Overview

Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow spent a decade traveling back and forth to Paris as well as living there. Yet one important lesson never seemed to sink in: how to communicate comfortably with the French, even when you speak their language. In The Bonjour Effect Jean-Benoît and Julie chronicle the lessons they learned after they returned to France to live, for a year, with their twin daughters. They offer up all the lessons they learned and explain, in a book as fizzy as a bottle of the finest French champagne, the most important aspect of all: the French don't communicate, they converse. To understand and speak French well, one must understand that French conversation runs on a set of rules that go to the heart of French culture. Why do the French like talking about the decline of France? Why does broaching a subject like money end all discussion? Why do the French become so aroused debating the merits and qualities of their own language? Through encounters with school principals, city hall civil servants, gas company employees, old friends, and business acquaintances, Julie and Jean-Benoît explain why, culturally and historically, conversation with the French is not about communicating or being nice. It's about being interesting.

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9781665251570

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The authors clearly had a ball researching the book, and their glee is infectious. The writing is as light as it is substantive, and if that sounds like a contradiction, I would refer you to a souffle-- ""New York Times""

The authors clearly had a ball researching the book, and their glee is infectious. The writing is as light as it is substantive, and if that sounds like a contradiction, I would refer you to a souffle-- New York Times

"The authors clearly had a ball researching the book, and their glee is infectious. The writing is as light as it is substantive, and if that sounds like a contradiction, I would refer you to a souffle-- ""New York Times"""

Author Information

Canadian journalist-author Julie Barlow is a regular contributor to Montreal public affairs magazine L'actualite. Her writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including the New York Times, USA Today, Toronto Star, and the International Herald Tribune. In 2003, Barlow published the international bestseller Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong with her husband, Jean-Benoit Nadeau. Canadian journalist-author Jean-Benoit Nadeau is an award-winning contributor to L'actualite. Writings with his life partner, Julie Barlow, have appeared in the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, Saturday Night, the Christian Science Monitor, and the International Herald Tribune, among other publications. In 2003, Nadeau and Barlow published their critical and popular success, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong. They live in Montreal. Teri Schnaubelt is a Chicago-based stage, on-camera, and voice actor as well as oil painter and photographer. An Earphones Award-winning narrator, she has voiced over a hundred books for New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, in addition to helping independent authors get their stories heard.

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