Introduction to Global Communication

Hello dear reader. My name is Philippe; I am a French student living in Tours. I study English at the University of Tours; I am in my third year of Bachelor degree in the "Civilization and Communication" section. During this semester, our teacher Mrs. Frund, gave us the opportunity to talk with other students throughout the world. We used two different methods to interact with them: by video chat and also by instant messenger. Our courses were divided in 2 sessions per week: On Mondays we were in the chat room and on Wednesdays, we were in the video room.

The two schools that were selected for this course were East Carolina University based in Greensboro, North Carolina and Saint Xavier Institute of Education based in Mumbai, India.

It was amazing to talk with students from each side of the world. Given the shyness of speaking, I saw it like a great opportunity for discovering other cultures and other point of views of different subjects.

In the following posts, I will give you what I learned during the different topics we went through during the course.

College Life

The first official topic after the presenting each other, was "College Life".
I was in the chat room for this topic, I chatted with an American freshman student named Cullen, he is a young African-American student, he is in ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Course) that gives him the opportunity to go to college but he also has to serve his country (the US military pays his tuition fee for college in exchange of his duty in the U.S Army), his major is Political science and his minor is Military science. Later in his life he wants to work in International Affairs (especially concerning Arabic countries, he studied Arabic for a year) at the Pentagon; the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense based in Arlington, Virginia.
He explained me how his week is composed; he has 14 to 19 hours of studies.
I learned that he loves football, he roots for the Carolina Panthers (based in Charlotte, North Carolina) and he totally hates the New England Patriots (given that the latter had beaten them in the only Super Bowl appearance of his beloved Panthers in 2003) We talked about the NFL season that was taking place during that time (It was a bit off topic, but sports are very important in the American life)

He was a great guy, I apreciated to talk with him because he was really focused on his future and he was willing to make his dreams come true.

Family and Cultural Traditions

This was the first topic we had in video conference. In the U.S.A, family is the true core of society, but this fact is slowly fading away, more and more couples divorce (as in Europe) so the family core is more and more split. Weekdays are more for friends and the weekends are more for family, they also go to see elder family members.
The American dream of the self-made man is declining nowadays, young Americans are more and more preoccupied by diplomas, It is quite interesting to see that the model of "rags to riches" has changed. Though they still believe in it but the necessity to have diplomas to become someone is really important.

One of the main cultural traditions in the United States of America is patriotism. Even though, this feeling can change from one state to another for example in Texas, there is a strong patriotic feeling but in California it is more "relax" towards patriotic demonstrations. Patriotism also depends on the events in History, for example after the attack of Pearl Harbor or the attack of 9/11 there was a true national patriotic feeling in all the United States. The students in ECU were most of all supporting the President Obama, they agree with his policy, his values and his vision for America.
 
The traditions in American families  truly depends on the education they received. Things that are normal for young people (tattoos, piercings, raw talking) are considered as sins for older generations. In more religious families, praying before eating is very important.

Meaning of Life and Religion

This topic took place the Monday after the Super Bowl, I talked with a senior student named Matthew Heppner, at first we talked about the Super Bowl, he told me that they held a "Super Bowl party" with his friends and he was totally shagged out!!!

Coming to the topic, for him the meaning of life is to live happily, have fun, and live in harmony with his peers.

Even though, he is not a very religious person, his minor study is religion. He already studied about Buddhism, Christianity, African religions and Islam. I think it is a good thing to be quite "neutral" towards religion; it can give him a much more objectivity in his studies. Because his point of view is less scammed towards other religions than if he was a very pious person.

Stereotypes and Prejudices

For stereotypes, I learned a lot about how French are seen by Americans. And the picture is quite funny. France is very appreciated by young Americans (I was sure after France refused to go Iraq, we would be seen as idiots even though I believe the French President of the time: Mr. Jacques Chirac made the best decision). For them, we have a very fancy food (French food is very delicate for them) our fashion is quite unique compared to Americans who take the first thing that comes in their hands but despite all these great comments we are seen as a country with a ridiculous army!!! I totally agree with them because since Napoleon we lost almost all the wars we went through (WW1 and WW2 were won with the American and ally help). They also have a very funny point of view of themselves: When we told them how America was seen in France, they mostly agreed with us and gave us their explanation of all these stereotypes: When we talked about junk food they answered it’s the “Die Happy” Philosophy (they eat what they want and it makes them happy. Their military is seen as trigger happy (shoot first and ask questions after) they agreed that they had that feeling as well. We told them they were lousy in Geography (they were able to make fun of themselves). When we talked about their constitution especially the second amendment they told us that it was “sacred” The Government is elected to defend the constitution and not change it, they were shocked that in France, we changed the constitution so often, for them it would never happen, because it could provoke a major riot.

Free Topic

The last topic with ECU was free speech, I was with Marie-Joaona Palma de Jesus- Tassel during that chat time, we talked again with Matthew Heppner, he is 23 years old.

We talked about social networks, he has a Facebook account since 8 years, I learned that in America, people delete their Facebook profile before applying for a job because companies can try to look how the candidate in his social life and it can be a point for refusing someone (which is totally different than in France where someone who doesn’t have a Facebook account could means that he doesn’t have a social life or he wants to hide things). In America, people are just crazy about their smartphones (as in France). His future is not decided yet, maybe he will graduate in another College or he will go and find a job, his project is to buy a house in 5 years’ time. In North Carolina, housing prices are the same than in Tours, he also told us that a house in New York City was around $5.000.000… He loves to go on eBay, once he bought a lamp $10 and sold it $400!!! If you were asking yourself, yes he wants to become a businessman. He already went abroad, he went to Mexico.

He wasn’t very talkative, we really had to push him to make him talk more, but he was a nice guy even though he had some hard words for one of the American student that was with us (Cullen)