While both the American and the French students associated "freedom" with rights, democracy, and independance, the MIT students associated much more concrete examples with Freedom (the Civil Rights movement, Abraham Lincoln, religious freedom, etc). The French students, however, had a number of associations related to a freedom from responsibility (ailes, ciel, voyager, vacance). Perhaps the Americans have more specific associations because of their recent Civil Rights history. I am curious to know, though, what aspects of French culture lead the Lille3 students to think of vacations and open skies instead of civil rights or religious/ethnic freedom?

This word pair has a positive association for both Americans and the French; in particular, it is recognized as a basic right that is associated with other positive ideas such as equality and independence. I found it interesting that while many of the American responses concerned specific people and things (such as Martin Luther King and the Bill of Rights), the French responses focused on other related ideas, such as equality and democracy. Does anyone have an explanation for why many Americans listed specific people and things related to freedom, but the French did not?

Well I know that I had those specific names and examples ingrained in my skull since first grade. For me it felt like the teachers were still painfully aware of how hard they had fought for the freedoms they had obtained and they didn't want us to get complacent. It may be a negative form of education, though, because I think most children don't know about prejudices or persecution until they're taught about them.

Freedom is one of the founding principles of the United States, but it's something that some people still fight for. Issues of freedom and equality are always being addressed in the news. What I find interesting is that the American responses don't at all reflect any of the terrorism propaganda.

Pour répondre à Elizabeth Leshen je pense que les étudiants français de Lille 3 rapprochent la liberté aux vacances car pour eux il s'agit d'un moment où les obligtions sont moindres même si nous avons des devoirs à faire. Les vacances sont une période où l'on peut aller en vacances, voyages se balader selon son gré, d'où le rapprochement avec le terme liberté.
Mais pour moi le théme liberté se rapporte également au droit civique et religieux tel que le droit de penser, de choisir sa religion ou autre.

PS : Pourquoi avez-vous répondu à Freedom par "liberty" ? Y a t-il une différence ? Pouvez-vous nous expliquer comment vous percevez ces deux mots ?

I think in this case perhaps "freedom" and "liberty" have a similar connotation. Freedom in the United States is often associated with the basic freedoms that in a way define the United States; liberty has the same meaning and is often interchanged with freedom, but sometimes is used in slightly different contexts.

si "freedom" et "liberty" peuvent avoir une connotation différente dans certains contexte, pourriez-vous expliquer pourquoi et illustrer par un exemple svp ?
merci !!

si "freedom" et "liberty" peuvent avoir une connotation différente dans certains contextes, pourriez-vous expliquer pourquoi et illustrer par un exemple svp ?
merci !!

The most common uses I hear are "I'm not at liberty to discuss it" and "the fight for freedom." I don't often hear liberty used in the same sense as freedom even though they may technically have the same definition.

ahh ! ok ! merci !

En fait, "Liberty" et "Freedom" représentent deux choses différentes qui ont le même nom en France.
Je pense que 'Liberty' est la liberté individuelle, tandis que 'Freedom' est le terme utilisé pour parlé de la liberté en tant que notion, dans un sens très large. Corrigez-moi si je me trompe dans mon interprétation?

"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" : c'est la devise francaise!!!! Et la devise américaine??

je ne me suis jamais posé la question!!!!tous les pays ont ils une devise? je ne pense pas..