Four months ago, the director of our course of study announced to our hundred student class that it was possible to have a two weeks exchange in April, either in Nottingham, or in Castellon (Spain), Tallinn (Estonia), Prague, or in Sofia (Bulgaria), but only six students per destination. We would get an about 250 Euro bursary and our first stay week would be during our holidays, so that we would miss only one week of school. It looked like the perfect plan, a very great and unique opportunity to discover a new town, a new culture, and above all an other university. It is often in our school that you can make an six months or one year exchange in an partner university in a foreign country, at the end of our five years study. This kind of mini-exchange could be a good training. So I immediately made application, thinking it would never be enough place for everybody, because I really wanted to discover Prague, one the possible destinations.

But I got very surprised, when at the end of the registration, there was still available places for almost every destination. And that is point I don't understand. Why so many students didn't seized this opportunity? After I asked some of them, it wasn't of course a question of money, they were just not interested in such journey, and afraid of missing one week of school. I was a bit disappointed by this lack of open-mindedness.

I came back from Prague one month ago, and it was a very rewarding experience, even more than I expected. It really gave me the desire to go in a foreign country for a future university exchange.

Of course it was difficult to follow the course in the beginning, and I had to work to make up for lectures I missed.

But I am sure I was not wrong when I think about it now, because I could not make up for such a journey as I did it with my lessons...

Americans on Socialism

Hey everyone,

One of the hardest cultural gaps to bridge, in my opinion, has been about economics. In America, free-market capitalism is not just an economic system; it's linked with cultural identity, personal identity, and some of what Americans consider the most fundamental values, like self-reliance, entrepreneurship, and a strong work ethic. Some of our founding myths--rags-to-riches stories (all the way back to Horatio Alger), the American Dream (even before J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur), and even the melting pot--are built on a free market economic model. While capitalism definitely has its flaws--we all hate poverty and the shrinking middle class, overconsumption, the inability to disconnect from work, a terrible health care system, etc.--ideas of a welfare state, or living off of handouts, or enabling, or--worst of all--not encouraging healthy competition sound just as frightening.

So it's hard for some Americans, at least it was for me, to adapt to a country where the Socialist Party is first runner up, and where you don't have to worry about having an FBI (or whatever the French intelligence agency is) open up a file on you if you join the Communist Party.

I read this great article on the New York Times called "Going Dutch" by Russel Shorto. He explains all this very well, for audiences on both sides of the pond: why do Americans have such a visceral distaste for socialism, and why socialism--at least in some forms, to some degree--is actually great. I agree, too, with the criticisms he makes of the more socialized state in the Netherlands (similar in some ways to France). If you can make it through the five-page article, though, I think it's well worth it, for Americans and Europeans.

I was speaking with a French girl last week at a conference, and we began discussing the differences between teaching in America and in France. This led to a discussion of the competitive exams in France compared to job interviews in the States. I made the mistake of saying, "You have to know how to sell yourself over there." To me, this seems like a positive thing: knowing how to communicate and to put your best foot forward are important and worthy skills. She heard it as dehumanizing, objectifying; capitalism is, as she saw it, a modern form of slavery, where very few control very many. We went on to discuss the structures of higher education, and then secondary education; public schools vs. private; work ethic; health care; and so on. The problem: Everyone should have equal opportunity, but that's never the case, because of neighborhood, educational, ethnic, gender differences. How do you solve the problem? I asked about Affirmative Action (which the French and English call Positive Discrimination, if it gives you an idea), but that, she said, doesn't get to the root of the problem: you have to support the entire population, give those who need it a real leg up financially, so they have the same chance to pursue a better life. I felt that government aid without helping to place kids in better schools would create dependency, a crutch. She thought it was classist of me to see it that way. She may have been right.

The great point was, though, that from a simple question about how to become a teacher in France and in the U.S., we ended up debating the fundamental meanings and differences between the American self-reliant individual and the French solidarité and l'état providence. So often these days, it seems like nearly all the cultural differences--political, interpersonal, environmental, even religious (think of that Protestant Work Ethic and Weber)--are somehow tied up with economy.

Blog

Hi everyone!

I wanted to reflect on our today's work : blogging...

What is a blog?

Wikipedia :
"A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."


It is a new experience for many of us and it's a bit weird.. I've already heard of blog. I've already visited some of them. Blogging, I mean writing, is not the same. One becomes part of the stream, one belongs to the "blogosphere". But what's the goal then? And why?

Whatever would be the answers to those questions, one has to admit the blog phenomenon has clearly become a part of media system. There are over 60 millions of blogs on the web. About one million posts are created every day...One can found a blog on almost any subject.

The link with culture? Obvious !
Blog is now a media. A media spreads culture.

Not convinced? Have a look then...

http://notrejapon.blogspot.com/
http://www.bresil-indigene.blogspot.com/
http://la-cachina.over-blog.com/article-15007991.html
http://blog.zanorg.com/index.php?perm=392

A great tool isn'it? But one must be carefull. There are excellent and really bad things. So one has to select informations in the relentless stream.
Anyway, it's is the really same with all medias (TV Channels, radios, newspapers...) .

So I'm persuaded blog is a very powerfull tool to share one's opinion and culture.
I've shared mine right here..
I'm now a real blogger...

The waste of 24 hours

Hi! OK that's me first time....
I'm simply going to talk about what I'm doing right now: trying to put in place some waste management system at the campus festival of INSA: the 24H. And this is, if you believe it or not, a widely cultural subject. For me, coming from some northern Europe country, it is something natural to sort my waste. Here in Lyon we have a similar system, so when I first arrived I thought:"Ok, it's like home juste put all your plastic cans and cheese papers in it...". But that was totally wrong. Later, when I had my first look at the indications on the garbage can for sorting, I had to admit that I had been wrong. I did a lot of very bad things in terms of waste management. You have to know that if the "tri" is bad, that means that if you things in it that don't have to be there, they put all back together and the whole work was for nothing. I knew that, so I felt bad. And now the festival: the organisation committee had the good idea to put a better waste management system in place than in the years before. For me it seemed to be clear to do it right and as successful as possible, but not every body in the committee shared this opinion. But anyway, they help us very well. The great problem was to make people put their glass and their plastic bottles in right bags! In such a festival context it's very hard to make the people doing the right thing. And if there are no widespread sorting habits it's even worse, you have to do a lot publicity for your garbage cans! So we tried to put over every waste bag a panel which indicates what to put inside. Know it's not sure how it's gonna work, we will see.
But if everybody does a little it can make huge things move, so have a nice weekend and use the right bag for littering.

A matter of words

Hi everyone ! Already back on Culture Critics ! (be careful, blogging is an addictive behaviour ^^)
Today I'd like to react to two things dealing with the same topic : racism.
First, we were asked last week to thing about what we would like Barrack Obama's election as the USA president to change in this country or even in the world. Of course this election is remarkable because Obama is black-skinned and because Americans are renowned racist (at least in France...).
Then, I saw at lunchtime, in the "Zapping" of canal+, an extract from a TV show in which Eric Zemmour, a french journalist, said it was obvious that a white person and a black person belong to two distinct races.
(here is the video, in french of course : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRR-KWSqhEg)

As I see it, someone who's racist is not necessarily someone who says something like : "I don't like blacks", but everyone who believes that it does exist several human races (like Eric Zemmour). Of course it's completely wrong, you can't establish a race based on the different forms of a single gene. It's even totally absurd if you know (and everybody should) that a race is defined by a genome, that is to say by an entire list of genes (and not their forms). Otherwise you could invent human races based on eyes color or hair color...or whatever you want. Science tells us that all human beings have the same genome, therefore this is obvious that there are NO human races but ONE human race : THE human race.

Nevertheless, in english we often use the word "race" to denote skin color, including in official documents, and even in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("Article 16 : Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.").
That's what I would like to see changed in USA. Using the word "race" in that way should not be politically correct, because I believe that if you use that word to denote skin color, it amounts to recognize there are several human races based on skin color, and thus it is, according to me, a major step towards racism.

A word may hide other ones

Well, now that our Prophet Balázs has blogged, we have no choice : we must blog (or be cursed forever !). But before, I'd like to say that MTV shows us that "change we can", but that doesn't necessarily mean getting better !
(and just another electoral allusion, I love the word you used in your message : "Americain" ^^)

Anyway, today is Halloween, so I'd like to talk about...acronyms !
Nowadays we use lots and lots of abbreviation, in every languages, because of chats, SMS and online games (you've probably all seen or used "lol", which has hundred meanings, "omg", "ty" or "thx", "wtf ?!"...and others). But acronyms are much more older. Some became proper names, for example associations or administrations names (Unesco, Nato, Nasa...), and others became common names. Those last are often given by scientists to their discoveries or inventions, and are seldom translated, that is to say that the name is international but that it stands for something in english (hey, that's not my fault if only english speaking people make important discoveries !). You've got for instance : laser ("Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"), radar ("RAdio Detection And Ranging") or aids ("Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome") that french people managed to translate in "sida" (just mix letters).
But the most beautiful acronym ever, the one for which I write this message, is "nylon". Don't try, if you don't know what it stands for, you'll never guess ! Before I tell you (suspense...), you must know that nylon was first used in 1938. After that, it was used during World War II for parachute clothes, and that's when nylon got a second etymology (not the real one, which is really trite, but a much more funny one). Since 1941 and the entry into war of USA, nylon is an acronym standing for "Now You Lose Old Nippons" !
Okay, that's not its real meaning, but it's even stronger to create an acronym from a name than a name from an acronym, don't you think ? And I believe that only Americans could have given such a powerful name !

So, happy Halloween, and long live our first blogger Balázs ! (you wonder how do I write an 'á' on my poor french keyboard ? Well, that's quite simple, just hold "Alt" and type "0225"...I said quite simple !)
See you on "Culture Critics" !

I want my MTV!

My "culture critic"!

It's a bit sad to look at a blog that hasn't got any articles since it's creation. So I thought maybe if I start, you others will be be more motivated. (even if it's just to say I'm wrong).
My comment isn't about politics, but MTV. I always thought about it, as the channel that diffuses primarily musical videos. At the beginning this was it's purpose. (Giving a chance to musicians to enlarge their audience.) But since about a month, I'm able to observe this phenomen ( a thing that I couldn't do a long time ago). The channel metamorphosed into something, that has nothing to do with music. (You can watch more music videos even on Arte.) Instead, you have reality shows from "dusk till dawn". From the "My super sweet sixteen" (a show where the spoiled child of a rich family throws his 16th Birthday, naturally like a superstar, and repeating about a hundred times: "I deserve this!!!!!" ) to "Pimp my Ride" (where MTV chooses the car of a candidate, and tunes it). Even if it's really amusing, to watch this piece of the culture Americain, because it has to be a part of their culture, if it's the favorite channel of the americain youth, Personally, I miss the old Mtv, with Beavis & Butthead, and the music. Of course if you have the cable, you can have 32 other music channels, but neither of them gives you the real, original feeling...

So thats it for my first "culture critic". I hope someone will have something to say about my little writing. If I have other things to say, I'm going to let you know!! :D