On Being French
Why French Parents Are Superior by Pamela Druckerman
By PAMELA DRUCKERMAN Emmanuel Fradin for The Wall Street Journal. Pamela Druckerman's new book "Bringing Up Bebe," catalogs her observations about why French children seem so much better behaved than their American counterparts. When my daughter was 18 months old, my husband and I decided to take her on a little summer holiday. We picked a coastal town that's a few hours by train from Paris, where we were living (I'm American, he's British), and booked a hotel room with a crib. Bean, as we call her, was our only child at this point, so forgive us for thinking: How hard could it be?
EVERY year, Sophie de Menthon, a French entrepreneur, holds an event called J'aime ma boîte (I love my firm) in Paris. The idea is to counter the notion that the French don't like work. Employees are enticed to make lip dubs (a video of them lip-synching to music, if you need to ask), massage each other, vote for the nicest colleague, arrange for the accountant to swap jobs with the secretary and other stunts to celebrate their firm. The much-mocked campaign has not had much luck. In 2007 a national strike interrupted the festivities, and in 2009 a series of suicides at France Télécom spoilt the atmosphere. This year employees showed less love for their boîte than ever before.
Schumpeter: The French way of work
Jean Dujardin: Excuse my French
Sélectionné par la rédaction Jean Dujardin scored the oscar for best actor for his performance in The Artist. Photo credits: JOE KLAMAR/AFP If you want to swear at the Oscars, do it in French.
Pourquoi les Américains détestent les Français
- La mascotte de l'équipe de france de rugby en 2003 à Brisbane en Australie, REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen - U ne nouvelle publicité produite par un groupe de soutien libéral américain montre [le candidat à la présidence] Mitt Romney parlant français . En bas de l’écran, les sous-titres traduisent un discours bien différent, démontrant que l’homme est un opportuniste.
