Cross-cultural communication （66）　

66) Ambivalence of American and French People
The English word 'ambivalence' is generally translated as 'liking and disliking at the same time', 'contradiction', etc. (In French, the word is also spelt exactly the same way, 'ambivalence'). In this article, I would like to talk about the ambivalence of American and French people, based on my personal experiences of living in both countries.

I don't think there is a word that better expresses the feelings of the American and French people than this word 'ambivalence'. The French love movies, but for the past 20 years or so, more than half of the movies released in the Champs-Elysees have been Hollywood movies. Films are a business, so the reason American films are shown is because the French like them. However, the French are a logical people, so they try to take measures such as insisting that American films be dubbed in French or offering subsidies to help make French films, but in the end, the French like American films. There are also French film directors who are active around the world, who understand all of this. A representative of this is Luc Besson. He learned about film production and the film industry in Hollywood. After that, he directed worldwide hits such as The Big Blue, Leon, and Nikita. Even though he didn't direct them himself, he was involved in the production of the Taxi series, which was also a huge hit as a comedy.

The French have clearly ambivalent feelings about American films. On the other hand, what do Americans think about French films? The truth is that they don't have any particular feelings about them. Ordinary Americans who have seen French films are almost unheard of. There are some special cinemas in New York that show a lot of French films, but this is not something that should be turned into a statistical figure. In the field of film, it seems that Americans are rich and don't fight, and that the French are struggling with ambivalence.

Film is certainly a culture, but let me talk about a culture that is much bigger than that: language. Nowadays, especially since the world has become connected through the internet, English is becoming more and more widespread around the world. It is true that many French people study English on their own or envy those who can speak English fluently because of such pragmatic reasons or because of their admiration for Hollywood movies. However, it is also true that the French are the European nation that shows the least interest in foreign languages. French is still the common language of diplomats and the language of the educated around the world. For this reason, whether they are aware of it or not, the French clearly have a “French-centric” attitude towards their own language. As such, it is clear that the average French person has ambivalent feelings towards English. How do Americans feel about French? Ordinary Americans think that English is understood around the world. For this reason, it is true that Americans are not enthusiastic about studying foreign languages. That said, there are a fair number of Americans who learn Spanish or Chinese for business reasons. When it comes to French, the number is much smaller, but the evaluation is completely different from other languages. It is ranked several levels higher. Perhaps America, as a young country, has a sense of admiration for European culture and a slight sense of inferiority? Even movie actors like Candice Bergen and Jodie Foster are fluent in French and have appeared in French films in French. The reputation of these French-speaking actors seems to be higher than that of actors who speak other languages. When President Obama invited President Hollande to the White House in 2014, Obama made a great effort to speak French even just at the beginning of his speech. In the opposite case, only the show-off Sarkozy would greet in English. Therefore, I think that the feelings of Americans towards French are not ambivalent, but rather one-sided feelings of admiration.

There was one occasion after World War II when the Americans showed clear hostility towards the French. When France expressed its opposition to the Iraq War, the US Congress decided to ban the use of the term 'French fries' and replace it with 'freedom fries'. It sounds like something out of a comic book, but the member of Congress who proposed this resolution to the Congress actually apologized to the French when the rationale for the Iraq War began to crumble. Up until now, I've been writing about ambivalence, but it seems that it is the French who are looking at the other side with ambivalent feelings, and not so much the Americans. Perhaps it is because the French are logical and their country's economy is struggling, while the Americans are broad-minded and their country's economy is doing well.

By the way, I myself, who had been thinking about these things for a while, have been quite successful in both countries, by showing that I can speak French to Americans, and that I can speak English to French people.

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