My Observations About France or “Douce France” by Tuğrul Tufan

My Observations about France

or

“Douce France”
by Tuğrul Tufan

Before start to write this essay, I’ve thought a lot about what I’ll write. I had to options;
first was writing an ordinary Erasmus student essay (France is beautiful, wine,
cheese, Paris etc.) or I’d choose to write something that nobody done it before: to
say everything in my mind honestly. Considering the fact that the reader (in this
special case, teacher) has read a lot of essay which are written according to first
option, I have decided to be honest despite of the risk to get a bad mark.

Almost every Erasmus student says always something like this: “Oh, I hate France,
there is no shop open in Sunday” or “I hate France, nobody knows how to have fun”.
I don’t like these things too but this is not something that I can criticize because this
is the French life-style and I have to show respect to it. I shouldn’t compare France
with any country, but I can compare France with the country which it used to be. I
think the best way to explain is to start from the beginning…

My relations with France started about four years ago, when i started to study at
Galatasaray University which is unique French-speaking university in Turkey.
Actually at the beginning I was not interested in studying in French or in a
“Francophone” university but because of Turkish educational system and pressure of
my parents, I had to study there.

At first year at my university, in 2005-2006, I started to discover French culture with

the lesson “civilisation française” and of course all the teachers of French classes
were French. I have started to read everything that I can found about French politics,
history, culture and art of course. I have got fascinated from what I’ve discovered; a
glory civilization, a special way-of-think, a huge artistic heritage. At the end of the first

-1-
 My Observations About France or “Douce France” by Tuğrul Tufan

year i have decided to visit France for whole summer to see my discoveries with my
own eyes.

In fact reality was totally different what we learned at the university; old glorious had
been changed so differently: Humanism has switched with xenophobia, language
switched with “verlan”, literature has changed with worst rap application of the world.
Briefly, my first impression of France was totally a disappointment or me. I’ve visited
France after that summer several times but they were short trips to understand a
country. Now, I’m in France since September and I thing that I can see everything
more clearly.

Confucius says that if you want to know a civilization you should listen to its music,
music can reveal you everything about a place. In this case, we can easily the
changes in French culture. It is not necessary that look so far away, when my mother
was at young, she was listening French music too: Serge Gainsbourg, Charles
Aznavour, Jacques Brel etc. But now the most famous French musician is –
unfortunately- Carla Bruni which is famous just because of she is wife of “Monsieur
Sarkozy”. A friend of mine told me that she isn’t a singer, she is only a whisperer and
when we compare her with the old French singers, she is not a singer at all…

According to Mark Hopkins, language is the picture and counterpart of thought. I

have to confess that French language is a great language which I can not understand
why French youth has stop to use. Personally, I have read “Discours de la Méthode”
of Descartes in French –of course with a little bit help of dictionary. But the problem is
that I am not able to understand very well “les Parisiennes”. I think that it is a huge
problem because if I can not understand them, they are not able to understand
Descartes easily. I’m telling this because in Turkey we have the same problem so it
is so hard to understand for me to understand the Turkish writers who lived at the
beginning of 20th century. If France will lost its connection with past –it seems like- it
will become an ordinary old orthodox civilization which nobody cares except for the
French people.

According to French constitution, all the French citizens are equal, no matter which
religion, ethnicity and sex. Let’s forget about the constitution for a moment, Equality

-2-
 My Observations About France or “Douce France” by Tuğrul Tufan

is in the French flag; “the White”. But in fact, the truth is not the same… I will not
speak about the things that everybody knows: it’s hard to find a job if you are
immigrant etc… For me it is hard to walk in the street also, especially in bigger cities
than Dijon. Everytime I saw a “Police National” while I was walking alone, they’ve
stopped me and ask my identity card. I have asked a lot of European friends of mine,
it’s never happened to anybody. My conclusion after three years, it’s because of the
color of my skin, I’m Turkish, and also I look like an Arabian or Magribian… I have to
remind, the police never asked my passport, they’ve thought that I’m a French citizen
and asked my identity card. And now I’m asking to you, where is the “Egalité”?

At the end of the first year at my university, we had to prepare a presentation about
France or French culture. There were six topics, and I have chosen political life of
France and manifestations against the First Employment Contract (CPE). At the end
of the presentation there were a soru-cevap part which I had to be prepared;
therefore I have started to read about manifestations in France. I have discovered
that the same year they were an other important manifestation, “Les Banlieux”. That
was the first time I heard about Nicolas Sarkozy. He was an internal affaires minister
which humiliates his own citizens. Unfortunately the same politician has become the
President of French Republic. I don’t want to speak about him so much, everyday
you can find something bad, weird, disgusting about him. I just want to compare him
with the first president of the fifth republic; Charles de Gaulle. You can like him or not,
I don’t want to discuss about here, but everybody have to show respect his “Sartre is
France” phrase. That is change of France in Politics.

It's time for me to leave. I couldn't understand this country and its culture; maybe I
could only scratch its surface. But one thing is for sure: France is changing and I
don’t like the country France is becoming…

-3-