This topic has been requested (thanks father) so I’ve thought about it for the past few weeks and wanted to put together my thoughts. Let me see if I can explain. This is a large part of my experience though not one of the most pleasant, to be completely honest. French education of course, is French. They do things differently here; it goes hand-in-hand with the way of thinking. From my observations, personal experiences, and stories from other friends studying here, it is hard to adjust to being a student at La Catho if you are not from Europe. Not that Europeans are all the same but they seem to get the flow here better than us Americans at least. Being American, I am used to detailed schedules of class times, classrooms, syllabi, and email notifications. These kinds of things are common at Villanova, and I’m sure are about the same at any other college in the US. None of these things really exist in France. Each student must pick a field of study when going to university; there is no freshman year where you can try out classes and fill up your required courses. So French students start out with specific classes for first year, no choices really, so “registration” for them is simply turning in their sheet at the beginning of each to semester to say that they will continue with their studies. At home, it’s all put into the computer so we can easily find and register for classes at the assigned time. So registration for us International students was difficult; each faculty, or area of study, has their own schedule of classes. These were printed out and posted on the wall in one room for us at the beginning of my semester here. Before this day I had to search a document online that was incredibly difficult to navigate, but managed to find a few classes. When I showed up to find theses classes, some had of course disappeared. I had to meticulously write down my course names (English and French), the professor, the course number, and the times. Because classes at La Catho are usually only once per week, I had to take 2 classes to equal one Villanova credit. So I registered for 10. It was an intricate process that left me feeling tired. After two hours, that was done and I guessed I was ready for classes to start. I had a mixture of required Villanova classes, French classes, and English classes.
I’ve talked about my classes a bit on this blog so won’t get into much detail about them, but will speak in general. Students in my FLSH faculty (faculte libre des lettres et sciences humaines=liberal arts and humanities faculty) have to check the boards on the FLSH floor every day to make sure there are no announcements about classroom changes, class cancellations, or exam times. This was a shock to us, and very inefficient it seemed. I was disappointed because these boards were on the 3rd floor (4th floor american) of the main academic building. But now that I think about it, it’s just another thing the French do in a French way, why not post something on a board so everyone can see it? Just check the boards, if that’s how they do it then just go with it I guess. I got used to it after a while. There is an email system that is like this. One of the administrators sends out a school wide email for some exam times and class cancellations or room changes. It was subjective when it would happen but I often got emails that did not apply to me. Another thing that makes senses but was a bit inefficient.
I took a mixture of regular La Catho classes and International student-only classes. I will go back to Villanova with credits toward my French major and one for my Humanities major. I didn’t waste a semester! I was able to meet French students as well as Internationals in such classes as Strategic Intelligence and Expression Orale. As of last Thursday, I have taken all the finals for my International student classes. It was a difficult week of testing but I managed to get through it by studying of course. My other finals will be in the FLSH finals week in mid-May so my semester will be officially ending around then. So this semester started for me in early January and will go to mid-May; it’s been quite a long semester compared to other abroad students I know. I’m lucky, I get a nice long time in Europe!
No real textbooks here. Not once have I seen a textbook. My courses with texts to read were given to me pre-printed out. Not sure why this is, maybe it has to do with textbooks being expensive or that students really just learn what the professor says to them in class.
No real homework. Homework in my sense of the word would be smaller assignments given once or twice per week to continue a student’s knowledge or keep up reading a text. Here we've have had much, much less than normal. I had to write a handful of papers and only had consistent readings in my one literature class. I know college courses are generally framed around a midterm test and a final test, but my Villanova courses have been that and more. Here I found that I have not learned as much as I would have in a Villanova semester even though I was taking ten courses instead of around five. I believe homework keeps a student’s mind moving and learning. Because of the lack of homework I didn't keep as much on my toes sadly. Not having homework at first was nice but led me to have a lot of free time. This kind of leads to my next point.
Professors have lower credentials. I do not mean this in an offensive way but I never heard from more than one professor of mine what qualified him or her to be a college teacher. This is linked to the hierarchy in academia in France; you do not question a professor because he or she is above you and always will be. I had no real problems with this but overall found the quality of instruction by my French professors to be lower than at home. None of them were doctorates and never told me what degrees they did have. I did have two British professors here and they were more accommodating to what I was used to.
No syllabi. Most professors do not hand out much information to help you through the class. You will know their name from the registration sheet. In my courses with French professors they introduced themselves one time in the first class, with only their name and nothing else. You will not know when the midterm or the final is unless they decide to tell it to you verbally. You will not know their email, and they do not have office hours.
Long classes are given a smoke break. This is not a proven fact but I hypothesize. A little more than half of my classes were 2 hours or longer. So a 2 or 3 hour long class gets a 10-15 minute break in between. This break was sometimes used for the French to go smoke a cigarette. Since I do not smoke, I would rather have class during that break and get out earlier...but that’s how they do it. Throughout this semester, I have been bombarded by a smoke cloud as I leave the building due to many students smoking there. I hate to rave about this, but it’s quite unpleasant. Thankfully they can’t smoke inside in France though. The school grounds are covered in cigarette butts, but let’s be real, every French or Belgian city I’ve been to is! It’s a part of the culture. I sometimes come back from class or dinner smelling of cigarettes purely because it’s unavoidable. Hopefully this will change for the sake of their health but by now I’ve gotten used to it even though I certainly do not like it.
La Catho students like to chat in class. In multiple of my classes, there were French students who came in and chatted at a whisper the entire class time. I was absolutely not used to this. Even when some professors asked for quiet they did not listen and continued to talk. Many other American and Canadian students I know have observed this as well and no one knows why they do not seem to respect the professor. Maybe I was around a small group of chatty French students but it seemed to be a wide known thing.
Long school breaks. La Catho had a two week long “winter” break from the end of February to the beginning of March. I am starting a three week long “spring” break this week that lasts until finals. La Catho and other French colleges space out their semesters though I do hope I won’t have forgotten all I've learned in my classes by the time finals get here!
Well I hope that gives some sort of view into the French education system that I have been enrolled in for the past four months. I have enjoyed my time at La Catho despite the absence of any school spirit or club activities. My French has certainly improved through listening to and speaking it in class! Back to more stories about travel...
