diversity. For this reason, there is actually a debate over the benefits versus the costs of diversity in the US.

Is there a particular aspect of the French culture that you think would be better if there was a more diverse population? Just out of curiousity,have you personally had the chance to experience some other culture in addition to the French culture?

Alice,

    Could you clarify your response a bit? Did you mean that the diversity in the US is good or that the lack of diversity in France is? I'm wasn't sure what "ca" refers to and which "pays" since you had mentioned both of them in the previous sentence.

salut,pour moi la culture c'est un peu la meme chose que les français et les américains c'est à dire musique,plats africains,danse...mais j'ai pas trop compris le mot arrière plan du coté des américains qui apparait une seule fois et du coup je me demande s'il fait référence au cinéma?