Well Done: No Vacations

In class this week we talked about the components of culture. Mr. Salituro also mentioned that business men experience the differences in culture most often. For his job, my dad is required to work with people from over seas and travel a lot. The largest cultural differences he has noticed in the past years are those from France compared to ours. In the U.S. it is normal for someone to want to eat their meat well done, but in France, many feel that it is odd or gross. My dad always tries to tell them to overcook his food or burn it even and it still comes back to his table pink, but he is polite and eats what he can. Even a McDonald's has a different menu. Instead of disrespecting this different culture he has realized that he is lucky to have the opportunity to experirence something different. When he arrived in France for the first time it was a culture shock, but soon he learned the gestures and common words that help him get along. Also, in the States, when a business person goes on vacation, his/her phone and computer are still attached his/her side. But the people my dad works with in France go completely missing and are unable to be reached. They also take many more vacations than workers in the U.S. To Americans, choosing to take vacations this way may be viewed as laziness, but in France and other European countries, it is healthy and allows you to be a more productive worker. This relates to the issues of punctuality and laziness discussed in "Social Time: The Heartbeat of a Culture," France and The U.S. have different views on what socially acceptable, but understanding these differences and embracing them is what allows this company to thrive.