"Close Encounters of the French Kind" contains 30 short mini-dramas in which 30 Americans from different parts of the United States meet 30 different French people from different parts of France. In each mini-drama the American misunderstands the French person or some aspect of life in France. The reader is given three choices (A, B or C) as reasons for the conflict. Explanations follow indicating why A, B or C is the correct or incorrect choice. These mini-dramas are drawn principally from the author's two years studying and teaching in France, as well as many trips to France over the years while he taught French (language, literature, Contemporary France, linguistics and French for Business) at Towson University, Towson, Maryland, where he is a Professor Emeritus. The success of our previous book, "Rencontres culturelles" was due to the presentation of the actual experiences Americans go through when meeting a French person in France, with all the social, psychological and linguistic implications involved. This has not changed in the new book. For that reason, this book provides an invaluable preparation for anyone planning to travel to France, as tourists, students, those in the travel and international business communities and in the diplomatic corps. But this book is intended bor everyone, because of the reasons below: Americans who have just returned from their first extended stay abroad, often comment how they had at first the expectation that everyone everywhere were similar to Americans. Gradually, they had become aware of how much we are the product of our own culture, the learned values, habits, customs and conceptions we grow up with and accept as universal. When you are surrounded by a vastly different way of life, the French, in this case, you realize that each country has its own unique ways of looking at the world. After having read this book, readers will have lived vicariously in France, going through many of the actual experiences Americans have encountered there. Readers will therefore gain a perspective on their own American culture, since they will have seen other ways of doing things that work just as well, and actually sometimes better, than those we have learned since childhood in America. It is hoped that this book instills an awareness that each individual person one meets is the result of that person's unique cultural circumstances growing up in America, or anywhere else.
About the Author: Arley W. Levno was born in Hillsboro, Oregon, grew up in Sidney, Montana and attended the University of Montana (at Missoula), University of Maryland (College Park- Ph.D. 1978) and the University of Paris (France). He lived for 2 years in Paris, France where he taught English as an "assistant d'anglais" in the lycees, and studied at the University of Paris. He taught French (language, literature, contemporary France, French linguistics and French for Business) for 32 years at Towson University, Towson, Maryland, where he is presently Professor Emeritus. He lives in Columbia, Maryland with his wife Dr. Patricia Gobbett-Levno. They have a daughter, Christine Gobbett-Levno, who lives in Washington, D.C.