Quel Americain etes-vous?

This morning instead of a regular French lesson conjugating verbs in tenses I can’t figure out when I’m supposed to use or reading lists of vocabulary words… we discussed politics. American politics.

My French teacher said he’d found a quiz on a French news website. It’s called basically “What kind of American would you be?” It’s made up of 14 questions about the 14 biggest issues facing the United States right now…. according to the French news organization that put this quiz together. He asked if I’d be willing to discuss politics and take the quiz. (In his experience, Americans don’t like to talk about politics.)

The quiz sounded infinitely more interesting than grammar, so I agreed. And I have no problem discussing politics with a French person. It’s far more difficult to do so with an American. He’s right… we don’t like to talk about it… what he doesn’t understand is it’s just a problem we have with each other. (Which may explain a lot about the state our government is currently in)

The questions covered everything: Iraq, Iran, terrorism, immigration, trade, health care, retirement, pollution, gas prices, the sub-prime lending fiasco, abortion, gay marriage, gun rights and oh I forget the last one. Many were issues Americans won’t even consider while voting. My opinion is that most people will focus on one issue… whichever is most important to themselves… and vote based on that and that alone.

At the end, this quiz told me who I should vote for and why. Honestly, I wasn’t very surprised at the result. My French teacher told me that every French person he’s had take the quiz… including himself… has come up with a vote for Ralph Nader. He’d never even heard of Ralph Nader. I shared the story with an American friend here who had a similar reaction. (Really? There’s a third person running?)

If you’re interested, check out the quiz for yourself. Yes, it’s in French but Google translate can help: http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/elections-usa/quiz-election/

2 Responses to “Quel Americain etes-vous?”

  1. D.A.D. says:

    The Saturday Night Live skit following the VP debate had the anchor saying “and the winner was…..whoever you already liked most before the debate.”

  2. mandy says:

    For my birthday some friends took us to a town in France along the shores of Lake Geneva… so while eating lunch I could look out the restaurant window and look across the lake and see Switzerland. I got very excited realizing I was qualified to run for higher office.

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