Many Americans associate “Diversity” with the US, but the word didn’t show up at all in the French responses.
Many French students associate words relating to war and guns with the US, but none of the Americans associated similar words. Maybe this is because in France, they hear about gun violence in the US, while in America we’ve gotten so used to gun violence that we don’t associate it with the country but instead with regular life.
I think that the French students didn’t associate “Diversity” with the US because France is smaller and less diverse than the US, so problems relating to diversity are not something that French students think about all the time, while in the US, some of the biggest topics relate back to diversity (Black Lives Matter, Immigration, etc).
I think that the French hear a lot about gun violence in the US and also about the war against ISIS and the Middle East recently, which is why they associate words relating to guns and arms with the US.
America, in my opinion, is well known to be the land of the immigrants. This is reflected in our responses, as “Diverse” comes up multiple times, but this fact is not reflected at all in the French responses. Why?
Why do you associate words relating to war and guns with the US?

I was most surprised by the number of times people said “hamburger”. Both sides seem to have a mix of positive and negative words. The most common answer across the board seemed to be that the United States is large and powerful.

I thought it was interesting that the Americans said “diverse” a number of times but the French did not mention that. It’s very common in America to hold on to the cultures of your ancestral countries even if your family has been in America for many generations. This tendency leads to communities with very different cultures, and we take pride in our diversity.

On the French side, 5 people mentioned film or TV, which surprised me. How often do French people watch American movies and television? Because we honestly don’t watch a lot of French movies.

I thought it was interesting how both sides mentioned “hamburger” and “MacDonalds”. I also thought it was interesting how the French side mentioned many words having to do with war and violence.

While the American side noted “diverse” multiple times, it did not appear at all on the French side. It is possible that although the United States has a diverse history, the idea of being a melting pot of cultures is not at all as novel as it was a century ago, and as this concept of a diverse country isn’t anything especially weird any more, the French side didn’t really think of it.

What does “unilateral” mean in this context?

Ça me semble normal que les réponses des étudiants français contiennent les mots ” cinéma ” et “film” car le Cinéma américain en particulier jouit d’un succès mondial et détient un quasi-monopole sur plusieurs marchés ( européen , arabe, etc.). Cependant, j’étais surprise du mot “conservative”, est ce que vous pouvez me donnez quelques aspects du conservatisme américain ?

I think that in general, America has more conservative policies than many European countries. For example, due to the conservative view of small, local government, there is a lot of backlash against policies like universal health care that implement one health care system for all of the states. Another example would be the difference in the tax schemes between America and many European countries. The taxes in the United States on the rich are much lower than they are in many European countries due to conservative fiscal policy.

je trouve justifiable, de lier les Etats-Unis à leur président, à leurs guerres, à leurs situation politique. Mais pourquoi lier les États-Unis aux “Hamburgers” ou “big” ? je trouve ça marrant :p

I was intrigued by the overall similarity of both views. Americans said diverse and the French said very different aspects of society from Microsoft to South Park. It seems like both sides couldn’t really narrow it down to just one thing really. Maybe stemming from America’s fractured identity/melting pot identity, where the whole is a sum of its parts making the US the sum of its immigrants.

@elemcy, effectivement nous regardons énormément de films et de séries Américaines (bien que je ne pense pas que ce soit une caractéristique française mais plutôt mondiale).
Je suis par contre très étonnée du peu d’intérêt que vous sembler porter au cinéma français :(
@erbri, il faut comprendre unilatéralisme comme le fait que les USA décide de ce qu’ils veulent faire dans le monde sans se soucier trop des autres états (bien que l’émergence de la Chine est en train de changer la donne)

@Chef.madkour I think it’s reasonable to also think of big and hamburger in association with the United States because, although it may not be the best, these are factors that are a part of American culture. Everything here is larger than life, from the physical size of the country, to our portion sizes, to even our egos possibly. As for hamburgers, it’s the go to American food, other than maybe hot dogs. Just like it’s fair to think of baguettes and wine when thinking of France, I think it’s fair to think of burgers for the US. Or do you also not agree with thinking of baguettes and wine in relation to France?

Jean-Michel, it’s not that we’re not interested in French movies, it’s just that we would have to go out of our way to see any. Foreign films don’t really play in American movie theaters or on the common TV channels. And more movies come out in a month than anyone could possibly see so there’s no real need to go searching for other films.

We, as a class, were given access to a bunch of French movies and told to watch at least five by the end of the semester, and write a little bit about them. Do you guys have a similar assignment?

chaf.madkour, the word “big” definitely makes sense to describe America simply because our country takes up a huge geographic area, as well as being large population-wise (containing more than half the the number of people as found in the EU). In some ways the United States is more than one country – each state has its own culture and values (though this has been gradually decreasing as travel becomes easier and the world “shrinks”). I even travel 3000 miles to visit my family in California over vacations; it’s on the other side of the country as is MIT.

@ Jean-Michel Durant: I think that the point that you’re making is very interesting. I don’t think that I was aware/conscious that movies made in the US were watched elsewhere. I had assumed that since we don’t really see movies made in other countries (except like movies like Despicable Me), that it was the same in other countries; that other countries just watched movies made in their countries, but maybe that’s not the case.

I also think that what elemcy says it’s true. Through the French classes, I’ve become interested in watching movies made in Francophone countries, but they are not too readily available. They are somewhat hard to find :(.

Yeah, I am surprised to think about how we don’t really see many (if any) movies from France (or any country for that matter). I think that I wasn’t really aware that movies from the US had a lot of influence movies in other countries. I thought that

Oops, disregard the above message. The third “paragraph” doesn’t really make sense. I just meant to write this:

new
@ Jean-Michel Durant: I think that the point that you’re making is very interesting. I don’t think that I was aware/conscious that movies made in the US were watched elsewhere. I had assumed that since we don’t really see movies made in other countries (except like movies like Despicable Me), that it was the same in other countries; that other countries just watched movies made in their countries, but maybe that’s not the case.
I also think that what elemcy says it’s true. Through the French classes, I’ve become interested in watching movies made in Francophone countries, but they are not too readily available. They are somewhat hard to find.

Si vous désirez voir de bons films français, comme on n’en fait plus vraiment aujourd’hui, il est possible de se tourner vers les années 1960-1970, quand c’était l’âge d’or du cinéma français (accessoirement, quand Hollywood commençait à se casser la figure…). Beaucoup de bons films, notamment des comédies, sont sorties à cette époque, dont certains sont toujours rediffusés aujourd’hui. Comme bons exemples, je pourrais citer “Le vieux fusil” ou encore “La folie des grandeurs”. Après, tout dépend ce que vous voulez regarder. ;)
Mais c’est vrai que rares sont les films de chez nous qui arrivent aux USA, du genre “Intouchables” ou la série des “Taken”. Alors qu’à l’inverse, la grande majorité de ce que nous regardons est américaine. Je me demande bien pourquoi… Si vous avez déjà vu des films français, y a-t-il des choses qui vous ont surprises / parues étranges / choquées…?

It is interesting that the French film industry has really declined relative to the American film industry since the 70s. I wonder if the same films have been the most popular in the two countries or if different films are more popular in one country vs the other. What have been the most popular/anticipated American movies in France over the past few years?

@dtrecu I’ve seen a few French films, and it’s interesting how they seem stylistically somewhat different from American films. I think it has to do with French films containing more ambiguity and more of a “show don’t tell” technique. They also seem to always have accordion music in the background, for some reason… or is that just a stereotype? Maybe I’m biased because I just watched Amélie.

To dtrecu: Yes, I agree with what malper just said about being more ambiguous and “show don’t tell” haha. I’ve also found the plots to be very interesting and often dramatic :O (in a good way).

I’ve watched the following so far:
Forces spéciales
Pour une femme
Marius (2013)
Fanny
Welcome

I’ve really enjoyed them.

dtrecu: I recently watched La Haine, and I loved it. It was unlike most movies I had ever seen, but it was very powerful and it made me think a lot, and it moved me (especially the ending, which I thought was shocking). I definitely think that French movies (I’ve only seen a couple) are very different from the average American movie, because it’s not necessarily expected that the movie will have a happy ending. In America, if a movie doesn’t have a happy ending, it’s a let down and people are often disappointed or upset (which makes sense, but no one wants that). I also agree with malper with the “show don’t tell” technique that French movies tend to use. Do you prefer American style films or French style?

erbri : Le cinéma français n’a pas vraiment décliné depuis la fin des années 70, je dirais surtout que la façon de faire a évolué, comme pour le reste. Au niveau des films américains très attendus en France, on retrouve essentiellement les films de DC Comics ou Marvel, ou bien les suites de grandes séries comme Star Wars ou autre. Après sont attendus aussi mais à une échelle un peu moindre les films d’animation de Disney ou Dreamworks. En général ce sont ceux-là qui marchent le plus.
malper : Pour l’accordéon, oui c’est un peu cliché, mais c’était surtout pour remettre le film dans son contexte de la France des années 70. :p
malper, labradoodle, laika : Pour la technique “ne le dites pas, montrez-le”, c’est vrai qu’elle est souvent employé dans les films français, de plus en plus selon moi, beaucoup de films tentent de représenter certains aspects de la société généralement ignorés, et du coup je pense que cette technique intervient essentiellement pour mettre le spectateur à la place du personnage principal, pour ressentir la même chose que lui et mieux comprendre sa situation.
Personnellement je n’ai pas de préférence entre les films français ou américains, pourvu qu’ils soient bien tournés, avec des personnages intéressants et un scénario cohérent.