(Welcome to France)
After a long Hiatus, I hit the blog again. As I experience this amazing country called France, I hope to be regular at blogging as now I have much more to write about everyday. I am on a 3-month MBA exchange program to HEC, Paris. Hope to have a good time!
As I begin my course at HEC. The first orientation session is titled "Managing Cultural Stereotypes". This session focused mainly on desis like me as we experience in awe the French Culture!
The instructor( a blue blood french) has a surprisingly slick English accent. Turns our he grew up in Neywork ending up as a trader on wallstreet. He is missing that French-ness about him(French-ness: those killer looks,crooked english and sarcastic humor). He begins the session by saying "bienvenue à France". All desis look at each other, wondering if he greeted or abused us. LOL!! He talks in great detail about, how French are never on time, Americans are arrogant, Italians are sauve, British are lazy and Germans are hardworking..... These are the stereotypes that we perceive. If you are to live at HEC, you need to get these off you mind....
Somehow, I just can't get these off my mind..these are soooo true :)
Let me add a few more from my experience here(Pun intented!)
Lebanese chics are hot!
Koreans are adorable ( they donn know english or french, they always converse in that cute smile :-))
Chinese are sharp
Israelis are loud
and finally, our desis are calculators
Living here for over a week, I laid out some rules for myself:
Rule 1: If you donn know french, you will feel lost all the time. Learn french as soon as you can.
Rule 2: Start all conversations on the street in French, however butchered it is. My Mantra, start all conversations with : "Bonjour Monsieur/Madame! Mon nom est Jagjit. Je suis un étudiant indien. Je parle très peu français. Parlez-vous anglais ?
(Hello mister/madam! My name is Jagjit. I am an Indian Student. I speak very little French. Do you speak English?) French ppl are really nice after this. Donn know if they appreciate that I atleast made an effort to speak french or they just dont want me to murder their mother tounge any longer :)
Rule 3: Customer service as a concept is almost non-existent in France. We say 'Customer is King' and french say 'We murder all Kings'. com'on, see the French history. It is full of Kings being murdered time and again. Its not just metaphorical, as a customer you donn want to ask too many questions in a french store.
Rule 4: Use Skype to call. No wonder French Telecom is sooo rich. International calls are sooo expensive from here.
Rule 5: Drop the desi mindset. Stop converting currency from Euro to INR. It will kill you of a heart-attack soon, if you keep doing it.
Rule 6: You can cross road like a King here. Step on the road and all cars will stop for you. Very unlike India where a driver wont mind giving you a ride on the bonnet incase you dare to step infront. This doesnt mean you keep jumping infront of cars here. There is still some probability of a desi driving the car :)
Rule 7: Caffeine is a mans best friend, esp. in the 3 hour classes. I thought the 2 hour classes at ISB were enuf to make me brain dead by the end of the lecture. HEC has raised the bar for me :)
Alright, I will end this one here and promise to come back with more.
Salut! (Take Care!)
Au Revoir! (good bye!)
As I begin my course at HEC. The first orientation session is titled "Managing Cultural Stereotypes". This session focused mainly on desis like me as we experience in awe the French Culture!
The instructor( a blue blood french) has a surprisingly slick English accent. Turns our he grew up in Neywork ending up as a trader on wallstreet. He is missing that French-ness about him(French-ness: those killer looks,crooked english and sarcastic humor). He begins the session by saying "bienvenue à France". All desis look at each other, wondering if he greeted or abused us. LOL!! He talks in great detail about, how French are never on time, Americans are arrogant, Italians are sauve, British are lazy and Germans are hardworking..... These are the stereotypes that we perceive. If you are to live at HEC, you need to get these off you mind....
Somehow, I just can't get these off my mind..these are soooo true :)
Let me add a few more from my experience here(Pun intented!)
Lebanese chics are hot!
Koreans are adorable ( they donn know english or french, they always converse in that cute smile :-))
Chinese are sharp
Israelis are loud
and finally, our desis are calculators
Living here for over a week, I laid out some rules for myself:
Rule 1: If you donn know french, you will feel lost all the time. Learn french as soon as you can.
Rule 2: Start all conversations on the street in French, however butchered it is. My Mantra, start all conversations with : "Bonjour Monsieur/Madame! Mon nom est Jagjit. Je suis un étudiant indien. Je parle très peu français. Parlez-vous anglais ?
(Hello mister/madam! My name is Jagjit. I am an Indian Student. I speak very little French. Do you speak English?) French ppl are really nice after this. Donn know if they appreciate that I atleast made an effort to speak french or they just dont want me to murder their mother tounge any longer :)
Rule 3: Customer service as a concept is almost non-existent in France. We say 'Customer is King' and french say 'We murder all Kings'. com'on, see the French history. It is full of Kings being murdered time and again. Its not just metaphorical, as a customer you donn want to ask too many questions in a french store.
Rule 4: Use Skype to call. No wonder French Telecom is sooo rich. International calls are sooo expensive from here.
Rule 5: Drop the desi mindset. Stop converting currency from Euro to INR. It will kill you of a heart-attack soon, if you keep doing it.
Rule 6: You can cross road like a King here. Step on the road and all cars will stop for you. Very unlike India where a driver wont mind giving you a ride on the bonnet incase you dare to step infront. This doesnt mean you keep jumping infront of cars here. There is still some probability of a desi driving the car :)
Rule 7: Caffeine is a mans best friend, esp. in the 3 hour classes. I thought the 2 hour classes at ISB were enuf to make me brain dead by the end of the lecture. HEC has raised the bar for me :)
Alright, I will end this one here and promise to come back with more.
Salut! (Take Care!)
Au Revoir! (good bye!)
