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Culture refers to the union of knowledge, experience, learning, beliefs, attitudes, values, meanings,
hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the world, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group
striving.
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Philosophy
France has produced a large number of leading philosophers in the European humanist tradition.
One of the first was Montaigne, in the 16th century, an inspired moralist who established the essay as an art form. Then came Descartes, the master of logic, and the philosopher Pascal.
Writers of France
Writers and intellectuals traditionally enjoy high prestige in France. One of the most august of French institutions is the Academie francaise, whose 40 members, most of them writers, have pronounced on national
events and, on occasion, held public office.
Theatre
The Three classic playwrights of French literature, Racine, Molière and Corneille, lived in the 17th century. Molière's comedies satirized the vanities and
foibles of human nature. Corneille and Racine wrote noble verse tragedies.
Poetry
The greatest of early French poets was Ronsard, who wrote sonnets about nature and love in the 16th century. Lamartine, a
major poet of the early 19th century, also took nature as one of his themes (his poem Le Lac laments a lost love).
French Food
French cuisine is extremely diverse. This variety is supported by the French
passion for good food in all its forms, France's extraordinary range of different geographies and climates which support the local production of all types of ingredients, and France's long and varied history. In
many ways, an understanding of the culture of French food is an understanding of France itself.
enturies as a cultural center, with Paris as a world center of high culture.
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 French Recipes
The French cuisine is extremely diverse, considered to be one of the world’s most refined cuisines.
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 French Literature
Literature was shaped by specific historical traditions and a firmly circumscribed code of priorities,
ecclesiastical and secular.
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CULTURE
Here are some of the highlights of French culture which may be useful for ESL teachers. The
following are the aspects of the French culture that we found most interesting and influential to Western world.
Nobody can deny the profound influence of France’s culture on the Western world for the last
hundreds of years, especially its art, literature, and philosophy.
France has been home to many world-famous artists. In the last half of the nineteenth century, one group of artists, known as the
Impressionists, created an impression of scene using quick dabs and strokes of color to capture their subject in the changing sunlight. This inspired many new artists to experiment with their own styles. The famous
French artists include Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Armand Guillaumin.
The magnificent buildings of all ages and
styles throughout France also reveal its artistry. Some of France’s most impressive buildings are its cathedrals. Two of the France’s best-known cathedrals are Notre Dame, in the heart of Paris, and Chartres,
southwest of Paris. The stonewalls of Notre Dame are decorated with rows of statues and gargoyles. The Chartres cathedral, rebuilt after a fire around 1200, flaunts 3000 square meters of stained-glass windows.
French literature also profoundly influenced Western cultural development. Victor Hugo wrote the classic novels Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables in the 1800s. Alexandre Dumas was another important
writer of this time. Honore de Balzac was a ‘prodigious realist author’. Other famous French writers include Guy de Maupassant, Charles Baudelaire, and Gustave Flaubert.
French people are proud of France’s
contributions in philosophy. Rene Descartes, who lived in the 1600s, was one of the most influential philosophers in human history and is sometimes called the founder of modern philosophy. In his book, Discourse on
Method, Descartes outlined his skepticism and his method for inquiring into the truth. He introduced his famous phrase, “Cogito Ergo Sum” (I think, therefore I am). He was a major inspiration for the Enlightenment
of eighteenth century Europe. Later French philosophers include Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus.
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Making eye contact means equality in France. It is considered too personal for
use with strangers, and it will be construed as a request for relationship if you look directly into a stranger’s eyes on the street or in a café.
Alternatively, refusing to make any
eye contact is one way of looking down another person, especially when that person is a waiter or a salesman.
To appear friendly, brief eye contact should be established, especially
with the ones who are helping you. For women, do not look back at strangers on the street who stare at you, even if you are interested
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French people all shake hands. Usually, it’s a brief holding for the hands with
an even briefer visual acknowledgement. Yet, it is most important in French greetings among all acquaintances.
People shake hands when they are first introduced, and whenever they
enter or leave a room, and before and after a meeting. It would be considered impolite if you do not do so.
French people also say that they can judge a person's character by
their handshake!
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Kissing on both cheeks is normal between close acquaintances who are
greeting or parting, or family members, even in public. Often, one starts with the right cheek.
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In French, the personal pronoun for “you” has two forms in the singular – the
familiar (tu) and the formal (vous). The plural form is always vous.
Tu is used for family members, close friends, fellow students or colleagues, children, animals, and God.
Vous
is used for everyone else. Unless case is clear, it is better to use vous and allow the person to suggest using tu.
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On may replace any pronoun to avoid being too personal in French language.
For example, “On est invité à–” is more modest than “Nous sommes invités à–”
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On may replace any pronoun to avoid being too personal in French language.
For example, “On est invité à–” is more modest than “Nous sommes invités à–”
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Monsieur
Madame
Mademoiselle
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Titles are used widely in French. Monsieur for a man, Madame for a woman or
Mademoiselle for a young woman.When greeting people or saying goodbye, the French always add Monsieur, Madame or Mademoiselle.
Titles are also used to address people you’re not on first-name terms with.
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Ça va is often used in French conversation as a greeting. It is an informal way
of asking how someone is and how things are going.
Ça va (without raising voice intonation at the end) can also be used as a reply, meaning “I’m fine.” or “It’s okay.”
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1. Un, deux, trois...
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When counting on the fingers, begin with the the thumb as the number one, then the index finger for the two,
and the middle finger for three, etc.
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2. Il a un poil dans la main
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To motion that someone is lazy, hold one hand flat, and pull as if on a hair growing out of your palm, and
say, "Il a un poil dans la main."
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3. Délicieux!
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