Reported by Ye Ying
With a vision of France as a "romantic country", everything is fresh to me after arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport. A number of people from all over the world in the city of Paris have stopped at Charles de Gaulle's airport, as well as the diversity of nationalities, to see its magnificent city scenery and profound cultural heritage.
Unlike the bustling city of Paris, Caen could be said to be small and quiet. Although there are clean streets, hospitable locals and white birds everywhere, this seems a bit against our initial expectations of France, and even disappoints me. Almost everyone in Paris speaks English, but our first day in Caen is a barrier to language. But then I came to realize that perhaps a city like Caen was more "French". Paris is the political and economic center of France, in many ways it is difficult to retain the original French taste, while Caen is far less prosperous than Paris, but it can let me feel more real French culture.
Different from the domestic universities, the university here is not imagined "big". For example, I exchanged at the Normandy Business School, which is actually made up of two buildings in Caen. Schools follow the concept of "small class teaching" to facilitate the interaction between teachers and students. Interestingly, the Normandy Business School does not have a fixed timetable and almost schedule is different each week. This is because most of the teachers in this school are not actually teachers, they are working for other enterprises, some even have their own company.
Since the director of the Department of Foreign Affairs at the Normandy Business School sent us the schedule for the changed 2017-2018 year after the results of the application, the classes are now written in a different form from the study plan. Courses include French, multicultural Management, doing Business in France, Wine and gastronomy, French Culture, tourism in Europe. These lessons help us to understand the culture and business situation in France, both locally and in Europe, on a theoretical basis. Teachers are also happy to share their personal experiences to assist the teaching achievement, which is a valuable reference for us. French classroom atmosphere is very relaxed, students and teachers can communicate freely. In order to improve intercultural communication between students, teachers are trying to divide students from different cultural backgrounds into one group. In the process of completing the team work, with teammates from other countries have the exchange of running-in, there is mutual understanding of reference.
After adapting to the life here, the most impressive is the tram which is crowded with students in the morning. Because it is located in the temperate zone, it is only dawn till 8:00am and getting dark till 9:00pm in Sep. and Oct.. The pace of life here is also quite leisurely, shops are closed at 5:00pm, Carrefour supermarket is also open till 8:00pm. This is also what I am not accustomed to. There are many shops in China that are open for 24 hours, and electronic payments are well developed, while in France only cash and bank cards are accepted, and work efficiency is unsatisfactory. However, France also has a lot to learn from, such as the quality of the people, the humanization of infrastructure, and the protection of cultural heritage.
Although there are language barriers and cultural conflicts in the life in France, everything is getting better and better under constant adjustment. Classmates are from different countries, in the process of communication and cooperation with them, I also harvested a lot, not only the accumulation of knowledge, the level of foreign language communication ability, but also independent living ability, intercultural communication ability. In this precious exchange period, my pride in China is also improving, "China speed" is really impressed to me. I believe that the motherland will continue to grow stronger and develop better!
