How to do your love life: to date or to rendez-vous?

HOW TO DO YOUR LOVE LIFE: TO DATE OR TO RENDEZ-VOUS?

So, do you French date?

It’s a peculiar question, I know, but some people, and some cultures, don’t!

They seem really happy too.

Curious to know more?

Check out the article below for a unique perspective on this, and watch the video for some French feeling!

(This week: the verb SENTIR – to feel)

So the continued existence of dating is still fascinating me, but perhaps it shouldn’t.

A thought just occurred to me that perhaps people are so conditioned to fall into predetermined narratives in our current society, that dating is an intrinsic part of it. It is, after all, the narrative of movies and most of our media. In the stories we tell, it’s the only way that people get together, romantically at least. It shouldn’t be such a surprise to me.

Perhaps that is precisely why it needs re-evaluation. In Europe and especially in Paris, we know that people don’t need this sort of facade. Dating, therefore, is a North American thing.

It’s a culture thing.

My question is, just because it’s something that is expected of us to do, whether or not it may have certain benefits, does it mean we should do it? I mean, at what point does it lose its point then when it is done compulsively, because everyone else is doing it?

At what point does it need to be put into question? At what point does criticism get taken seriously?

There is a fear that the defense of dating is simply a compulsive behavior. It’s an institution now, and as such, it needs to be protected. Rational reasons against it be damned. People have fun dating, so why challenge it? Why change it? Why criticize it?

Perhaps it’s time to really bite the bullet. Maybe there is something to be learned from our fellow Parisians. After all, they seem to be much happier than we are. There are statistics about this, it’s true. Maybe the key to a more beautiful world is in sharing and adopting such cultural good ideas, exercising our right to be citizens of the world.

Paris is a good place to start.

Danie @ zenpolitics

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Tell us in the comments below, on a scale from 1 to 10, what mark do you give to the American dating vs. the French rendez-vous?

Let me guess.

Do you constantly have the feeling that you can’t hear what the French say and you don’t know how to read all the French words because they are written so much differently than they sound?

Learn 3 secrets that will help you be self sufficient in the way you pronounce French words – even if you don’t know what they mean – so that you can read that sophisticated menu in your favorite French restaurant.