NAME: BHUWANDEEP Bhuwandeep, Roll No.

ETU20160748 Course: French culture for International

Students

My Stay at Rennes as Cultural experience

Culture, according to me, is the soul of the society. Something that is always there and defines
everything that the society stands for. The art, the literature, the social norms and accepted
code of the conduct, the food that you eat, the dresses, the customs and social traditions,
everything tells us a bit more about the society and more importantly about the people that
inhabit such society. In that sense the study of the culture becomes interesting because not
only it tells you about the society but it also tells you about your own values system and how
you might react to something that is totally alien to you.
A little about my background first. I am from the land of enormous diversity and harmonious
co-existence India. Coming from the background where there is lot of family events and
collectivistic nature in various endeavours in the society, the first thing that stuck to me was
the how individualistic the Rennes, or French society in general.
For example, when I first interacted with the French students in my hostel where I was living
I was surprised to find that many students lived separately from their parents even if they
lived in the same town. Sometimes even they live with their boyfriends and girlfriends. Now
not only this was shock to me but also enabled me to see how these people loved and valued
their independence. This does not mean that they do not love their parents or their parents
do not love them but they value their independence even more.
If I compare this to my home country, India, not living with your parents especially if they are
old or sick is considered a great sin. As son or daughter you are supposed to take care of them.
So this was something very different from my culture. Even if they are not ill/old joint family
is still a norm for most the families. Even if the new waves of urbanisation will are weakening
this strong element of Indian culture.
Second thing when I was interacting with French students I was asking them about various
aspects of the French culture and something theta they are really proud of and something
they find really annoying about the French culture.
So the thing I found is that they value their education system the most. If I were to quote one
of my French friends she said I find the free educational system for all the most important
aspect of the French Culture that I am proudest about. The reason behind this it gives equal
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NAME: BHUWANDEEP Bhuwandeep, Roll No. ETU20160748 Course: French culture for International
Students

platform for all the students from any background to succeed. We believe in giving equal
opportunity to others in order to succeed in life. Education is the most important tool for
breaking the cycle of oppression and poverty.
Another thing that I noted about the aspect of Rennes is conspicuous absence of the religion
in public discourse. There is very less visibility of religious symbols, place of worship or any
religious festivals. People are not very comfortable to talk about their beliefs either. When I
asked one of my friends about it they said in France people assume two separate identities,
one of the citizen and other religious person, if at all they follow any religion. So may be that
is why there is not much visibility of religious things in the public life.
This again if I compare to my own culture religion and personal identity are not separate. They
are one and same. And we celebrate the religions in all its from and as communities we have
numerous festival, customs and ritual to mark these events. So the thing is instead of
separating the religion from personal identity we cherish and celebrate it. This also raises how
differently both the culture treats religion. In France, the State is mostly paranoid of the
religion given their tumultuous relationship in the past while in India, the sate treats all the
religions equally and fairly, thus if there is subsidy for any religious journey (Hajj for Muslims)
an equal amount is donated to other religion as well on the ground of Fair treatment to all
religion.
Another important aspect of cultural aspect that I found during my stay was very peculiar or
rather pleasant especially if compared from the Indian perspective. It is the respect and value
given to the commuters on the road by the car or even Bus drivers. Many a times I was
surprised that many car drivers patiently stopped the car for me to cross the road without
hurrying me or honking their horns. Now this may be something very common in France and
people might not notice that but from Indian perspective its totally culture shock. And I was
totally happy about it. In fact, I think there is lot to be learnt in this regard from the French
because they are very patient and understanding when it comes to traffic.
Culture also teaches you how people respond to various situations and what their value
system is. This I found during the research work for my projects for my subjects at Rennes.
The thing I found was French people like to argue and discuss more and more unless it
becomes clear to them and to others in the class. This I found was something in contrast with
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NAME: BHUWANDEEP Bhuwandeep, Roll No. ETU20160748 Course: French culture for International
Students

students from eastern world like China, Taiwan or Japan. They sort of kept their arguments
to themselves, they internalised things rather than speaking it verbally again. But the French
students love to talk and discuss and want every ones opinion on it. So they dont take
anything for granted and try to develop reasoning for it. This is the value system which urges
them to not take anything at its face value u is something I really admire.
When I was talking to my friends about the problem of immigration I saw a variety of opinions
about it. Most of them were of forward looking nature in the sense they said lets not harp
on the things of past and try to rake up the immigration issue. Rather lets try to think how
can we use it to our advantage in order to build a rich and diverse society.
My own observation at the bus stations or trains suggested me still most theses immigrants,
or black people from Africa have not fully integrated themselves in the French society. I think
they are still searching for their French identity and somehow are not able to relate it within
the French society. I talked to two of friends at Hostels whose parents were immigrants, they
said even though they are fully French Citizen, they are not able to identify fully with French
culture. and when I asked them the reason they said mostly it was because they were very
limited in their interaction with the French society in general. They lived in their own cocoon
of the community and felt more validated and safe there.
That last point made me think how as a society we interact outside our community also
depends on the value system. How do interact with those who are not like us? Do we shun
them or do we accept them? I was not sure about this aspect of my cultural stay at Rennes.
So I decided to investigate this aspect. I asked few people around who are the original French
people by which I mean their ancestors belonged to France as well. I found they did want to
embrace the things that was not similar to them Almost all them acknowledged having
immigrants friends. But at the same time they acknowledged it took a conscious effort on
their part to be able to accept things that is different from them
So, that is my biggest learning of cultural stay at Rennes. Its just not enough that we do the
right things, we should always question why we think that things we do are right. Is it
because someone else told us to do so or is it because of our value system? If we find
something wrong, we should have the courage to change it. That is how we make a better
society for everyone.
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