Since I arrived here in Aix, I have been amazed by the beauty of the town and the people around here. My experience of cultural confrontation so far is very mild. The reason is quite simple. This is not my first time being exposed to another culture. Culture in the State is already different from where I grew up. I learned from my previous experience how to adapt to another culture quickly.
When a moment of the cultural confrontation shows up, the best thing to do is learn how to communicate with the party or person involved and understand why people here have such cultural customs. A good example is here in South France, the dinner time starts late and will take up quite a bit of time on the dinner table for having a conversation with family. Although not all the family are like this, I had a long dinner with my host family. When I have some other plan for the night, I always communicate with my host mom over the phone or in-person to inform her of tonight’s plan, which is much better than not showing up without explanation.
The problem more likely to happen is miscommunication due to the language barrier. It could quickly occur and cause misunderstanding between two parties. It could be some “cultural confrontation” because English and French are two different languages developed from two different cultures. However, I do not believe the miscommunication due to the language barrier will put me at a disadvantage. In contrast, one of my motivations for learning languages is to learn about different cultures through language. The best way to reduce cultural confrontation is to use language from the culture to communicate. Do not be intimidated by the other languages; instead, speak bravely. So that we can learn and understand better.
