J'ai un question...

This morning we had a little conference session where we watched two short documentaries and then had a question and answer session. Then this afternoon we had a discussion section for group projects we all did. In these sessions I reaffirmed an observation that I made early on here in France. The French are simply not able to ask questions concisely. Literally it takes about 3 minutes of talking before the actual question can be posed. The person asking a question first has to pose their thoughts on the topic, then roundaboutly asks the question. If the person who is supposed to be answering the question takes a minute or two to think about the response, then the question-asker further qualifies why the question was asked. This is sometimes the same for teachers, as when they pose questions they also give tons of background for the question being posed. It will be strange to get back to the states where people ask the question directly without trying to lead the answerer. Sometimes when I ask questions and I pose the question concisely, the person I'm asking looks at me expectantly as if there should be more to what I'm saying. Nope, there's not. Simple and concise, that's the American way.