Au Contraire: Figuring out the French [Paperback]

Gilles Asselin (Author), Ruth Mastron (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 187786482X | ISBN-13: 978-1877864827 | Publication Date: December 1, 2000

When Coca-Cola entered the French market with a hard-core bottom-line management style, they were met with boycotts in cafes and supermarkets. At the launch of Euro Disney in Paris, Mickey Mouse was greeted by angry protestors hurling tomatoes and eggs. As a culture, the French are fiercely independent yet romantic, conservative yet avant-garde, rational yet emotional.Written for anyone interested in or interacting with the French, Au Contraire!: Figuring Out the French unearths the often-invisible cultural forces that govern behavior. Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron draw upon their own experiences as consultants and trainers, as well as that of expatriate students and professionals, to offer the best and most useful analysis and advice on French-American intercultural relations. Going beyond the obvious, this bilingual and bicultural author team explores what lies behind what we see: the assumptions, attitudes, patterns of thought and beliefs that make the French so.French.In a global world filled with multinational mergers and international partnerships, Au Contraire! provides context and perspective on what happens when Americans and the French come together at work, at home, and in any social setting, touching on issues like education, play, friendship, romance and politics. They highlight the dynamics of working and managing across the French and American cultural divide with an in-depth case study of how pharmaceutical giant Rhone-Poulenc Rorer overcame challenges by fostering cross-cultural teamwork. With a quick and useful guide to social etiquette and professional guidelines for managers working in the United States and in France, Au Contraire! provides critical tools to develop creative and appropriate responses to any situation, based on a deep understanding of the unique dynamics of these two cultures.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gilles Asselin, founder and president of New Jersey-based SoCoCo Intercultural, is a program designer, trainer and consultant who helps international executives and managers succeed when working across cultures. Ruth Mastron is vice president of SoCoCo Intercultural and was formerly a liason for overseas operations for various international corporations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187786482X
• ISBN-13: 978-1877864827
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

335 of 386 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Moi, je suis contre, November 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Au Contraire: Figuring out the French (Paperback)

What a self-serving pack of lies this is. I'm always incensed by so much misinformation presented as unbiased fact. The authors claim to provide "an understanding of hidden and often unconscious cultural patterns." Within that lofty sounding agenda, the old stereotypes I've read countless times before get trotted out one more time in the guise of providing a useful intro to the French: rude, arrogant, unfriendly, smell bad, move slowly and are lazy, is either implicit or explicit throughout this book. If you said such things about blacks or women you'd be called racist or chauvinist. You certainly wouldn't get published. Speaking about the French, however, it seems anything goes -- as long as you have dubious statistics to back it up: "Researchers found that the French are the most resistant to deodorant -- only half of those surveyed use it". An edifying fact you can find by simply looking up "cleanliness -- personal" in the index.)

Even for these tunnel-vision authors, stereotypes are hard to maintain. While at one point in the book they critique the French for being too logical and reasonable -- Descartes don't you know (YAWN!) -- in another they caution American managers about French emotionality in business. Well, which is it? Rational or emotional? And everywhere there is either a thinly veiled pat on the back for an American way of being or, at one shocking point, downright cruelty toward the French.

Try this handy tip to further your business relations: They counsel Americans to begin by speaking French with a French business person not out of deference for the fact that you are in their country, but to protect yourself from those vindictive French. "Avoiding the appearance of arrogance will forestall the French from striking back by speaking extremely rapid and slangy French just to make your life miserable. And, yes, there are French people who enjoy doing just that." So the American is absolved from actually being arrogant by expecting a foreigner to speak his or her language, while the French are condemned for speaking French the way they actually speak it. Rapid and slangy is the way most people speak their native tongue -- don't you? Why should a French person be expected to dumb things down to accommodate someone who doesn't have the courtesy or decency to meet them at least part of the way?

It reminds me of the jogging suit-clad American woman on the Ile St. Louis in Paris last summer, who within earshot of a vast assembly of locals and tourists gathered at an outdoor cafe, loudly lambasted a couple of ice cream street vendors for not knowing the English word for vanilla, which is vanille in French, and pronounced "vanee". The woman couldn't have looked that up in a French phrase book? Can you imagine any French person going to New York city and verbally abusing a New Yorker for not knowing the French equivalent of something? Now who's arrogant?

Read this book at your peril. Anything you find here will be misleading at best, deliberately self-serving at its worst. Clearly the authors wrote this book hoping to jack up their consulting practice by making Americans feel like they're okay, no matter how inappropriately they behave internationally. To hear the authors tell it, the French don't do much of anything right, either in their business or private lives, including spending lots of time with their families or raising and schooling their kids. Impartiality indeed!

If the authors truly see this as a way of furthering business relations between the two countries, and you believe them, I fear not only for the future of your business but for your immortal soul. Was Sartre alluding to his encounter with these kinds of unbiased consultants when he wrote, "Hell is other people"?

Sherwood Fleming (Lyon, France)

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent advice, July 26, 2003

By 

MJB (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Au Contraire: Figuring out the French (Paperback)

Although this book was written before the current political crisis that strained relations between France and the United States, it provides excellent general advice for everyone traveling between the two countries. It gives a fair assessment of both cultures and urges the visiter to adopt an open mind and leave cultural baggage and prejudice at home. I spent almost two years planning our recent 3 week trip throughout France and studying the language (which as the authors say is a must). It is arrogant to expect that people in any other country will automatically speak your language. Why should they? Everywhere we went people were reserved, as we expected, but courteous and helpful and sometimes quite friendly. I agree with the authors that the key to good relations and living, working or vacationing in another country, France in this case, is to learn "their" history, culture and language and embrace the differences. I recommend this book highly.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Au Contraire, c'est magnifique! You need this book., March 14, 2001

By 

Beatrice Shushan (Oceanside, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Au Contraire: Figuring out the French (Paperback)

This is a wonderful text for everyone who does business with French companies or who has an intercultural relationship (as I have.) The authors dissect and explain those little cultural differences which often cause great frustration and prevent full cooperation, then they suggest ways in which we can adapt presentations, work situations and family plans in order to motivate culturally different persons. I was amazed by the depth of the analases and the efficacy of the solutions. Very difficult situations have been rendered simple and straightforward by application of a few basic ideas. Harmony restored.