Mural Récits

Une Australienne à Poitiers

Megan Hau, une étudiante australienne qui est venue vivre en France pour un an, nous parle de son expérience à la Faculté de Lettres et Langues à l’Université de Poitiers tant qu’étudiante étrangère.

Quand est-ce que tu es venue en France ?

HAU : January 2008

Pourquoi est-ce que tu as choisi Poitiers ?

HAU : As a part of my international studies program I could choose from the following cities : Strasbourg, Toulon, every Parisian suburb, Rennes, Reims, Bordeaux, and Lyon. I wanted to give this year the most effort I could in terms of exposure to French culture, way of life, and language. I knew that if i went to a larger city it would be easier to speak English. So I wanted to go to the smallest, prettiest town where I wouldn’t know anyone. I knew people who were going to Strasbourg, so I didn’t want to go there, and so basically I ended up deciding between Rennes and Poitiers. There were seven people from my school going to Rennes, so I ended up choosing Poitiers.

Nomme une difficulté que tu avais pendant que tu étais ici.

« French administrative workers are confused »

HAU : Well my university in Australian sends people over in January, which is mid-year for European schools. This puts us in a bind administratively and scholastically. In addition, the French administration generally has no idea why we have arrived mid-year.

French administrative workers are confused because we’re Australian study-abroad students, but even though our international studies program is structured just like the Erasmus programs, we start at a different time of the year.

All the orientation programs for Erasmus kids are in September. I have raised this issue to my university but because of the structure of the international studies program, a reform would lead to an overhaul of the whole international studies program.

Comment est-ce que ton expérience à l’Université de Poitiers a différé de celle à ton université en Australie ?

HAU : The way they teach in France is more of a teacher-student relationship. That is, the teacher talks, and you write and are encouraged to have the same opinion as the teacher. This may be in part because I did subjects such as languages and history where the teacher is indeed the authority on the subject.

However, in Australia, I find that as a student I’m more on par with the teacher. I’m entitled to my own opinion, and I’m actually asked for it. I’m expected to read up about the subjects that we’re studying and question what is said in class [by the teacher]. I am supposed to form my own opinion and express it

In France, it’s easier for me to get good marks in class : I just write down what the teacher thinks and regurgitate it at the end of the exam. I found university classes in France to be structured a lot more like high school

Comment est-ce que tu as réussi de trouver un sens d’appartenance ?

HAU : I felt that in order to gain a sense of belonging I had to really try to make friends.

However, the thing about feeling « close enough » to people in order to befriend them when you’re overseas is that you have to find people who are of a like mind. Unfortunately, the reality of it is that local students in Poitiers—and even local students when I’m back home in Australia, cannot be bothered to take time to meet foreigners.

I mean why would you ? You have your own life, your own friends. Why mess it up by having to spend time to talk slowly to someone who’s going to be gone in a year anyway ? I mean, I do the same thing too in Australia. Since I’ve come home I’m a lot less sociable then I was in Poitiers. When I was in Poitiers I talked to everyone, no matter where they came from. Here [in Sydney] some guy was trying to talk to me, asking me what degree I was doing at the printers at university and I was like, “Er, I’m printing, bye.”  Whereas in Poitiers I would’ve quite happily talked to him (if he didnt’ look too creepy).

So that means that as an international student, there is a situational friendship that forms between you and your peer foreigners. And the run-on effect of this is that local students see this and can’t be bothered to make friends with a whole group of international students.

Alors, est-ce que tu as réussit de faire des amis non anglophones ?

I found it easier to make friends with English-speaking people, as it required less effort to try to connect.

But, I also put myself out there and tried to make French friends, which I did, but through a lot of hard work on my part. I had went to study a year overseas to broaden my horizons and meet new people. It would have been a bad situation to hang with the same kind of people as I would have anyway in Australia.

« You can’t express yourself to the full extent: you lose your personality »

As for French-friend making tactics, my strategy was simply to talk to people and not shut up, quite frankly. Because I lived in Roche d’argent, I knew people would come into the kitchen to make dinner. So I sat in the kitchen to eat my dinner. It’s really easy to spend your year on the internet talking to friends back home or hanging with your own native speakers and other foreigners instead of putting yourself out there and getting to know the French people.

I found that it was easier to make friends with people who feel that they are outside to the idea of “French” with people who were French d’origine quelque chose d’autre. Probably because I am also australienne d’origine quelque chose d’autre. It’s the same ideals of belonging and acceptance in all cultures. It’s the, “Oh you say you’re Australian, but you look chinois. How come?”

Nomme une difficulté que tu avais en tant que non francophone.

HAU : You can’t express yourself to the full extent : you lose your personality.

For example, while in France I made friends with a girl who later ended up coming to study in Australia the month after I returned home. She told me that before, when she knew me in Poitiers, I sounded so timid and shy in French. But once she came to Sydney, she was surprised to get whole load of my real personality in English.

Est-ce que tu penses que tu bien appris le français malgré que tu aies passé plus de temps que tu n’aurais pensé avec les étudiants étrangers?

HAU :Yes, I still think I succeeded in learning more French language and culture because you kind of need international students who speak English to balance out your frustration at French people and your homesickness. If you speak French too much, you will improve your French, but you will never really feel like you can express yourself.

En janvier 2009, Megan est partie de Poitiers pour revenir à son pays. Elle est actuellement en Sydney, Australie.

Dominga Julicia JAMES
Photo:  Holly Hayes