to the Americans 5 - Julien

Julien comments to the American people about astronomy, telescopes and the economy.

In French, English subtitles.

to the French/aux français 5 - Mary

Mary speaks to the people of France. Extracted from my interview of her in July.

Mary s'addresse au peuple français. Extrait de mon interview avec elle en juillet.

to the Americans 4 - Dmitry

Dmitry from Russia, Dmitry of B224 fame delivers his message to the American people. A question he gives to reflect upon: what really is the American way? The European one?

to the french / aux français 4 - Ike & Jen

Ike and Jen deliver their message to the French. Note, this video might be completely incomprehensible to anybody without contact with British teens (though what you see here are American adults, of course).

Ike et Jen s'addressent aux français. Cette vidéo pourrait être totalement incomprehensible pour ceux qui n'ont pas de contact avec des ados britaniques, même si les gens que vous voyez sont des adultes américains.

to the americans 3 - Djamé S.

Djamé S., also from the lab, speaks to the American people:

Djamé S., qui est aussi du labo, parle au peuple américain:

to the French/aux français 3 - Bert

Bert gives his message to French.
Bert s'addresse aux français.



I don't think he likes the Académie Française very much.
Je pense qu'il n'aime pas trop l'Académie Française.

to the americans 2 - Yannick

Friend and B224 colleague Yannick delivers his message to the Americans (and more seriously than the infamous Patrice D. this time). Filmed on 5 october 2005 in Nancy, France:

to the french/aux français 2 - Dennis

Dennis delivers his message to the French:
Dennis donne son message aux français :



Sorry for the crappy translation.
Désolé pour la traduction pourrie.

to the Americans 1 - Patrice D.

Patrice D. delivers his message to the Americans:

to the French/aux français 1 - Serena & Kelvin

My sister in law Serena, and my brother Kelvin, speak to the people of France in the first ever message to the French. Topics addressed: Bush, Chirac and french friens. Thanks for letting me put this on the net, guys!

Ma belle soeur Serena et mon frère Kelvin parlent au peuple français dans ce tout premier message aux français. Les sujets abordés: Bush, Chirac et les frites. Merci, les gars, de m'avoir autorisé de mettre cette vidéo sur le net!

About this video blog

Are you an expatriate? I'm Eric, an American living in France, and from time to time I've noticed that there are little bubbles utter miscomprehension both the Americans of the French, and the French of Americans. The way I see it, all expatriates have a role of cultural ambassador that they can choose to play if the want. My way of playing it is by creating this video blog.

The idea is simple: say, like me, you're an American living in France. You grab one of your French friends (and maybe a significant other) and ask them if they have a message for the Americans. That is, if they had two minutes to say whatever the heck they wanted to to the People of the United States, what would they say? And with their permission, you put it on the internet. What makes this even more fun is that when you're home for the holidays, you do the same thing with your American friends -- you ask them, if you had two minutes to address the people of France, what would you tell them?

I hope that other people would join this video blog or maybe help me build a community with it. I'd like to see stuff like 'Message to the Chinese', or 'Message to the Kenyans' or 'Message to the Icelanders'. I'd also be neat to see things that bypass America altogether, like a 'Message to the Japanese' by an Italian. If you would like to participate, please leave a comment anywhere on this blog with your contact information. You don't even have to be an expat; it's just that expats would likely be the most interested by this.

We're probably not going to do much to bridge the divide with these messages. Heck, we might even make things worse. But we're going to have a whole lot of fun doing it.