Paul Lardet / godisopensource

Tell us a bit about yourself

Hi! I'm Paul Lardet (Élisa's boyfriend (so also the happiest man on this earth ^^)), a french student who lives in High-Savoy (odd translation for Haute Savoie). I will turn 18 in a few days and I have just ended my "lycéen" path (which is the classical path for teenagers from 15/16 to 17/18). Done with the high school, I am now heading to a so-called "preliminary grade" (2 years long) which will normally allow me to reach the best French IT/computing engineer courses. I am a big computing enthusiast which means I keep fiddling with computers, systems etc. But wait, I don't spend all my days in front of screens! Photography is a spellbinding pastime (well, cameras do also include screens...) as well as crochet (still not healthy for my eyes, I agree...). I also really enjoy making short films, and playing the piano. I guess this is all you need to know about me :)

Have you ever traveled to the US?

I have never been to the US, but I'd really like to, despite the long plane journey...

When and how did you first become aware of the US?

I guess this was when I was very young because my sister and I used to watch Tom Sawyer. Although its being a non-American cartoon, the image it gives of the US really inspired me (and I guess this is the very first time I became aware of the US).

What are you taught about the United States and US history in school?

The main part of what we are taught about the US in school regards tradition and culture. Last year we also made a whole topic about American spies and secret agents. But to be very honest, I wasn't particularly interested in it, and on a more general level, you have to admit that the English curriculum in (French) high school isn't very interesting: it doesn't touch on topical issues, nor does it cover subjects that are necessarily very interesting for our age. As for the history of the United States, I had an English teacher in college who preferred to teach extra-curricular subjects, including the history of the United States, and more specifically the period of invasion of the continent by European colonists. Finally, having had to choose three speciality courses out of many for my graduation (baccalauréat), I opted for "Contemporary English", which allowed me, through a chapter of the year, to learn more about the economic crisis that hit the country, and all the underlying measures such as Roosevelt's New Deal. This was enriching, but I'm unfortunately truly bad and bored when it comes to politics and economics...

What do you think of the US? Do you have a positive or negative view of the US? Why?

For a long time I had a very negative image of the United States, because of the ideas we receive in France; it's a country that is seen as the archetype of capitalism and the consumer society, and the cinema certainly doesn't help much on this point, in terms of representations. Also, when it comes to problems, particularly societal or economic, that affect our country, we sometimes talk about the "Americanisation" of the system, and since this term has taken on a pejorative meaning. It may be unconscious, but the United States of Tom Sawyer has dropped considerably in my esteem over the past 10 years or so. Nevertheless, when I was researching my future studies in IT, I had a real realisation of the concentration of IT activities in the US and I started questioning the sum of negative thoughts I was more or less consciously given over the past few years. I started feeling that there were not that many negative aspects. I realised then that innovation (in this case technological innovation) also includes an interesting philosophy and hindsight that does not spread abroad at the same speed as innovations do. For example, the uses of mobile phones and social networks, which have rapidly become hugely successful around the world, have been more quickly questioned in the countries where they were created (I'm thinking of the US and Japan). It takes a long time for these attitudes to reach us, and we are only now hearing about the health and other problems associated with advanced technologies. Coming back to our sheep, I have reached a stage of reflection where I say to myself that the United States is surely not worse than France (for comparison, because it is the only country in which I have really lived, if we exclude travel) and on the contrary I now conceive it as a modern country and ahead of our west-european countries. I'd be really curious to travel there, to see if it's a mentality I'd relate to or not.

Are there any stereotypes about Americans that you have?

Please, don't be upset. But what whe hear in France about American people is not that positive: they are supposed to be continuously overdoing, overreacting, and above all, they make no effort to speak decently and clearly, which does not help us (as students) to understand them. We French also think that Americans eat poorly, always kind of fatty and unhealthy things. Of course, this is very cliché and this is obviously not personal thoughts.

Anything else you want to tell our magazine readers?

Nothing else to add, but I'd be very interested to know what Americans think of French people (with the same questions as in this survey). If you have some time to answer these same questions please do not hesitate to send it to me. Here is my contact information: