Fascicule_E52MCC.pdf - Atelier des Sciences du Langage

- 34 -
Document 2
LE SOURIRE
Comparaison Français/Américains
Extrait de : « Culture Shock ! France » - S. Taylor (1990)
« The smile : if you are American, this is going to be your single biggest non-verbal
miscommunication when in France. The tendancy of Americans is to smile all the time, to
appear friendly and reasonable. The French do not trust a smile. If they can see no apparent
reason for it, it smacks of hypocrisy, a very unpleasant thing to a French person. English and
Asian readers will understand this reticence about smiling quite easily.
I am a Californian. I smile automatically. I look better when I smile and I feel better. But in
France I constantly remind myself to wipe that smile off my face as I walk down the street
just happy to be in Paris. It gives the wrong message. It makes people nervous, if I do. Am I
an idiot, they wonder ? Am I laughing at their expense ?
While I love France and I love being there, I know that a constant smile on my face will not
convey my appreciation. Don’t get me wrong — you can smile a lot when in France. But not
until you break that public shield and get involved with someone specific for a specific
reason.
You don’t smile at a stranger on the street and say « hello » just to be friendly. […]
This is not to say the French do not smile or that smiles aren’t important. The French love to
smile, and do so very quicly, as soon as a reason to do so has been established. »
Extrait de : « Les Français aussi ont un accent » - J-B Nadeau (2002)
Extrait du chapitre « La France, mode d’emploi ». J-B Nadeau est un journaliste Québécois.
« 1- Ne souriez que si on vous le demande. En France, quelqu’un qui sourit sans raison au
premier abord est une pute, un hypocrite, un idiot, un colporteur ou un Américain, ce qui n’est
guère mieux. »
Extraits de : « French or Foe ? » - Polly Platt (1994)
« Philippe Labro, a well known French journalist and television figure, had a hard time
learning the local rules during a summer worrkshop at the University of Virginia. In his book
l’Etudiant Etranger, he tells of being summoned before the Student Council and reprimanded
for not saying « Hi » as he passed by other students on campus. Summoned a second time, he
said plaintively, « What’s the trouble now ? I always say « Hi » when I run into people —
strangers ! — crossing the campus ! » « Yes » sais the Chairman, « but you don’t smile when
you say it. »
« For strangers to smile at each other in Paris, there has to be some kind of incident involving
them both, and not just stumbling into smeone’s stare.Smiles usually come up if you
bumpinto each other by mistake (…) The key is that the face changes. »