Cultural Lesson #5: Bon Appetit
This French phrase is definitely not a foreign to American ears. From titling a cooking magazine to appearing on Garfield comic strips, this phrase like "rendez-vous" and "déjà vu," has been welcomed into the English language. But, before coming to France, every time I heard someone use bon appetit, it didn't mean very much; it was just a goofy thing to say. It's so French (like the baguette or accordion music) that it's almost stereotypical. You begin to even wonder if it's something said outside of the dinner tables and restaurants of American movies set in France or scrolled at the bottom of a menu at a fancy restaurant.
I'm here to tell you that bon appetit is so much more than just a fun thing to say before starting a meal. It goes back to the idea that French people see meals as less of a time for nourishment and more of a time to share food around the same table. Everyone says it. You say it at family dinners, friendly picnics, restaurants, and even when just grabbing a crepe from a stand with a friend. If I walk by the kitchen and see my host mother eating breakfast or lunch, it's polite for me to say "bon appetit." It's even considered normal for a stranger to say it to you if you're eating your lunch on a park bench.
It's one of the things I could use to rebut the stereotype of French as cold and standoffish. Food brings us all together. For your next meal, I wish you bon appetit!
PS) I will be blogging all this week, as I have internet access and a computer!
Hi Kathleen. Exactly this happened to me today in Perols. I was sitting on a bench when someone just went by saying:'Bon appetit'. I thought: Well...I am just having an apple and don't know you but anyways...thanks for your compassion ;-).Sometimes in Germany it's a sort of odd situation when someone you barely knows says it to you or when it's someone at work in a certain situation(e.g. your colleague or boss comes in your office and you are just about to eat something).But here "bon appetit" really seems to mean what the words express!
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