I arrived in the United States and I didn’t realize there was a culture shock to experience. Oh yes, I experienced it !
I started working on my English but beyond English, there’s also the culture to integrate.
And between the Americans and French people it’s completely different. I mean we speak, even in English, but we simply can’t understand each other.
So you really have to keep in mind that when you learn a language, you definitely have to learn the culture too.
The American, compared to the French person, has a problem with the “no”. He doesn’t know how to say no. So he will say something else, and in this case, he will say “I’m not sure.”
Of course, when you say to a French person “I’m not sure, I’m not sure”, well, they’ll keep coming back until you’re sure.
That’s the big problem: you speak English, but he is constantly saying, “I’m confused!”. Actually, he doesn’t understand.
With time and living in the United States, of course, we eventually get it, and so we’re able to be the interface between the French client and the American on the other end, who is peaking beyond his English, making you understand something that the French, my client wouldn’t have understood, whereas I would have grasped it immediately.
Now I know American codes well, and that’s where it starts to become interesting for a French person who comes to work with me, since I share the same codes. So these are just shortcuts, and that’s often why I succeed with them.
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