In the small city of Reims, in the region of Champagne-Ardenne, Sciences Po offers a highly international environment. It is possible to make worldwide friends for life: from Thailand to the United States, from Ghana to Sweden, from India to Ecuador… Ironically enough, exchange students become friends with people from everywhere in the world except for France! Most imagined they would experience French culture and learn the language but end up learning about Thai culture instead! Many exchange students would love to make French friends but have a hard time doing so. Why? How do French people feel about exchange students? Are French end exchange students secretly eager to be friends and just shy, or is it unrequited love?
Exchange students often blame the system for not having the chance to meet the French full-time colleagues… what is the French excuse?
Full-time Sciences Po students often seem excited about the international environment that the University provides; some people even state that the possibility to meet people from all around the world was definitely one of the main reasons they applied in the first place! However, most French students have no exchange student friends, and even those who claim to have one or two actually don’t seem that close (most of them barely remembered the name or age of their international “friend”!). They blame Sciences Po for the lack of common space: “it is hard to meet them inside, as much as outside school!”. As if opposite winds were constantly preventing full time students and exchanges at Sciences Po from forming great international friendships!
Sciences Po’s student association organizes bar events and nights out for all students, full-time and exchanges are welcome. However, on Campus there are hardly any opportunities to meet; French students can only take one seminar course during the first semester, and these are the only ones open to exchanges too! Matthew Baker who is in charge of the exchange in program on Campus, reassuringly claims, “it will be different in the second semester”, since full-time students will take three seminar courses.
Most French students seem interested in getting to know exchange students and experiencing “unique cultural differences”, others though are not willing to leave their comfort-zone and overcome the “appalling” language barrier. Some claim they don’t hang out with exchanges because they don’t want to struggle with English and point out the age difference, as exchanges are usually older (about two years older on average…hardly generations apart).
One full-time student willingly gave a “straight and honest opinion” about exchange students. She would be happy to make friends with exchanges, but outside class there are apparently no opportunities and in class, she is striking reluctant to cooperate with them on projects and assignments due to their “superficiality”. As she states, “in Sciences Po the selection process is rigorous, but not for exchange students”, she believes they “apply through their school, which is not rigorous”. The exchange program is also seen as an “extended vacation” not primarily devoted to educational purposes. Apparently, Sciences Po students encounter profound obstacles working with international students, “especially with Americans”, since “they don’t have the academic rigor”. Even when they do have opportunities to mingle, French students rather pair with their “rigorous” Sciences Po fellows!
Fortunately for us exchanges, she was the only one to voice such strong opinions. Is she the only person to feel like this or the only one brave enough to say so? Hopefully the first option.
Most of Sciences Po students really would like to tear down the barriers that separate exchange and full-time students, to make the most of the international environment and fulfil the expectations they had when they first walked onto Campus.
Personal note: dear full-time students, exchange students are here to experience the French culture and learn the language; they are here to meet you! Don’t be shy or afraid to approach them, don’t underestimate them. If you do so, you may finally agree with one of your French colleagues who said: “I don’t see them as aliens, they are just human beings”.
Giorgia Renoldi