Cultured and inspired.

I thought I'd separate French Culture from the others, as it was my favourite class, and deserves its own post (plus the other post with all 6 courses is way too long, even for me!)



French Culture - PROBABILITY OF SLEEP 0.1

Obviously I had to keep French Culture, despite dropping French Language. It is a breath of fresh air, taking me away from the grey business world that I seem to have signed up for and back to the much greener and brighter world of art, poetry, society and culture - and all in French! So I am still learning new French words by attending the classes and reading the literature. I have also picked up my copy of Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mélé from Wales to read and improve my French with a familiar story, What is interesting is that the French have a special past-historic tense used when telling stories, unlike in English, which merely uses the perfect tense. That's standard of the French, making everything more complicated than necessary. Anyway, I digress....

In Saint Anne with Arsène, Thibault and Katie

Arsène is my favourite teacher at the school. He's crazy, merry, resembles Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings, and is totally out of place at a business school! He brings out my creative side and humour, and making jokes in French is always fun! I have also become a lot better at understanding his native French. He is extremely well-read and well-spoken. I am very glad that I didn't drop his class.

I was originally planning on completing the essay in French, to help improve my ability in the language. However, due to the busyness of the month of March, I did not really have time and chickened out, settling for French captions of my photos. You see, my vocabulary was very specialised, being a review of the French rugby team's Six Nations campaign. I thought my sheer cheek in rubbing in the Welsh Grand Slam would be appreciated by the Jolly Frenchman!

However, I have already completed this exam (last Monday), and I answered in French! I was so happy with myself - despite the grammar being most likely rubbish, I thought "hey, I have nothing to lose - let's try it!" I wrote 7 pages in a foreign language in 2 hours. Yes it's about quality over quantity, but hey if you can't have one go for the other!

I also met up with Arsène outside class, when my Belgian friend Thibault, who sadly could only be here for the first semester, came to visit for Easter. He, (Irish) Katie and I went for coffee with Arsène on Easter Monday morning, where we discussed culture, adventures, meeting people.... all really cheesy and motivating! It was at that point too, where I was inspired to start writing poetry again, something I haven't done since I was 17.

For the last class last Wednesday, after the exam, the German girls and I had an extra lesson to equal the classes the other students had received in January before our program had begun. There, we recited and discussed Paroles by Jacques Prévert, a classic collection, or receuil of French poetry. It was masterfully written. My personal favourite is a love poem - Paris at Night, which I beat three of my classmates to reciting:

Trois allumettes une à une allumées dans la nuit

La première pour voir ton visage tout entier

La seconde pour voir tes yeux

La dernière pour voir ta bouche

Et l'obscurité tout entière pour me rappeler tout cela

En te serrant dans mes bras

I am staying in contact with Arsène to discuss poetry and writing. I met up with him briefly the morning after our last class to recite to him a piece that I wrote at seventeen, which he enjoyed. I'm looking forward to reading his material and learning from a published writer, as well as an unlikely friend as well as teacher.

So, as you can see, I really enjoyed this class. Sometimes the French can get heavy, but Arsene's seamless guidance of the small class through the material keeps the class interesting and fulfilling. PoS - 0.1


There you have it - a class that has not only taken me away from the world we know with language and poetry and culture, but it has paradoxically brought me back down to Earth by showing me maybe the direction I should be following - after all, I'm not truly passionate about business - it's just my degree.

What I really enjoy lies outside the harsh business world. It's about writing, about meeting people with backgrounds completely different from your own, about seeing the world. I cannot be confined to the office. I do not know yet how I will get to do this for a living - but soon enough, once I manage to end my close friendship with Procrastination Jones, I will find a way.

So with that inspiration, Merci Arsène!


Rant over

Ollie