Am I Becoming French?

First of all, I am not. But we will get to that. To get there, I have to talk about my class on interculturalism. In this brief class, we explore the values of different nationalities in different contexts. The class itself could be interesting, unfortunately, the teacher is not the greatest.

That being said, a few concepts resonated with me, especially the 6 dimensions of Hofstede. There is a site called The Culture Factor which lets you compare different countries based on these 6 dimensions. In class, we looked at many interactions between different cultures.

The thing that, based on this class, French people like to do is something like multitasking. When you do a specific task, you will be open to interruptions. If the interruption presents a task more important than the previous you switch tasks.

On the contrary, the Dutch will tend to block out time for different tasks, and during those tasks, no interruptions are allowed. I think I recognise myself in the Dutch person most, that's my best way of functioning.

Or so it was during my prépa time. Recently, I have started to notice that I tend to respect time slightly less. I still arrive on time more often than the French do, but I have become more flexible. I find it less shocking that I leave the house 5 minutes before the start of class when I need to walk 8 minutes to class. Even though there is still a little voice inside me screaming at the thought of being late.

Most of all, the difference is in the way I work. I have multiple projects going at the same time, and I tend to bounce back and forth between them. I am unsure if it is more efficient or way less efficient than before, but the work does get done.

If I trust my senses, then I would argue that I am less productive because I allow distractions. Some studies somewhere-somewhen said that it takes about 25 minutes to regain focus after a distraction. From personal experience, I tend to agree.

So I guess the main point of the post was to say that I have lost efficiency during this past year. I will try to regain it eventually. This summer, I will be doing an internship in Lille, so I will try to put myself back together. Well, it is not as if I am lost or something. I could just be more efficient with my work.

This Week's Suggestions:

🎶 "wavey vinyl house mix" by Chris Luno:

I have long been a fan of Chris Luno's work, and I just happened on one of his many mixes again. Previously, I promoted him in the House of the March Hare in September of 2021. Been in on it for a while!

Till next week!