The French paradoxes

And the discussion with Daniel K during French class yesterday got even more exciting.

Consider this : you happen to sit with a group of five on a round table, having a 7-course dinner (plus the cheese and the desserts, and there is free flow of wine). You try to look your best, with your best shoes, sitting, dining and discussing in a distinguished manner, and chances are that you may spend four hours at the dinner table. And the next thing that happens is, you will be entangled in a spider's web while the rest of the people at the table, who are French, go with their usual routine of whipping the chosen bad horse of the day. And when someone figuratively whips Sarkozy, everyone joins in. Yes, everyone will choose to join in the fight saying that there aren't enough pedestrian crossings, or there are too many ; that school is uneducational, etc., etc., etc. You may think what you find in YouthSays is heated. Trust me, I have seen worse while being seated at the dinner table with them. And in France, it is way worse.

And the latest issue (at the time of writing) is - *drum roll* - the 35-hour generation.

It was so reported in The Star (dated 23rd May 2008) that while president Nicolas Sarkozy was attempting to implement reform on the work week so that people may work more and more revenue would flow in, people began striking all over France. The worst hit place was Marseille. It only took one million people from a union (and out of more than forty million people) to set France on fire.

The 35-hour generation is such that they work seven hours a day, five days a week. Saturdays and Sundays are off. And they seem kinda happy with the 35-hour work week : someone even gave me this trick that if they work overtime on any day within the week (say, Wednesday), then they can take Thursday morning off, and only return on Monday afternoon - simply because they have filled the required 35 hours ! Now that is a long break ! Here lies the problem with those post-modern Gallic minds : they know that if they work more, they earn more, but they do not want to ! And even if a dynamic leader were to implement change, they probably would not settle for it. No. Never.

They are taking a step towards de-industrialisation, perhaps ?

We Malaysians, however, tend to work more, want more, become kiasu (afraid of losing), kiasi (afraid of dying), and when we come home late, kiabo (afraid of the wife) ! We are supposed to work from 9 am to 5 pm for six days in the first and third weeks, and five days in the second and fourth weeks. Chances are that there are people working overtime and not taking off. And yes, we complain about the way politics are handled in Malaysia, but well...... we dare not strike (unless we get millions of people to back us up, perhaps) for fear that policemen, out of the orders of a draconian lead, would disperse the poor revellers with tear gas, water cannons and striking infrared heat.

When DK looked at that article, I told him everything. He read it, and even explained to me why Sarkozy's style of reform was described in the article as "flashy and abrasive". The difference between him and other leaders, according to him, was such - when he says things, he means them, even ignoring the move by people to strike and protest. And in many ways, there is a slight American influence in him (before Carla Bruni, he had an American wife, did he not ?). But American influence, which Sarkozy also possesses, can never be accepted in France (with only one exception - Disney). And well, the Gallic minds never agreed with him and chose to lynch him figuratively. Bad horsey !

Till today I see such figurative lynching in a lot of Skyrock blogs - the French versions, of course. It sure is puzzling to note that earlier, when the manifestoes were drawn, they wanted change - and now they do not want change. Yes, that is how complicated the French mind can be. And I am now learning to fully understand it. Yes, sometimes it can be a headache. But all in all, the French paradoxes are exciting.

DK wrote about the French paradoxes in his first book :

"There are many well-used prejudices amongst the French, who are variously described as arrogant, chauvinistic, petulant, incapable of speaking any language but their own, impatient, anachronistic, contemptuous of foreigners, their waiters overbearing, their hygiene uncertain... Parisians are fingered as a particularly difficult and rude lot.

But the French are also praised for their flair, wir, taste, art, gallantry, charm, the Cartesian logic of their Gallic minds, the beauty of their language and of course, the quality of their gastronomy. Like all cliches, they contain as much falsehood as truth."

Dang. They are equally true and false. Sounds complicating, right ? Think why French meals are considered meals of the upper crust in many places around the world (when they actually turn out to be normal meals) ? Think why Salvador Dali's and Claude Monet's works actually had a lot of critics and a lot of widespread acclaim ? Well... there are things about people which we can never understand.

Like, take this for example, it really happened, some years ago, long before I started my French class : we all know France to be a wine-producing nation. All the good wines - Champagne, Beaujolais, Pinot Noir, Bordeaux, Gewurztraminer and such - started there. And hence, we assume that everyone has the ability to appreciate wine at its best. Now DK was in this gala dinner which a good friend of his organised - and the next thing she told him was, "Kermorvant, you take charge of the wine list." She did that without batting an eyelid. And no, she was not French. Considering the fact that DK is French, she just left the wine list to him.

Immediately when she told him that, he was flabbergasted. He was like, "how can I, a person who does not drink regularly, take charge of the wine list ? I do not even know a thing !" Pretty shameful for a French guy, in our eyes. No, he only drinks occasionally. And before the party, he hardly cared about the drink which was in his wine glass. But at that point in time, he had to do it, and the next moment, he was tasting every single drop from every single bottle. I guess that made him understand his own mind more. *laughs* Well... we judge all French to be wine connoisseurs, what are we doing ? Judging ? Well, we are only human to judge. And such complicated minds, in one place in West Europe, make things more complicated.

Well, it sure is hard to understand a character whose personality lies between the cocky, flamboyant rooster and the humble field poppy. But I am willingly taking that challenge upon my shoulders, because I will be sitting for my C1 (pretty advanced level of French, really) at the end of this year. Examiners assume that anyone who sits for the C1 understands the complexity of a Gallic mind. The examiners in Alliance Française - where I sit for the examination - assessed me and said that I am not ready.

And by the end of the year I will prove Alliance Française wrong.