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 I
didn't find the French students to be very different from Romanian
students- maybe just more polite and friendly. From the first day
we arrived in Quimper the students treated usvery nice and tried
to make us feel at home. At Le Likes high school we were able to
have some meetings with some of the students there so that we could
communicate with the students and find out more things about them,
their school and about the way they spend their free time.
 After
they finished their classes, we went with them to their homes for
almost 4 days. With our new hosts, we went to town to see shops
and other interesting things. After that we met with our host friends
and they were very kind. Even if sometimes they couldn't understand
what we wanted to say, we were able to communicate very well with
them, in English, French or sometimes with the help of sign language.
After 4 days in Le Likes, we knew many people from Quimper.
The last day we spoke with many students in the hall and in the
lunch break and we all gathered in the cafeteria and talked about
many things like the way they spend their time in classes and so
on.
 Of
course we were very upset when we had to leave our friends from
Quimper on Thursday, but we promised that we would write each other.
What I found very strange and curious was that almost 70% of the
students from Le Likes smoke at school, in town, restaurants or
bars-even though they know that smoking is not healthy. In all the
places we were together with the French students they made me feel
like France wasn't my real country, in fact they were very nice
and friendly too with us. I hope that someday I will see my friends
from Quimper, those students who I spend 4 beautiful days with.Also
I found that the French students don't know many things about Romania
and the things they know aren't always so nice. Let's hope that
we could change even a little their opinion about Romania but especially
about Romanian students.
Author: Steliana Ionescu
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Thanks to this excursion I had the chance to meet/know for the
first time French students and also exchange ideas and also with
italian students in the next few line I will express my first impressions
as 4 days aren`t enough to really know them.From day one that means
17th of December when we arrived in Quimper I have noticed how calm
they are, as proof I will only tell you that although they had a
self-opening door nobody was playing with it and also nobody was
hurrying to get to school(no surprise there).
Walking around the school I was surprised to see that nobody was
wearing baggy jeans or even original clothes(Nike Reebok etc.) I
think that in a school which has about 3000 students I only saw
3 ,but after talking to my host Trevor I found out that they really
don`t like them too much.Also their discipline should be admired,
during every break which lasts about 20 minutes the students go
out (most of them to have a cigarette) to a smokers yard no one
is allowed to smoke anywhere else, but the bad thing is that too
many students/French smoke I was surprised to see that almost 1
fifth of all the students in the school smoke.Participating in history
class I had the chance to see how they unfold and I must say that
I consider them very interesting with movies, slides and sometimes
even music. While talking with some students I found out that their
grades vary between 1 and 20 which actually is the equivalent of
1 to 10 in Romania only that their school life seems a little more
relaxing if I may say so although I may be mistaking.
Unfortunately I must say that French students aren`t very good at
foreign languages such as English, in some sections the also study
Spanish and Chinese: I don`t know how good they are at Chinese but
I have my doubts.During a Coastal Cities workshop I was surprised
to see that many of them didn`t have an e-mail address and many
of them had never even heard of IRC/Chat although their high-school
is very well equipped in IT(information technologies) just like
in all the other sections.As I talked with the students I noticed
that even though they have a high standard of living/technologies
aren`t to well informed ,this is partly the fault of the television
on which you can only see 10-15 french channels and maybe one of
the factors that influence their English level.
But I must also say that I was impressed to see how friendly French
students are(I have never been treated better nowhere in my life
and I would like to take this opportunity to Thank My hosts the
Stent Family) it was a real pleasure to be able to talk with them
an we all had something to learn from each other.
Just like Romanian students, French students are very talented ,for
example they presented the play Antigona and I also assisted to
a presentation of the schools celtic musical band ,which`s music
I liked very much.
Author: Parfene Liviu
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