French lessons

Krovetz (French, Psychology ’08)
Photo by Michael Bailey.

“I’d never traveled alone before, much less out of the country,” Tess Krovetz (French, Psychology ’08) says, excited by the independence she felt living for four weeks in Lyon, France.

“It was quite an experience finding my way through airports and around a new city on my own, learning how to get along in a country where my culture is not the standard. I liked the independence of it, being immersed in something completely different from what I’m used to. You can only go so far sitting at U.Va. You do have to travel.”

Tess took advantage of every opportunity to get out and explore the country and returned with a greater sense of how Americanized other cultures are becoming … the “McDonald’s-ization” as she put it.

“In France, meals are much longer,” she explains by way of example. “You sit down to eat, and it’s all about the socializing at the table. In America, generally the faster you eat the better. It’s like something that’s necessary, but not something you want to sit there and enjoy. That’s starting to happen more and more in France. There was a McDonald’s in Lyon, and they have a lot more fast-food restaurants.”