European Dream - Alizée - Rêve Européen Alizee Nation: Understanding French Culture

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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Understanding French Culture

More from Polly Platt's book "French or foe?"

High context and Low context cultures.

"Low context cultures can generally be classified as achievement cultures...They are on time - not even five minutes late. Time is quantified (wasted, saved, killed). The appointment and the project have priority over everything."

"High context people (Mediterranean) have a different sense of time. It's not segmented. They'll be on time, if some greater people-priority doesn't come up in the meantime. Schedules are flexible. But they keep time according to their own system...on time for them might be a half hour, an hour, or a week or a month 'late' for you, depending on the culture and how for east or south you go."

"French people are more complicated to manage then Americans or Germans. What you have to decide is if you want people to be geniuses, or to be on time"

Blame paranoia

"Madame Dufoix, confronted with the scandal, conceded an 'error' in not having advised the President or the Prime Minister about her charitable act, while maintaining that her action had been 'correct' for humanitarian reasons.

Madame Dufoix, famous for her comment that she was 'responsible but not guilty'..."


C'est pas my faute, no matter if it is Madame Dufoix or a canceled concert. It does seem to hold true.

I hope by sharing we can see that the reactions from Alizee regarding the difficulties experienced in running her career are not indifference or arrogance but just a cultural difference.

So, based on the above nuances of a high context culture and how Alizee reacted in the past. Will you expect a 'special concert' 'before summer'? Will you be upset if this 'special concert' does not happen 'before summer'? Is getting it 'right' or at least as close to 'right' as Alizee will accept more important to her then getting it done on time? Hint - yes it is, time is relative.

Would I buy a ticket if she was nearby? YES. Would I make reservations for half way around the world? No. This type of non guarantee does drive high context cultures crazy and they look at it as unacceptable (North Americans and more) but it is what it is.

Again: "French people are more complicated to manage then Americans or Germans. What you have to decide is if you want people to be geniuses, or to be on time"

Are we starting to mellow on this yet?

Alizee Nation

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, aw. Now whenever somebody complain about my chronic lateness, I can explain that I'm simply high-context! ;)

Playing devil's advocate, though, I'm not sure it's quite fair to write off fans' disappointment and frustration as a simple misunderstanding of cultural differences. If that's the case, why are the French fans abandoning her? There's a grain of truth to what you're saying, I do believe...but as much as you're appealing for understanding on the part of the fans, I think it's equally reasonable for fans to wish Lili would make a little more effort to "meet us in the middle", as it were...especially given how important her international fan base (Mexico especially, obviously) is going to be to her career going forward.

Interesting post nonetheless, though. I really do enjoy these passages from 'French or Foe'.

Anonymous said...

I found this information about “cultural relativity” interesting. I think one should take a harder look at Corsican culture, though. I think it has more influence over Alizée’s way of thinking than French culture does. However, my thinking is more in line with Ruroshen’s post. Alizée shouldn’t forget that her fans are also her customers and that her career now reaches many different cultures.

From reading fan sites and blogs about Alizée, I see this almost universal desire to divine a deeper knowledge and understanding of her…though all our data inputs are 2 dimensional. We look at pictures, video, read and listen to interviews, and just listen to her songs…all the while hoping we will glean a few pieces of the puzzle that make up this person we adore. Actually this gives me an idea for a new song…

Anyway, I love your blog aw. Keep up the good work. And thanks for posting my videos in the past, it is truly appreciated.

 

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