I was actually surprised by some of the responses. I think that individualism is something that most people strive for and is celebrated in the states but quite a few french students described it as " selfishness" and "alone". Its an interesting perspective. It makes me wonder, if not individualism than what? What is the social atmosphere of France like or were these the first words that came to mind, and if that's the case, why so negative?

The French seem to have a completetly opposng view towards this concept as opposed to the Americans. the americans have an extremely positive view towards what individualism is, while the French seem very negative towards it. They seem to consider the concept as egoist and oo personal. I partially expected something like this to come up, and was actually the reason why I chose this as one of my words, because I know that socialism is a strong political party in France, something which would never be considered in the US. The Americans strive much more towards what is ultimately the American Dream, which is being the best you can be individually, and the differences in opinion between the two cultures regarding the concept can be traced back towards the differences in cultures and ideals.

I was also surprised by the responses of the French students to this topic. I think the differences between the French economy, where socialism is more prevalent, and the American economy, where capitalism is the norm, might have something to do with this attitude.

Another reason why I was so surprised had to do with the fact that individualism is such an integral part of the American identity that I had never thought that anyone could be so much against it. I think it's possible that the French students think more about self-centered people when they think of individualism while the American students think more about reaching their own personal goals and improving themselves.

The generally negative view of "individualism" by the French seems to match well with their very uniform responses, compared to Americans who view it favourably and have much more diverse associations.

It also suggests that to the French, "individualism" has a very narrow, confined meaning (which may be negative), whereas to Americans it is more open to interpretation.

I too was surprised by how blunt and uniform the french reaction to 'individualism' was.  Over half of the responses were some form of égoïste or seul.  It is clearly a loaded term in French.  Are there any other synonyms that don't carry such a negative connotation?

Il est vrai que la vision du mot individualisme en France est diamètralement opposée à la vision du mot pour les Américains.

En France, l'individualisme est donc synonyme de solitude, d'egocentrisme voire même d'égoïsme.

Aux Etats-Unis, les Américains voient l'individualisme davantage comme  l'indépendance, la liberté, preuve de la force mentale et de l'identité propre.

"Chez nous", on peut dire qu'en règle général, les étudiants ( les jeunes en général ) sont plutôt situés a gauche ( socialisme ) avec des valeurs comme l'égalité, la Fraternité, le social.

"Chez vous", je ne sais pas si vous pouvez me le confirmer mais un des stéréotypes qui caractérise la société américaine est le Capitalisme pur et dur.

Hi Maxime,

You pose an interesting question - while I would agree that capitalism has played an undeniable role in shaping much of American life (our long work days and short vacations in particular), the views of Americans on politics, government and society, as you can imagine, tend to vary very broadly. 

I have noticed, however, that they can be roughly categorized by geographical region.  For instance - I have found that in the coastal United States (in cities like New York, California and Boston) most people subscribe to the same sorts of principles that you described as being typical of the French.  Liberalism is popular among them, I believe, largely because coastal regions tend to have larger immigrant populations than the rest of the country - a fact which tends to make residents of these areas more tolerant to differences in culture, ethnicity and class (and thus more sympathetic to leftist causes) than the more culturally-homogenous land-locked regions of the country. 

I would be curious to know whether such correlation between geography and ideology exists in France.  Are your metropolitan areas generally more liberal than your rural regions, like ours are?

Best,

~ Khalea

Bonjour Khalea, enchanté de te rencontrer

D'abord : Merci de ta réponse, il est intéressant de voir que les régions où les immigrants sont plus nombreux soient plus tolérantes de par le fait. Cette réponse casse l'idée que l'on se fait qui consiste a faire passer les Américains pour des capitalistes inhumains.

Pour répondre à ta question, il est vrai que certaines régions sont plus ou moins libérales que d'autres. Par exemple, lors d'éléction en France, des cartes qui mettent en évidence la différence de majorité de droite ou de gauche sont faites. ( Comme vous pouvez le voir avec ce site :  http://elections.rfo.fr/IMG/jpg/Infographie_gauche2008.jpg )

Pour être honnète avec toi, Khalea, je n'ai pas la moindre idée de ce qui peut expliquer cette différence d'idéologie. Peut être les régions urbaines sont-elles plus capitalistes que nos régions urbaines ?

Je suis désolé de ne pouvoir répondre à ta question. Mes camarades t'éclaireront peut être davantage.

Max.

The responses made me realize that individualism must have different connotations in each coucntry, but I'm not sure why that is.  Maxime--as you pointed out, individuality means selfishness and being egocentric, and the french seem to value fraternity and the group identity more than the individual identity.  Why is that, though, and how does this transfer over to other parts of life besides government?

Bonjour Hillary, désolé du retard :

Il y a un vieil adage qui dit : "L'union fait la Force". D'une règle générale, les Français attachent de l'importance au social. Par exemple, dans une entreprise, a bonne ambiance et la complicité entre les ouvriers priment sur la compétition des uns sur les autres.

Dans la vie de tous les jours, on peut souvent croiser des occasions où les gens sont invités a se rejoindre. Ainsi, de temps en temps, des banquets, des jeux collectifs sont organisés pour la ville afin que les habitants puissent se rencontrer. Une fois l'an, un jour appelé "Jour des voisins" met en place un repas en plein-air pour tous les habitants du quartier.

Ces petits éléments sont simples mais ils permettent de créer du lien social.

Aux Etats-Unis, il est rare de trouver ce genre de réunion ?