Getting to the heart of the culture onion

[Music]

in the early 1990s

i remember reading in my high school

french textbook that only 50

of french people had phones my first

thought was

that can’t be true and at that time i

had no way

to find out there was no google nor

really much of an internet at that point

i just had to make do

with little bits of secondhand

information and hold on to my curiosity

for a bit fast forward to 1999 when

three things happened one

an american commercial was advertising a

new version of a popular meal in a box

this meal in a box is known for its

fluorescent orange cheese powder

and only takes 10 to 12 minutes to make

but the

ad was now promoting a microwavable four

minute version two jose bouvet

a french farmer destroyed a mcdonald’s

restaurant in the south of france

and three i was a fresh-faced university

graduate

leaving the u.s for a language assistant

job in france

i was anxious to leave the land of

fluorescent orange cheese and

four-minute meals

and impatient to get to the promised

land of long lunches

and wine and before we go

any further let’s get one thing straight

i wanted to do much more than scratch

the surface

i had a seat at the table and i was

ready

to dig in i had a million questions

how do french people maneuver to tuamo

vuvuamo and

la bis why are coffees cars in

refrigerators so

teeny tiny why is there so much dog poop

on the sidewalks

is it true that only 50 percent of

french people have phones

do they really say zu d’aler and

why don’t they pasteurize their cheese

does the rude

waiter really exist are there

universities really free

is their food really so good and

what is an aperitif so there i was

a language assistant working for the

education national

i had french colleagues in french

schools and i was going to teach

french children in one of my first

lessons

i wrote the date on the board underlined

it and told my elementary class to copy

it

in their workbooks a keen seven-year-old

girl

raised her hand and said what color

should i underline the date miss

i was a bit surprised at the question so

i said

it doesn’t matter any color you wish all

of a sudden there was a flurry of pencil

cases and markers appearing

i had inadvertently started a coloring

frenzy

and had completely lost control

what happened eventually i found out

you see there is a very specific color

coding system that french children use

to help them learn parts of speech and

grammar

they just weren’t used to having the

choice but it wasn’t

in the classroom where i had one of my

most memorable moments that started to

pull back the curtain on french culture

it was in the school cafeteria

at lunch imagine a long row of tables

with

20 30 people it was the moment of the

meal when the cheese

gets passed around you see i live in

normandy where kemonberg

is king no mercy i say to my table

neighbor as my

tastebuds remind me of my previous

tentatives

said my table neighbor with genuine

surprise

then i heard of course she doesn’t like

it

that camombe has no taste referring

to the factory produced pasteurized

version going around

if she ever tried real chemo beer from a

farm

that would be another story and here is

where the fun starts

the discussion was now table wide and i

got an earful some had heartfelt

declarations of love

for chemo some commented about how

only the good cheeses were unpasteurized

cheeses someone else mentioned where to

get the best

chemo someone else mentioned their

favorite cheese

and then pretty much everyone else

chimed in

offering suggestions advice love stories

and soliloquies about cheese

and this scenario kept repeating itself

all this

fuss about cheese and i thought

wine was the real french hero it took me

a few years lots of meals patience

and curiosity to be able to start

figuring out

what was going on

and here it is symbols heroes

rituals values and practices

this culture onion created by gert

hofstede shows how

culture is manifested for clarification

culture can be succinctly defined as

what is accepted

and familiar for a group of people to

really get to know a culture

you have to dig deeper and work your way

through the culture onion so armed with

this onion

i’m going to try and explain one aspect

of french culture

food and eating

so pull up a chair and join me at my

table

eating it’s all good right it’s

togetherness

taste time well spent a good meal

is as fulfilling to the soul and social

fabric

as it is to the stomach and in france

eating is a serious affair let’s start

by

scratching the surface symbols are the

outermost

layer they are what we see so when josie

bouvet

remember him wanted to make a statement

against

la malbouf junk food he attacked the

golden arches

words and the ways we use them are also

symbols take for example the word gomo

and gomodis if you look in a dictionary

you will see gluttony and greed

nothing less than one of the seven

deadly sins

although in france agormo is someone who

appreciates

high quality food and ago maldives

is that little bit more you are having

because it’s just

so good due to their superficial nature

symbols are where stereotypes can come

from

which on the one hand can be dangerous

and counterproductive

but on the other hand can also be a

source of wholehearted fun

and the window into the lower layers

for example if you google search french

stereotypes or

french symbols you will see lots of

images of cheese

and baguettes

the french are so serious about their

baguettes

they are trying to have it

internationally recognized as

cultural heritage for humanity next

heroes heroes are people real or

fictional that serve as models

in the u.s the cowboy symbolizes rugged

individualism and freedom of action

under the lens of our french food

illustration

well-known french heroes are celebrity

chefs

and food critics but even

more importantly are the family heroes

that perpetuate the culinary history of

the family

and the region thanks to them traditions

are kept alive

and passed along and let’s not forget

the expertise and dedication of the

neighborhood

and if a humble baker wants to become a

hero

well every four years there is a

competition

called de france

it is a prestigious title that honors

excellence and saw

fair there are quite a few categories

but the most

publicized one is cuisine gastronomy

digging deeper we get to rituals and

practices

this is the how part of the onion

this is how people make culture live and

breathe

by participating collectively in rituals

and practices these acts are

heavy with symbolism think weddings

funerals and how we express our devotion

to the divine

for example so let’s get back to eating

what is accepted and familiar in france

in its simplest everyday form practices

people eat in two or three courses

in its most elaborate version rituals

it is saved for special ritual moments

and here’s how it goes to start there is

an aperitif a drink or two

alcoholic or not and some small nibbles

to wake up the appetite

after or as an interlude to the apiero

there can be a mi zombus this is a

well-crafted more sophisticated nibble

signaling that the meal is going to

start soon

the meal now begins with a small

savory dish aptly named the entree

because you are entering into the meal

sometimes there are two entree if it is

a really

really special occasion then there is

the main dish

or two main dishes if it is a really

really special occasion

after the main meal there is a plateau

de fromage

a large variety of cheeses to choose

from

the more variety is better with bread

and salad

and then there is dessert and then there

is a teeny tiny coffee and then there is

a small glass of a strong alcohol

called the digestive to finish this

version is called the rupa gastronomic

it can be seven or eight steps but can

even include one or two more

depending on the region and last quite a

few hours

depending on the occasion unesco

explains the gastronomic meal emphasizes

togetherness

the pleasure of taste and the balance

between human beings and the products of

nature

in 2010 they classified it as intangible

cultural heritage for humanity so

clearly there is more going on here than

simply

satisfying our hunger which brings us to

the heart

of the onion values here you have the

most

invisible aspects of culture here is

where people

tacitly agree on notions such as

beautiful or ugly

clean or dirty logical or illogical

and the biggest of them all right and

wrong

so let’s step away from our dinner table

just an instant while we consider an

example

freedom and let’s take the two countries

that i know best

france and the us in france the concepts

of

liberte egalite are enshrined in the

french

constitution and in the u.s there is

liberty

freedom and justice for all as promised

in the pledge of allegiance

a word is indeed a simple symbol

but a country’s institutions and people

make the word

and its concepts live and breathe and

both these countries have governments

and institutions that are

built on the value of freedom

i started to understand the french

notion of freedom when i started

understanding their health care system

subsidized housing

their education system and why they

demonstrate and strike

french people are always quick to

criticize the imperfections in these

systems

but i was impressed

and then intrigued the us

and france used this same word

freedom but are using it to justify

completely opposite

phenomenon from my perspective i

understood

a deepening of meaning a deepening of

perspective

not a contradiction we need to

understand

that values and value concepts live

and breathe underneath the layers

of symbols heroes rituals values and

practices

so back to 1999 and that fresh-faced

graduate a few

hours after my arrival in france i was

drawing an impromptu champagne aperitif

at the school where i was a language

assistant with the teacher who was my

tutor

and the principal of the school once my

french ran out

which didn’t take very long they started

to have a very intense discussion

that as far as i was concerned was going

to get my tutor fired

there was serious disagreement between

them

later i asked her aren’t you worried

about the principal firing you

she said he can’t fire me

and she stated it as if it were a simple

fact my american brain thought

how is that possible in the states

you can get fired for almost anything

and in any

manner of ways you see in the

educational

they run a very complex nationwide

administration

that places people in schools based on

very complex

ranking systems and everyone is at the

mercy of that system

teachers and principals alike so no

he could not fire her she was free

from the worry of being fired for

speaking her mind about the changes the

new education minister was making

a few weeks later there was a nationwide

strike

against these new measures and i got to

see an entire country of teachers

exercise their freedom to strike and be

heard

because they were also free from the

fear

of being fired let’s come back

to our meal as i look around my table

i think about my experiences over the

years and the guests

i have gathered i look over and i see

france

a country that has twelve hundred

varieties of cheese

and loves fast food and there they are

chit chatting and congratulating america

a country of

four minute meals and who has recently

won

the world cheese award and i

sat them next to each other because for

me juxtaposing opposites

is not always a contradiction but a

welcoming

of diversity the spice of life so to

speak

and at my table there is always room for

others

and when they come i’ll switch their

seats around so

everyone can have a new perspective

because the more

people that are at the table the richer

the meal becomes

so like preparing a good meal

experiencing culture is like simmering

this culture onion until it’s all fallen

apart

and the layers have disappeared then you

add some more ingredients and turn it

into say

french onion soup you can’t see the

layers

or taste the individual ingredients but

if you have the patience to let it

simmer

the opportunity to have a seat at the

table

the curiosity to taste the soup and the

presence of mind

to be humble when faced with confusion

or a very stinky cheese this is the

recipe for discovery

because that stinky cheese you just ate

might be

an entire culture onion in just

one bite

[Applause]

[Music]