CreativeChaos

Wow! This is very interesting. So your thinking is different? Is the logic you use different? What about, do you feel like a different person? How does it affect the "you"?

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The_FD

Well that's a pretty tough question. I started to think about it but I guess I am far from a satisfying final answer...

What I can say by now is that I am sure my logic is different. I mean it is not the same as the english speaking people I use to have, but it is not the one I use to have in France either... Probably something between the two of them. I am not talking the same way at all when in the States, and it even happens that I make some mistakes when speaking my native language!!! The same mistakes english natives use to do (what may show a logic difference between the two populations?).

I don't feel like a different person though. I just feel myself, except in some rare moments were I just feel like I would not have spoken of a specific subject this way if I were speaking french (often concerns deep feelings).
My mum thinks I am very different when I live in the states. When we are talking on the phone she does not recognize my voice even though I am speaking french (she does every time when I stay in France). Pretty the same when I come back from a long time spent in the US, she comes pick me up at the airport and don't reconize me as fast as she does in "regular" french times. She says my shape changes, becomes more american like.

In fact all those little details apply on me even though I don't feel different. I guess that's nice I just discovered it. Since then I can think about it and maybe find out why. I guess that unconsciously I try to stand as much as possible like the people I am living with...

Now how does it affect the "me"? I guess I shall go ask my mother

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CreativeChaos

Yes. You become "acculturized" to the US. I meet a lot of people from all over the world. I am from New Orleans. It is a very international town. It is amazing, but I can just look at a person who is Hispanic, Asian, Indian, etc. and can tell before they even speak whether or not they were born in this country or not. Just the other day I pointed that out to a friend. We went to this Vietnamese restaruant and I said about the guy at the checkout, who was Asian, "Look, when he speaks, he will speak perfect English, because he was born here." And indeed he did. There just is an "American look". I have no idea how to define it, but it is there.

Is this not true of non-French people in France? When you were growing up there, could you not simply look at Asian people for example and know whether or not they were born "French" or not?

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The_FD

I agree here is an american look that comes over every people living there

It is pretty different in France though. We can almost say where someone comes from just looking at him (even italians who are people very similar looking to french people). Moreover I have never heard so far a non french native speaking french as french natives do. To speak like a french native I would say the parents of the person have to be born in france, oserwise it is almost impossible to speak like a french native

People use to become more and more french with the years but there is very often some small signs (or sayings) that show the country the person comes from.

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L'histoire de la famille Bourdillon
Les fêtes d'Hébé
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Joe Gold

That's funny, I just came to this subject again with a friend. Well, it's basically with one of the few people, with whom I can speak in several different languages (four actually, never go further than that with anyone ). And we just noticed that even if talking in English seemed (at least someimes) the easiest solution, because for both it is still the foreign language we are the most fluent in, it gave us an impression of distance we didn't have in other languages. It is not a question of formulating things or understanding them, it is just, that for both of us, it is a foreign language. Therefore, I guess, we had both to do some translating exercise, that gave this impression of distance.

I also noted in Switzerland, in a discussion, how important the language the other one uses is. Basically, if somone talks to me in proper German, it is almost impossible to me to answer in dialect, even if the other person tells me so. (And I verified this on several occasions, it is the same if the other person speaks very good German, but has problems speaking in dialect.) It would even be worse, if I'm using two (or more) different languages with smeone. I noticed that when at one point, one switches to another language, the other one soon goes on in that language. I'm not sure of this, but I guess that it is easier to reply to something in a foreign language, than to translate an idea into your own language in order to reply. I guess it has to do with the inherent logic of each language, but I still have to dig on this...

mauricedlss

At first the truth is of course a matter of how you look at it, but when you have looked upon it from various sites, one might be able to come to the bottom of the facts by analysis.

When things have been achieved, there is no way back, and denying them can merely get us all wrapped up in the catastrophy of our delusion! That really can get us a lot of war misery.

nicper

it leads to non democracy ... but still i have no better answer.

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