Hey, guys.
Welcome back to the girlGun London Channel.
If you're new here, my name is Kalyn.
I'm a dual UK, an American citizen,
and today I'm actually talking about the differences between France and the UK.
Now, I have been to France multiple times on on holiday.
We've been in the summer, we've been in the winter for skiing.
I've been to Paris,
I've been to more rural parts of France, and I thought it would be interesting
to compare the two cultures as an American looking in from the outside.
Now, France is the closest country to the UK in continental Europe.
It takes about 2 hours by train
from London to Paris, and you can take the Euro tunnel over
in about 20 minutes, 30 minutes, as well as ferries and things like that.
So it's not far.
You can see France from Dover on a clear day.
And the history between the French and the English is interesting.
Sometimes tumultuous, and I would say stereotypically,
perhaps the English and I will switch to talking about the English versus
the French now instead of all the countries of the UK.
But the English and the French,
sometimes they get along, they have stereotypes about each other,
and I think both are convinced that the others don't like them.
Okay, let's jump into the video.
Okay, so the first difference between
England and France is the concept of language.
Yes. I'm not talking about the fact
that the French speak French and the English speak English.
I'm talking about their attitudes towards their language.
So if you look back in history,
the French, they're much less accepting of what they
would call or what anyone would call loan words into the language.
So a loan word is basically when
a language adopts another word from another language into their own language.
So English is filled with loan words, whereas the French language is not.
So typically,
if there is a word for something that currently doesn't exist in French,
not all the time, but oftentimes the French like to come up
with their own word for that thing, whereas a language like English might just
adopt the word from another language into their language.
The French stereotypically are also very protective of the French language.
Going to France is definitely one
of the countries where it is most important to learn some French before you
go, because they speak French, and when you're in their country,
they would like and it is more polite to speak at least some French too.
Now, on the topic of learning French,
I just wanted to give you an update on my French language learning experience,
because as you may know from my other video, I have been embarking on language
learning because France is a place that we visit the most from the UK as a family.
Here, I decided it would be a really good
idea to make sure that I learn at least conversational French, if not more so,
I've been doing this with the help of Lingoda.
Lingoda is an online language learning school which basically offers live
language learning classes in real time via Zoom.
So it's not an app where you are going
through and answering multiple choice questions.
It is live, but you can do it from the comfort of your
own home, which I love, because I don't always love to leave the house.
I feel like that's something I need to improve on.
But 20 20 20 21 has made me very comfortable in my home.
So Lingoda offers Spanish, French, German,
and actually, if you're moving to the UK from another country,
you can even take English classes or business English classes with them.
You are going to get live instructors.
You go into your account, you can see which classes are available.
You can do it 24/7 all the time.
You could be learning French 24 hours of a day if you wanted to.
Instructors are real people teaching you
in real time, and the classes are no more than five people,
which I really appreciate because I don't like a ton of people
in my language classes because I'm going to make mistakes,
which is absolutely fine, but I just prefer there to be fewer people.
So five is a good cap for me.
You can also do individual,
private one to one lessons if that's something that you're interested in.
Now, if you think language learning like this is for you, and I'd really recommend
you check it out, particularly if you are planning a European trip or planning
to become an expat in the UK or in another European country.
This is an amazing way to immerse yourself in the language before you go on your trip
or before you actually move to the country.
There is another Lingoda language sprint happening.
So this is the May Lingoda.
Language sprint.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
Basically, you can learn a language
and get real live instruction completely for free.
So in a Lingo to a language Sprint, you get all of your money back if you do
60 lessons in two months, whatever language you choose.
Or you can get 50% of your money back if you do 30 lessons within two months.
You can also use my code, which I will put up here right now for $25 off.
And then if you do require lessons, you get all the money back anyway.
But it also would be the $25 off on top
of the 50% refund if you did the 50% challenge.
So check out linkoda in the description box below.
Let me know if you have any questions.
And now, continuing on with the video.
Okay, the next difference between France and the UK is the sheer size.
France is a lot bigger than the UK.
But also this means that France has a lot
more rural areas that does exist in the UK, but the French rural spots are
very large particularly when you're driving.
You drive and you drive and you drive and you keep driving and you keep driving
for hours and all you see are very tiny towns and villages.
You can find rural areas in the UK,
but they're never like too far of a driving distance from a major town or
city just because of how compact the UK is.
Now related to that. The next difference I came up with,
based on my experience in both countries, is that France loves the straight road.
So in the UK, there are some a couple stretches of really straight roads,
but in most of the country, it's not common.
The roads are curved or winding.
Not the case in Franke all the time.
You can definitely be in areas similar
to the US, where you are just driving straight for quite a long time without
turning, without bends, because it's bigger and there's room.
And why would you build a curved road when
you can just build a straight road right on through?
If you're driving through France,
be prepared for some very long straight roads.
Now, the next difference has to do with what they drink.
So France is a wine culture.
They are connoisseurs of wine.
Wine is something that can be paired with many of their meals.
And just socially, they are wine drinkers.
In England, traditionally, they are going to be a beer culture.
So it's not that people don't drink wine,
and equally, it's not that people in France don't drink beer.
But if you think about the alcoholic
drinks of choice, again, beer is much more popular in England, it's a beer culture.
Think of a pub and fish and chips and kind of what pairs with that.
Whereas in France, they are a wine culture
and obviously we all know that the French do cheese and bread better than anyone
else, but their attitude towards food is a little different than the UK.
So as much as you might love some of your favorite UK, english, Scottish,
whatever dishes, fish and chips, scotch, eggs,
things like that, the French take their love of food to another level.
Have you seen Ratitui?
Watch it if you haven't.
France really takes the love of food,
of cooking, of good food, of their national dishes.
Like they take it to another level
in England, like I said, there are going to be people who are
foodies, but we're not a foodie culture, which I don't necessarily have a problem
with, because Americans, america doesn't have a foodie culture either.
But France definitely takes their love and enjoyment of food to the next level.
I was also reading an anecdote from somebody who had moved to France
to teach from England, and the kids were asking,
like elementary school, primary age kids were asking about
the types of cheese in British sandwiches and the English person was like,
I don't know what type of cheese it was, it was just cheese.
Whereas the French children were comparing and contrasting with each other,
what their types of cheeses were, what their favorite types of cheeses were.
So they, from a very young age are brought
up to be foodies to understand all the different types of things.
Whereas in England you just hand your kid a pickle and cheese or whatever
kind of sandwich, tomato and cheese and they probably
wouldn't know exactly what type of cheese or care.
Now, another difference I've noticed is
that in England people tend to be more orderly and more organized.
So in France life seems to be it's much more culture of like hey,
we're just here to enjoy life and whatever happens, happens.
And if you take the Metro and Paris,
it can be a lot more chaos than the tube in the UK.
In London,
this also relates to things like paperwork and expats in France often say like things
take a long time to get figured out because they are not an island,
but they are on island time sometimes in how they go about
organization and bureaucracy and things like that.
I would say as a culture.
The English like to be a lot more like
organized and things happen at certain times and there are certain processes
that you follow and you get into the tube this way and people are quiet.
Like there's lots more
an organized feeling about England as opposed to France and that is part
of the romanticism of France and why many people love France.
But that is definitely a difference I've noticed on that topic.
Did you know that many French places close for lunch for about 2 hours?
So when we were skiing in France,
we noticed that if we would go back at lunchtime, the supermarkets and grocery
stores and some shops would be closed for about 2 hours.
This does not happen in the UK.
Clothes do close.
Shops may be selling clothes, but shops, stores, they don't close for lunch.
That is a very European thing, not a very British thing.
So when you go to Franke, be prepared, things might be closed for lunch.
And so as an employee in France, amazing as someone shopping in France,
something that you should know around lunchtime, again, if you go to somewhere
like Paris, it's not necessarily the same as if you go to a town or village.
Paris is very metropolitan, is a thriving major city,
so you don't always see the same kind of you do a little bit, but not the same kind
of culture in Paris as in the rest of France.
But definitely if you're traveling
in other places in France, be prepared for things not to be open.
And the final difference I wrote down
between England and France is how you greet each other.
It's very uncommon these days
in the circles I run in in England to kiss somebody hello.
Occasionally you might get like a really close relative or someone from maybe
an older generation they don't do like a fullon kiss, but they will greet you
and kind of give you a hug and do like a kissy noise near your cheek.
But that is increasingly uncommon.
Typically in England you go
for the handshake or maybe in covet times you simply wave.
I wouldn't even say like hug, but with relatives then yes, maybe some people.
This is all to say that in France it is still relatively common to kiss,
to say hello to anybody, particularly to friends or acquaintances or family.
You don't like full on do like lip
contact, but you do the both sides of the you go in for the hug and then you
do the one side of the cheek and then you do the other.
This catches a lot of Americans
and English people off guard because we are not used to this.
So it's awkward for me every time.
But if this happens to you, they're simply greeting you.
So just like lean in, see what happens.
They're a very affectionate culture in that sense, in the greeting of somebody.
Okay, so I hope you enjoyed some
of the differences I've noticed between France and England.
If you have any differences of your own to point out or comments about the ones
that I've noticed, definitely leave them down below.
Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you next time.