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In my opinion the French students came up with words that describe money ("monnai", "billet", "euros", dollars", "green") as its own entity as well as the financial systems used to manage it ("banque", "stock", "finance"). Whereas, American students seemed to focus in on what one can do with money like shop for shoes and bags and pay for school or dinner. Do you think this reveals an American emphasis on consumerism? Also a few Brown students associated money with greed; something the French did not do.

I actually thought that French students focused on what you can do with money just as much as American students did, if not more. More Americans wrote "shopping" in general, but many of the French responses included specific items that cost money, like "voiture," "maison," "voyage," "fête," "billets," "pieces."

Je rejoins plutôt l'avis de Tanya : pièces et billets ne s'achètent pas, ils représentent l'argent. Rares sont les perosnnes à avoir inscrit quelque chose qui s'achète, et (presque) tous ont répondu quelque chose qui symbolisait l'argent (bourse, billet, monnaie euros, salaire...).

For me, after I lived in France for several months, I noticed that the French's daily consumption is not that huge. Desides, I don't feel that not many people regards "shopping" as their hobbys. But for the Americans, it seems they earn money hard because they love to spend them for "shopping"? What casue this differnece? Maybe the U.S.A have more resources for consume? Or they have harder pressure in work so they just want find a way to flex themselves?

Tanya:
Je suis complètement d'accord avec toi et je pense que votre société est une société de consommation et voila pourquoi le terme greed: Comme vous penser que à acheter des objets matériels, celui qui garde son argent pour autre chose est forcément radin.
Ceci ne veut pas dire que la consommation en France est moindre, ce que je ne crois pas, mais que ce n'est pas l'objectif final pour tout le monde.

While it is perhaps true that American culture is rather consumer-focused, I wouldn't attribute the American associations with 'shopping' and 'shoes' as a representative of all American culture. It's important to note here that the majority of our class is female, which probably contributes to these associations with shopping/consumerism. What is the gender distribution in your class?

Dans notre classe, il y a environ 1/3 de filles, mais beaucoup de garçons comme Antonio, rassure toi!

As un internationl student, in my point of view,the frenchs actually are not very greed for money. I really feel when they evaluate the quality of life, they don't emphasize much on money(at least comparing to my own country, because I haven't never been U.S.A. I don't know whether the Americans are so much interested in money. ~) One point interesting, when I first visit the France, many French told us that "we are not very rich, but the Americans are".

Il est vrai qu'il y a un peu ce stéréotype en France : "les américains sont riches. ils gagnent beaucoup d'argent, ils ont des grandes maisons."

Sur certain point de vue, ça peut se justifier.
En effet, il est possbile que pour un même travail, les américains gagneraient davantage.

Un exemple très criant, ce sont les chercheurs. Je connaissais qqun, chercheur dans le public en France qui gagnait assez peu. Il est allé aux USA pour un salaire triple. Après, il y a des questions de conditions de travail. (Plus stressant aux USA, car il y a des échéances plus courtes pour obtenir des résultats, m'avait-il dit, mais il est très content parce que c'est plus facile "à la maison")