France

France's flag

France's map

“The stronger a culture, the less it fears the radical fringe. The more paranoid and precarious a culture, the less tolerance it offers.” remarked by Joel Salatin.  French has a very unique culture. Culture likes language, social, and their business culture are different from any other country.


Language

 In France, French is their main language as majority of them communicates in this language. There are also other regional languages and dialects in French such as Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Basque, Alsatian and Flemish. For some example of the France language:

English                                                               French                            Pronunciation
Thank you                                                            Merci                               Mair-see
Hello/ Good Morning/Afternoon                           Bonjour                           Bong-zhoor
Good Night                                                         Bonne nuit                       Bonn nwee

  
If you are interested in learning more about France language , check on this link.
http://www.languagehelpers.com/words/french/basics.html

Major Religions in France : Roman Catholic ( 83%-88%), Muslim (5-10%) , Protestant (2%) , and Jewish (1%).
While the major ethnic groups in France : Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic , North African, Indochinese and Basque minorities.








Social Customs 



Besides that, there are some French social customs that we must know. People who do not wear in formal are consider as rude, especially in Paris. French take this as their necessary part of their daily life. Next, it is rude to addressing a stranger, someone who is elder than us, or someone who is an authority as “vous” instead of “tu”.  In French, people may stand close to each other when they converse and do not raise their voices. It is consider as rude if you yell at someone. As a foreigner like us, do not get shocked when we get a kiss on the cheek. In French, kissing is often for family, relatives, friends or children. However, do not assume that every French people want to be kissed or even hugged. So, keep an eye on what is going on around us.

Do's and Dont's

 There are some do’s and don’ts when we are invited to their French people's house.

-Do bring flowers,wine, champagne or chocolates if we are invited to the dinner as a gift.
-Do send a thank you message in the next day of the dinner, as a sign of appreciate.
-Do ensure that the fork are always on our left hand and the knife is on the right hand side.
-If we have not finished eating, do cross your knife and spoon on the plate with the fork over the knife.  
-Do not eat before the host says “bon appétit” and lastly do not rest elbow on the table.

-During phone calls, do introduce yourself before speak to someone. It is quite common to telephone people during meal times at around 12:00 till 14:00 or around 20:00 in French. Apologize to them if you do a call after 14:00 as most of them are having nap.

-Do not present red carnations to French people , as they believe it symbolize bad will to them.

FOODS

Apart from that, there are traditional foods in France too. The main courses in French are normally with meat or fish. During on a holiday or a birthday occasions, an ostrich meat may be served.

                                                               Main courses

Cassoulet are one of the traditional food in French. It is a southwestern bean recipe. It is perfect to eat with bread.

Bouillinade , potatoes and fish are baked with butter is also one of the French traditional food.

                                                                           Soup

Pumpkin Soup

                                                                

Chestnut Soup

Wedding cake

France's traditional wedding cake is slightly look like the the structure of Eiffel Tower. It is named as "croquembouche" , it is a tower of cream puffs and covered in caramelized sugar and arranged into an elegant look.





Traditional Dance

Bourree Dance

There are different traditional dances in French like Forlane, Musette, Menuet, and Sarabande. In French, the most popular dance is the Bourree. It often performed in cultural centers for foreigner.

Traditional Games

In French, Petanque is their traditional game. As rest of the country named it as bocce.

Basically, A game of Bocce ball played using eight large balls and a smaller object called jack being thrown by one of the players. Then, have a group of two to which consists of two to eight members to start the game. The first player who threw the jack will have to deliver his or her bocce ball. The ball nearest to the jack will be the winner. 

Traditional Costume
There is no French traditional costume but there are different traditional costume in different regions.

                                                                         

  Celtic

 Teutonic

Latin

Alsace



                                                                  



                                                                   





















Festival


Festival D' Avignon
This is one of the biggest international festival in France, each year in July. It has theater, dance, music and fine art show. Every year this festival may attract a large number of audience ( more than 130,000 tickets were sold).

The Festival Interceltique de Lorient

Since 1972 beginning of August, Celtic music lovers have gathered in Lorient, Brittany. They will be there for ten days for this celebration. This festival includes concerts and traditions of Celtic culture and the purpose for this festival focuses on one nation in France.  

Fete Du Citron (The Lemon Festival)
This festival is celebrate on 16th of February till 6th of March. This festival starts in 1930s with a few carts loaded with orange and lemon tree and now nearly 200,000 people all around the world used nearly 150,000 tonnes of fruit for this festival.

Business Culture
On the other hand, there are some cultural cues that may help in your business in France. First of all, respect their language because French people are very proud of their language. Try to learn some basic French phrases and apologize because we are not influence with it. Not to be worry, French people will be happy on our effort, and the conversation can be switch to English easily.
Next, be formal and professional in the business. When we met someone, begin with shaking hands as a greeting. When exchanging business cards with French colleagues, present yours business card first then only take theirs. It is a sign of respect on it.

                                                                     Thank you
                                                           Chan Kuan Ming (Stella)