The Jury

On a recent business trip to Paris, I discovered a most extraordinary thing about the cultural difference between "Anglo-Saxons," as they called us, and the French.

The purpose of the trip was to visit schools and give artistic feedback to their graduates.  And we did.  We also sat on a jury, which I imagined would be like a panel on a dais holding up numbers after each competitor showed his work.  Sort of like the Olympic judges at the gymnastics events.  But instead it was a room full of people with scarves.  They watched each piece then were introduced to the team.  And then a discussion began.  In French.

Pourquoi was asked a lot.  And the students looked mostly scared and sometimes horrified.

And I sort of knew what they were talking about but couldn't really speak enough to keep up.  So I listened.  And after, we had individual times with the students to speak English.  Funny, one of the administrators told me later that the French are very used to taking criticism, so they were amused by our constructive and positive advice.  "You Anglo-Saxons are so nice!"

That is the first time I have ever been called an Anglo-Saxon.