As an American student, I have a very distinct idea of what school looks like. However, after just over three weeks here in Strasbourg, I have discovered that not only are french classes different in language but in approach, structure, and perspective.
First, as an American student I have become very accustomed to the importance of discussion and participation in class. Not only is there no such thing as participation points here, participation is not very welcome. The style of class is a lecture by the professor and a mad rush by the students to catch every word. That’s right, every word – or at least it seems that way. French students write their notes in large paragraphs rather than the american outline and bullets method. Not being good enough with the language to catch every word, let alone know how to spell each, I have stuck to my bullet and numbers outline. In the coming weeks, I hope to make some french friends and see if we can compare notes in an effort to 1. ensure that I truly understood what was going on in class and 2. to see up close how these book-like notes work.
The french class, further, does not seem to require much work outside of the classroom. There are some suggested readings, but I have yet to have a true homework assignment. My exams will be either written or oral at the end of the semester and my entire grade depends on that one test. And to think that I complained when I had an econ class that only constituted a midterm and a final.
I have asked myself frequently throughout my weeks here how many times I have heard France come up in one of my classes at Georgetown. I can only recall a couple of times, and the majority of them have been in french class. However, a group Americans including myself are playing a game where we time the beginning of class to see how long it takes for the US to come up. I have yet to have a single class where the United States was not referenced within the first 40 minutes. As much as we talk about how much influence the US has in the rest of the world, I didn’t believe that it would be this great or this academic. It’s almost like they know that we’re timing them or that there are several Americans in the class. I would like to hear from my french classmates in the coming weeks how they feel about the amount of times the United States comes up in their education system.
Finally, the actual class structure is also quite strange to me as a foreigner. Classes last for two hours and meet once a week. There are no breaks between classes but there are breaks within the class. Classes often start a little bit late due to the mad rush from room to room – most of the Georgetown students are taking classes exclusively at the Institut des Études Politiques (Sciences-Po) which offers all classes within one building. Also, while not the case for all who study abroad in Strasbourg, but for most of the students who are taking classes almost exclusively at Sciences-Po, classes seem to mostly take place on Mondays and Wednesdays. I have long days twice a week, one class on Tuesday, and no classes Thursday-Sunday. This leaves me time to polish my notes and look up background information and words that I didn’t fully understand in class.
I can’t say that the french school system is necessarily better or worse than american universities, but I can say that it takes some time to get used to. I’ll leave you with perhaps my favorite part of class in france: there’s plenty of time to get coffee in the middle of class and the line is always fast and efficient so we can sip on little french expressos while learning about the formation of the European Union.
