In the next passage, she contrasts the way the Fr view intelligence for the purposes of engaging in an intellectual style. To be intelligent is to be eloquent and have a flair. For the American, it is about self-actualization. She moves out of a discussion of intellectualism to talk about the premium USers place on being in shape as self-actualization.
When I get a chance, I'll scan these passages and post them at the blog.
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This sounds fascinating. I hope you can find time to scan and upload.
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Throughout my consulting career, I've worked - pretty much exclusively - for multinationals. This has brought me into contact with people from around the world - mostly from Japan, S. Korea, Britain, France and Germany.
Perhaps the very best time I had -- from the point of view of enjoying intellectual stimulation at work -- was during a project at a fortune 500 materials sciences firm. For a two year period, a sizable number of employees from French offices were brought to Philadelphia to live and work (the company offered its workers at 'professional' levels the chance to live in different locations; the idea was to give them a chance to see the global operation first hand; of course, most used it as a way to have a bit of an adventure).
I became quite close with one woman in particular, a graduate of the École normale supérieure. Although she enjoyed many things about life in the United States (not difficult, when your days consisted of well paid work, sleek outfits and an attractive office while your nights were graced by visits to Philly's Le Bec Fin restaurant) what drove her to distraction was our American insistence upon purely practical conversations in the office. Exceptions were made for sports or television or politics, in that 'good guy, bad guy' American way and what you did over the weekend but aside from these deviations (and a few others) conversations were dominated by completely instrumental matters.
During meetings, she might make an allusion (always apropos) to a moment from Plutarch's Lives or some principle of physics or something similarly intriguing. I fondly remember her use of the Roman civil war as a way to explain inter-office political problems between the Paris and Phila offices.
Because she was a hard worker, quite pretty and lighthearted, her US co-workers found these references charming and amusing but also eyebrow raisingly strange. Everyone knew we were close - and although I was considered to be odd, allowances were made because I came off, more or less, like 'one of the boys' - so 'off line' people would approach me and ask why she was so 'weird'(a question which invariably took the form: 'I mean, I like Helene and everything but she's kind of different').
What struck me about this situation was how the basis for this verdict - that she was 'strange' - was her passionate interest in science, philosophy, politics, feminist theory, etc, and unwillingness to keep these interests under lock and key during work hours.
What a bizarre pair we seemed to nearly everyone: the too smart French woman who wouldn't hide her deep curiosity and knowledge (and thank Thoth for that) and the Black guy with a weakness for discussions about quantum entanglement.
.d.
I've told you a million times...never repeat yourself.
Papa Smurf ...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/