Foreign Perspectives

Once you’re in France for a while, chances are that you’ll come across a few “experts” that is somebody doing something or other that comes with the title of “expert”.

In fact, the meaning is somewhat different to the english word and equates to something along the lines of “senior” so that you find “Expert Comptables” ie Senior Accountants and so on. However, whilst the meaning doesn’t translate across to the word “expert” in english, in practice it seems to be taken as meaning that in many instances ie that the “expert” can’t possibly be wrong because they are an expert.

Even those who don’t regale under the title of “expert” in their profession are often taken to be essentially infallable when working in their field. So, for example, the assumption is that whatever comes out of an official channel is bound to be correct is quite common and therefore not to be questioned. Perhaps our own accountant provides the best example of this practice. In common with everyone else in France starting a business she received a bill from the social security people for around 3000‚€ when she started her consultancy business and in common with almost everyone else she paid it. In fact, it’s not actually necessary to pay it as it’s based on an estimate of what you might earn in your first year of business and if you tell them the true figure then their demand for payment drops around 90%.

Perhaps the worst example of this is in the area of estimating the value of a car after an accident. Obviously there can be a lot of uncertainty in any estimate as no two cars will have been used identically of course. Yet, the expert accepts no uncertainty: his price is the only price and must be correct because he is the expert. Except that, naturally, even experts make mistakes.

So be wary of the “experts” in France for they seem to believe that their expertise is carved in stone and unquestionably correct. Even when it’s wrong.