Cross-cultural communication （10）　

11）Cross-cultural communication in everyday life in Paris, Part 1
　 I would like to introduce some of my personal cross-cultural experiences in Paris. First of all, I would like to talk about the difficulties I had with a Parisian civil servant. In the 1980s, France was a country where the Socialist Party leader, Francois Mitterrand, was president, and public servants still had a lot of power and the service was not very good. The first ordeal with French public servants was applying for a residence permit immediately after arriving in France. Everyone agrees that the service here is bad.
When I was living in an old apartment in Paris, the electricity was cut off due to a mistake by the French Electricity Company. The reason for this was probably that the electricity bills sent under the name of Tomoyuki Kido and the electricity bills sent under the name of Kido Tomoyuki were somehow mixed up, and it was decided that the electricity bills were unpaid. Once this decision has been made, it is extremely difficult to reverse it, especially when dealing with French civil servants. With my French language skills, it was impossible. So I cried out for help to a Japanese acquaintance who had lived in France as a child and was also working in France, using French in her job. When I explained the situation, she said it would be a little difficult, but she would try, and immediately called the electricity company. I was listening closely next to her, so as not to miss the conversation for future reference. “This is Dr. Kido's secretary, XXX. His electricity has been cut off and he is in great trouble. The reason is a simple mistake due to the confusion of the order of his first and last names. If you can confirm that he is paying his electricity bill, you can be sure that there is no mistake. Doctor Kido is not confident about his physical strength, and if his electricity is cut off during this winter, he may collapse at any time. If Doctor Kido, the only Japanese doctor working at the American Hospital, is unable to work, who will protect the health of the 30,000 Japanese living in Paris? Can you take responsibility for that? If such a situation arises, I must send a letter of complaint to your superiors.” The demarche was full of threats and intimidation, designed to stir up the other party's sense of anxiety to the maximum. I was stunned rather than impressed by her ability to respond so quickly.

When I returned to my apartment that evening, the concierge told me, “The people from the electric company came earlier and did some work, then left.” When I turned on the switch, the electricity had returned.

It seems that French civil servants will only move if we can use our authority or scare people, such as the doctor's license to practice medicine in France that was useful when I was getting my residence permit, or the intimidation of the staff during the blackout incident this time. Public servants, whether in the East or the West, seem to have the characteristic of completing their work with a minimum of effort, but also being extremely weak in terms of taking responsibility for their actions. If I say this, it doesn't sound like a cross-cultural experience, does it?

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