What struck me ?

A couple of people asked me what struck me about Britain compared to France.

The constant whining of the press was very noticeable. The government is pilloried every day in the newspaper columns. I imagine someone must read this stuff but I can't imagine who. Well I can, but I imagine Colonel Blimp types, moustaches bristling, saying "eh what...". It would shrivel your soul like salt on a slug. Not only that but think of the effect of this culture of constant whining against authority on the church, the family, etc..

Another thing that was surprising was the low prices - for example one sign advertised two meals for £6.50 in some steakhouse or other. The supermarkets seemed cheap. Even fuel didn't seem as expensive as I thought it would be.

I paid about £1.10 per litre of unleaded. Here in France we pay about 1.25€ per litre of diesel. With current exchange rates ( about 1 € = 80 pence ) that isn't a massive difference, though you have to remember that diesel is taxed less than petrol in France and more than petrol in Britain, so the comparison is all wonky anyway. ( When we arrived just over two years ago diesel was about 90c/litre and the exchange rate 1 € = 65 pence. )

Eurozone inflation is at about 3.6%. The rising price of crude oil has pushed French prices up, as well as wheat and rice harvest failures, the severe Chinese winter, bio-fuel and all the rest of it.
All in all I would say that France is now probably as expensive as Britain, and possibly more expensive.

On the finance front I got a huge encouragement from talking with someone who is hoping to serve in Japan. I am constantly aware of how expensive mission in Europe is compared to developing countries. However, in Japan you have the huge housing and living costs AND the cost of educating your kids in a boarding school and so on. Enormous !

Comments

Anonymous said…
Last week I was speaking to a friend from Lyon (American parents, missionary kid) who studies in Edinburgh. He pointed out an interesting difference...

In France, it's quite acceptable to criticise someone's actions/work without it being negative towards the other person 'as a person'. However, in the UK we take all criticism really personally. When my friend first came to Edinburgh, people found him way too blunt even though he meant no personal offence whatsoever.

The difference is reflected in the schooling culture too, apparently. Schools here are very much about cushioning the kids and constantly encouraging them to build up their self-esteem. French schools focus much more on teaching kids to handle criticism of their work without it crushing them personally.

What do you think?
Alan said…
That is certainly true.

In fact I was looking at an explanation of a French marking scheme the other day that kind of illustrates this. Everything is always marked out of 20 in France. This person explained that :

10 / 20 = "Correct". That's fine. An appropriate level.

14 / 20 = Really pretty good. Better than could be reasonably expected.

16/20 = Wow !

For this reason many of the students are just very, very happy to get 10/20 in their exams. That's "correct".

For British schoolchildren 50% is a scrape ! Not "correct". And 49 % is a fail !
Anonymous said…
Aah... now that makes sense of something:

My cousin's wife moved from London to Paris at the age of 12. Her parents are English, and she moved to France as a fluent, native English speaker. They continued to speak English in the home while living in France.

Anyway, when she was doing her final secondary school exams, she got 16/20 for her English exam. As a very well spoken, highly articulate native English speaker, she didn't understand why she only got 16.

She actually confronted the examiners saying, "Look, I am English. I know what I am saying is absolutely correct, what do you think I've done wrong to drop me those four marks?" The examiners didn't get why she was upset.
Alan said…
Yes. I just remembered that the marking scheme came from the American consulate website, giving explanations to perplexed Americans. A Welsh friend teaches at Westminster Seminary, California where the American students think he is a terribly harsh "grader". Americans at the language school found the French system of marking utterly incomprehensible. Especially when in the States if someone is going to fail their module sometimes the lecturers set extra tests or assignments for them so they can up their grade-average.
Alan said…
HUGE CUPS AND MASSIVE PORTIONS.

That's another thing that struck me.

I got beans on toast and a mug of tea in a Safeway cafe, and there was a mountain of beans and an ocean of tea.

Also while not all French people are slim, there are more Brits that are SERIOUSLY BIG.

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