Alors voilà, après moult explications, discussions voire engueulades, j‘ai décidé de prendre possession de ce blog (et surtout de faire plaisir à mon chéri).
Pour ceux qui ne le savent pas, je suis en échange Erasmus à Varsovie et un de mes cours s’intitule "international management". Jusque là rien de palpitant pour vous qui êtes si loin de moi mais j’ai eu l’occasion de repenser à ma mère patrie lors du dernier "written assignment" du-dit cours: What does it mean to me to be French ?.
Voici ma réponse ( Hubert l’a un peu modifiée et améliorée, encore merci), que Grégoire a adoré d’où la publication sur ce blog. Pour les droits d’auteurs, merci de me contacter personnellement. Faites attention, le plagiat est un délit très grave !!!
Enjoy.
Laura
With the European Union surroundings and the
increasing development of connections between countries, younger generations
have the possibility to experience many different things, far from what their
parents not to say their grand-parents did or even dreamt of. For them, it is
and has become quite natural to travel freely around countries, without the
thought of declaring goods or showing their identity card. However meeting so
many people with various backgrounds, education, beliefs, etc… leads one to
think a little more about his own idea of identity and culture. Indeed, what
does it mean to me to be French? Why am I proud of answering one of the first
questions when meeting somebody new “Where do you come from?”?
For
me, being French is not only being in possession of a national identity card or
having a French voting card. I believe being French is also being part of a
national culture shared by all French people. Identity is not only about being
able to name the country where you live or where you were born in, it is also
related to personal identity, not to say personality.
One
often pictures French people as people wearing the traditional beret and
holding a fresh baguette in his hand. I guess that even though this caricature
is seldom true, French people actually like being associated to this friendly,
bon vivant guy. This brings me to another aspect of French people which I
believe is true and makes French people proud of their country and origins: the
food and more specifically, the good one i.e. gastronomy. And as good meals
should always be accompanied by good drinks: French wine is directly linked to
being French. Moreover, French men are often very gallant and French women are
very good hosts.
But
French people also suffer from a bad picture regarding their national identity.
Indeed, I believe many of them are chauvinists, which can sometimes be good
because it musters people but can also be very dangerous and unhealthy. For
example many football matches in
France have unfortunately ended up
with injured not to say dead people. But this chauvinistic aspect of French
people is also present in the working field. Indeed, some French people are not
afraid to talk about protectionism and would like to close French boarders and
even quit the EU. Moreover, even though the trade unions only represent 6 to 8%
of the working population, they are capable of blocking the country for days as
a sign of disagreement with the government or the company.
Overall, France is a is a very famous
country, sometimes assimilated to Paris
which can be annoying for people living in the “province”, but full of various
landscapes and regions which are the wealth of the country. Most of all being
French is also being proud of the country’s history: the two World Wars, the
EEC, Algeria
and its people, etc. France
stands for what it believes in and refuses to be run by other nationalities. France is the country of social mixing which I see as the best, wealthy aspect of my country,
since I am myself half English on my mother’s side but still consider myself to
be French.
)
