What it’s like as a Taiwanese to intern at a French startup
Spoiler: Funny enough it is not about wine
3 months in, this is what it has been for me so far to intern at a French startup. This will be about the culture shock I have experienced and how the…perks of working in a French startup. Note that this is my personal experience, (inside a very early-stage Parisian fintech startup) and therefore might not be representative of other start-ups nor the general working environment in France.
The working pace in France
The office
I have to admit I feel pretty lucky sometimes, during my last year in France and my 3months at this company I have had the opportunity to meet many “typical French”. By “typical French” I mean French people who just confirm the stereotypes I had heard about them. Let me illustrate my point, the other day at the office I got a glimpse of one of my French coworker pouring himself a drink of water. So far, nothing particular. However, it was the way he did it that was hilarious, he did it like he was pouring a glass of very expensive wine. Such sophistication for just tap water rendered me speechless…
But sometimes it’s more worrisome than funny. For instance, I just grabbed a sandwich for lunch. They brought it to me at the table with a giant plate twice the size of my sandwich, a fork and a knife. I’m pretty sure my BLT sandwich didn’t deserve so much. These anecdote describes what it’s been for me here this past few months, hilarious and amazing but sometimes quite concerning.
Anyway French are the way they are and it’s rather enjoyable to get to see the Eiffel tower every day on my way to and back from work. I also really like the office because the place we work from is unlike the previous place I got work at. It’s bright, neat and lively with flowing music (check a nice 360° photo of the office, so Parisian!). It feels like working from a cafe rather than an office.
L’apéro
What I love the most about French people is their little traditions. We all know that weekends, holidays and vacations are extremely vital for French people. For them, the weekend starts on Friday night and it is fairly usual to see French get off work earlier on Friday, or to go out for long lunch with their colleagues. French people like to celebrate and even if they have nothing to celebrate.
In our company, we have a tradition too. We call it “L’apéro Friday”. On this special day, we either picnic in a park nearby or go to restaurants, or just prepare a big lunch in the office. The goal for me not necessarily being about relaxation but about teambuilding with your co-workers.
Vacation
Compare to my home country — Taiwan, the relation to vacations is really different here. In Asia, we tend to have longer working hour, very few days off and stressful workload. If take the day off it comes off as you not being a serious person, your colleagues would judge you. In Taiwan it can sometimes be worse. Despite having statutory holiday, if your boss doesn’t plan to let you enjoy your holiday… Well then, too bad for you! It’s just a number on your contract, you can’t really have it.
When I first got in touch with the startup I work at right now, and first read their offer, something caught my eyes immediately — “14 days off”. I thought to myself “Wow, that’s totally insane!”. It was surprising and unexpected to me for sure. Maybe I just got used to Asian working mode, which is why I reacted this way because for French people not only is it normal but they deeply care for their rest days and good luck trying to have any of it.
Since I arrived in France one year ago, I learned that Paris becomes the ultimate tourists’ city during summer vacation. Because all Parisians will be on vacation mode. They can’t wait to leave Paris where they live, they work, they breath. Before August coming, my colleague already warned me that it’s super normal you can’t find anyone at the office.
Frenchy
Love to debate
One other thing I like about French people is that they are really talkative. Whenever they talk, they can’t stop! But it’s beyond just chatting, It’s just like they are ready to debate all the time. They are more individualistic than we can be in the Asian culture. They attach great importance to everyone’s thoughts and are willing to defend their opinions until proven wrong. They are fighters for their own value. As they can’t necessarily always convince each other, sometimes they will just agree to disagree.
For me, it’s really easy to spend meal time with my French colleagues. Because I can enjoy my own meal, observe them like I’m watching a heated debate on a political talk show. I don’t even need to say a word, no, there is no place for me to interrupt.
Speak up
Which leads me to my next point. One thing I’ve realized I need to improve on since I’ve been in France and more so since I joined OhMyGeorge, I realized that I’m not skilled enough in terms of public speaking or when I try to convince people to agree with me. I was really impressed when I first time met our French design intern. He was so confident about his proposal, explaining to the whole team what was the core value of his design. I thought at the time that he was probably my age (FYI I’m reaching quarter of a century soon …OMG!), but no. He is only 19, in his second year of university. I can’t help to recall how was I when I was in this age. Was I so confident when talking to my supervisor? Did I have the guts to convince people to put my idea into practice? Definitely not as much as him…
Be creative
This might also just be cultural difference again but, in our education system, we are not really allowed to have different opinions from what our teachers have taught us. If you raise your hand to ask questions in class, people might see you as a “troubled student”. In Asia, we are taught to absorb everything from our textbooks, from our teachers, from our elders (who are supposed to have more experience) without leaving room for us to forge our own opinions. We don’t really need to have our own viewpoints, because we are being taught what to think and what are the knowledge we need in this world. For exams, weekly quiz, midterms or university entrance exams, all you need to do is just memorize all the content in your textbooks. You can see a standard of “talent” might be different from country to country.
In France, you are frequently asked to have creative thinking. However, this creativity in Asia, we tend to find it ridiculous. I clearly remember that my Taiwanese classmates were so fed up with our French classmates at the time. They thought how can they just bring idea from nowhere like this. No proof, no data, no analysis. The thing is, since a very early age we block our mind, we feel comfortable having a certain routine to work.
Being creative is the spirit of our company (check this funny video we made, about Jim Cramer — a famous US TV anchor — getting upset about our product). It’s a big challenge for me because I won’t have a proposal if I’m not confident enough with it. This is something I should really work on. In my startup, people believe trial and error are part of the process and getting it wrong the first time isn’t important, what’s important is to finally get it right. They aren’t ashamed of releasing a first very rough version of their work out to the world to get feedbacks (you can see the difference between an earlier version of their website and the final version for instance, what a change!), even though they know they might get severely judged.
I have 3 months left! I’m looking forward to more apero, and I hope I will manage to grow from this wonderful experience.
