My Many Teeth

On Wednesdays I babysit two girls aged 3 and 6.  They don't speak English.  I watch them for ten hours.  Ten hours.

The first time that I met them, the 3 year old - Hanae - said to me, "You have a lot of teeth because you're American".  I thought that I had misunderstood her French, since I happen to know that I do not have any extra teeth! I continued to consider it a misunderstanding until, after staring at my mouth, she poked my tooth with her finger, and started putting her hand in my mouth, in that way that adults rarely do.

For the next several days, I glanced at everyone's mouth that I encountered.  Surely we all have the same amount of teeth, I pondered, but maybe because I've had braces, more of my teeth are showing when I smile.  My hypothesis was proven wrong, however, by the large amount of people with straight teeth that I saw.  I would like to make a note that most people would have just chalked this comment up to meaning nothing, since it was a three year old who told me.  But, I didn't.

About a week ago, Matt and I were walking around, and saw a woman posing for a photo by the Seine.  I noticed immediately that she didn't smile for her photo.  Hmmm, did she not smile because people here don't smile for photos, or was she trying to look sultry?  It was impossible to tell, until yesterday.  Yesterday, when waiting to be let into the classroom where I work, I noticed that there was a class photo on the door, with 22 unsmiling children and one unsmiling teacher.  If you think this is normal, go find a classroom photo of any US class.  It's not how we do things.

"Did you know that French people don't smile for photos?" I asked Matt when I saw him that night.  "Well," I corrected myself, "They smile, but with their mouths closed in an unfriendly way."
"Yeah," He replied, "When I was at the bus stop waiting for Henri-Louis, I heard a Dad tell his child to remember to close his mouth when he smiles."
"Really?!" I exclaimed, "Why?"
"I don't know.  Maybe it's rude here."
"But," I continued, "I see people smile with their mouths open all the time!  They laugh and smile a lot!"
"Yeah, they laugh and smile when something happens, but to just smile with your teeth when nothing is happening to make you smile, they think it makes you look stupid.  It's not that it's rude, it's that it's a sign of stupidity and low-class."
"But I smile with my teeth all the time.  All Americans do!"
"Well," Matt smiled (I'm not sure if it was with or without teeth), "Maybe they all think we're stupid."


In other news, next week I will be featured in an article in the elementary school newspaper where I work.  The article will be in English with questions that the kids were able to ask me, and my very simple responses.  There will also be a photo of me, complete with a big open smile.