by Paco H, March 4, 2014, 6:20 AM
There are a lot of similarities between each side. Both sides name family and family members the most and it is all positive. Interestingly, for the American side, the word ‘home’ is mentioned a lot (at least 9 times), but on the French side it is only mentioned once. However, on the French side, it mentions a lot more physical closeness like ‘links’. It seems that a location is an important part for the American side, but the idea of closeness/proximity is important on the French side.
Also, I wonder if education is especially related to family in France because even though I would agree with the relation, the American side did not have it.

by mbennaim, March 4, 2014, 6:29 AM
For both the American and french responses, there are almost exclusively words with positive connotations. Both sides mention family member names a fair amount (mother, father, brother, sister). However, the American responses have more widely-used words than the French side. On the American side, “home” and “love” are each mentioned at least 8 times, while the most common french word is “parents,” which is only mentioned 5 times. To me, it seems like the French side values connections and support, while the American side places emphasis on love.
I wonder, though, whether the word “love”/”amour” is used the same in French and English. In English, one can say that one loves family or a spouse with the same use of the word “love.” Is the same in French?

by lindathemoon, March 4, 2014, 1:18 PM
On both the American and French sides, people show very positive attitudes toward “family”. Family is closely related to family members, support and understanding, warmth and trust. On the American side, most people mention “love” when they think about family, which occurred only twice on the French side, who emphasize more on support and bonding.
I think the difference may come from the habit that the Americans always express their feelings and say “love” to family members, whereas in France, “amour” might be used in different situations, like more romantic relationships. Do French usually express their emotions to family?

by mkitaoka, March 4, 2014, 2:58 PM
For both the French and American sides, family members, “home”, and “love” are the predominant words – all of which are very positive. The French also seem to focus on the foundation and security that family provides, such as “fonder” and “repère”. In some ways, it seems as though the French are more concerned with the family unit and its connections (via support), as opposed to the Americans’ “love”. Perhaps “love” has a different connotation than “amour”. The French also had more emphasis on education – the American words focused more on the overarching idea of “home”, so maybe the French have higher expectations in that regard?
by sgtdede, March 4, 2014, 3:34 PM
Il semble que les valeurs reliées à la famille sont similaires dans nos deux pays. En effet, les mêmes mots reviennent des deux côtés. Notamment les membres de la famille. Une petite nuance, les américains font souvent références au foyer, tandis que que les français mentionnent les liens.

by kelex33, March 4, 2014, 4:00 PM
@mbennaim @lindathemoon
Il semble en effet qu’en France, le fait de signifier son amour à sa famille, et a fortiori à ses amis, soit de l’ordre du tacite. Ce genre d’expression est plus dédié pour son ou sa compagne. Toujours est-il que l’Amour pour notre famille s’exprime au quotidien de part nos gestes et nos attitudes, n’ayant de cette façon pas de nécessité à être exprimée concrètement.

Dans les réponses américaines, la famille semble restreinte à la famille proche (parents, frères et sœur). Votre définition de la famille inclue-t-elle également les grand-parents, les cousin(e)s ainsi que les oncles et tantes?

by tsoucarre, March 4, 2014, 4:06 PM
En France comme en Amérique, nous avons choisi des mots faisant référence aux relations biologiques comme “parent”, “père” et “mère”, la famille semble donc se définir dans les deux pays autour de la relation unissant les deux parents, notre vision de la famille parait donc similaire sur ce point puisque nous résumons cette notion à la famille proche : le père, la mère, les frères et les soeurs.
En dehors de cela, les Américains insiste sur les mots “love” et “home”, ces mots n’apparaissent que très peu chez les français pour décrire la famille. L’usage du mot “amour” est moins courant en France qu’aux Etats-Unis pour définir les relations dans le cadre familial. Il est aussi plus approprié pour définir les relations entre deux personnes, plutôt que les relations multiples qu’on possède au sein de sa famille, cf: relation amoureuse. Le mot “foyer” traduction de “home” est peu courant en France, on utilise plutôt maison, ce qui explique pourquoi le mot apparaît très peu dans nos réponses. Les Français insistent plus sur les valeurs familiales comme la confiance, le soutien ou le partage.

by megania2014, March 5, 2014, 3:01 PM
For me, “home” doesn’t necessarily refer to a specific location. Especially now that my time is split between living at home and living at college, I think of “home” as referring to a feeling of comfort and belonging, not necessarily where my parents are. I refer to both my parents’ house and my dorm room as home. I think this is true of many Americans – the word “home” actually refers to a feeling, as opposed to “maison”, which seems to refer to a physical building.

by Sarah W, March 6, 2014, 5:08 AM
Going back to kellex3’s question, I mostly just consider family to be the family I live with — my parents. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc. are more a part of the extended family, which isn’t exactly what I think of when I think of family, I guess. I think I might be extreme in my views, because my extended family lives very far away. I think people whose extended families live very close by might immediately include extended family in their notion of “family”.

by dengxinyue0420, March 6, 2014, 5:29 AM
American and French give similar words to describe family. They both mention a lot about family members. Americans use word “love” a lot, but French don’t use “amour” a lot. Instead, they use “Soutien”, “partager”. They are similar to love, I think maybe “amour” in French refers more to the relationship between men and women instead of family. Also, Americans use home a lot, but “foyer” only appears one time in French words. “Home” may have emotional feeling to Americans.

by mbennaim, March 6, 2014, 7:16 AM
@kelex33
When talking about the concept of “family,” this mainly means immediate family that I lived with because I was a lot closer to them. Of course, the strict definition of family includes extended family like aunts, uncles, cousins, and others, but since I always lived very far away from extended family, I mainly think of my immediate family when I consider what “home” is. When choosing words for this activity, I picked the words that first came to my head, which happened to be related to my immediate family. In this way, I agree with Sarah.

It seems like in French, “amour” is more for romantic relationships, rather than familial relationships, while “soutien” and “partage” are more applicable to family. Does this sound accurate?

by lindathemoon, March 6, 2014, 1:11 PM
@kelex33
I’m from China so I’m not entirely sure about the structure of American families. But so far as I know, grandparents/aunts/uncles are for sure family members, but not as close as parents/siblings/kids. And when talking about “home”, one would relate to the closest family members that one would see regularly at home, who are just “la famille proche”.

by ymentagui, March 11, 2014, 3:19 PM
Une famille est une structure humaine assujettie à des relations entre les individus qui sont proches les uns des autres. Naturellement cette structure ne devient ferme et solide que si elle est soudée et gouvernée par l’amour et le soutien de ses membres. Il semble alors que les américains ainsi que les français se sont basés sur cette nature caractérisant une famille pour fournir les mots inscris sur le tableau en haut.