When Paris Beckons
Two years ago, a dreamer sits in the corner of her French class at NUS aghast at her professor’s description of the French culture of kissing on the cheek- bisous- whenever friends and family meet. The professor looks at the dreamer’s contorted expressions and says to her “What are you going to do when you go to France, my petit Singaporean?” The dreamer smiles and replies with confidence “Whatever it takes Professor – they are going to love me there.”
Life rarely plays out in the way we imagine it to, but on rare occasions, it actually exceeds our expectations. I had imagined Paris to be a place of decadent, fashion-obsessed snobbish Frenchmen and women but I realised that I could not be more wrong. The beauty of Paris lay in her oblivion to the changing world around it. Like a queen who is not threatened by younger court maidens around her, Paris still exudes an aura that it is the centre of the world with its culture and intellectuals, paving the way for others elsewhere.
I found myself enrolled in the welcome program with other exchange students from Australia, China, Japan, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, the United States and many other countries. Without difficulty, my classmates from diverse origins were able to articulate their views and clearly explain various current events happening around the world in French. Unlike what I had anticipated, our professors simply gave an opening address before each lesson and left us to our own open discussions. Whoever had a point to make could make it only with the condition that he or she would be open to criticism by everyone else in the way we deemed fit.
I could not wait for my turn to present. In Paris, class sizes were significantly smaller- twenty or less for most classes. For lectures, I was enrolled in European Economic Constitution and European Citizenship; and Making Sense of European Society, the Politics of European Television, Living Together in Europe, Borders in Europe and French at Level Two, for the electives. French language aside, classes were all conducted in English so I thought that everything would be a piece of cake. I would soon be humbled by my professors who proved to me that studying at Sciences Po was not about understanding a stipulated syllabus but reading widely enough to get an overview of all related issues, be it from our readings, the internet, online newspapers or EUROPA website.
At Sciences Po, the professors also have the habit of asking questions about the readings. So to survive, I initially felt obliged to read them all. Unexpectedly, instead of this turning into a chore, I soon found myself hooked onto the texts instead. I would spent hours even until the wee-hours of the morning reading for lectures on the same day, while munching on yummy baguettes that cost just 50 cents apiece from the nearby boulangerie. Each morning, at around seven, I would wake up, climb 5 stories of stairs downwards and make my way towards to Moulin Rouge, where the nearest Métro Blanche was located, and pick up a free newspaper along the way. In French? Perfect.
Through my academically rigorous classes, I discovered more about the European Union and its integration process than I had known before. For one, European Economic Constitution required me to be familiar with all the treaties- from the Treaty of Rome in 1957 to the latest Lisbon Treaty- in order to trace the origins and developments of the Single Market in Europe. European Citizenship class gave me an overview of the additional rights of Citizenship that the 1992 Maastricht Treaty had accorded to European citizens. These classes complemented each other perfectly. I found myself frequently using what I had learned in one class to comment on issues brought up in the other. Simply, an effective curriculum allows subjects to complement one another synergistically. There was an emphasis on current affairs in each and every class, even for French.
For example, at the start of each European Economic Constitution lecture, a group of students would be given ten minutes to report on the latest economic news in the European Union and beyond. Some of my professors worked in some European institutions such as the European Commission. This made their teaching methods and objectives all the more relevant for students who might one day work in these institutions too as researchers, legal advisor and maybe even as politicians representing their countries; all the jobs that European Studies majors can aspire to have. I enjoyed all my classes as our modules were as relevant to current events as they were career-oriented. In the legal modules, we would be questioned as if we were legal advisors, visualizing ourselves as participants of actual court procedures, and in the philosophy and sociology modules, we were encouraged to present our views boldly, independently, as equal intellectuals unafraid to speak out on complex European issues, but at the same time with a respect for this exchange. Learning became so much more than a means of passing exams but also a critical requirement in which to justify one’s views of world issues, and in implementing laws and policies that could greatly impact the lives of many people on the national level and the supra-national level, as in the case of the European Union.
I was greatly motivated by the passion and intellectual persuasion I encountered recurrently, as well as the realisation that other Parisians that I met outside at Church or in my sports club there actually respected me for being a student of Sciences Po. Moreover, the stress level was not overwhelming. Everyone shared a similar workload. When we met our friends along the corridors, we spontaneously talked about our latest readings or the latest political encounters rather than what was on television the night before.
After school, my friends and I could wander to the Louvre, which was just 10 minutes away, or the Grand Magazins just to admire the Parisian scene and absorb the culture. Most of the time, however, we would gladly head to the campus cafeteria and over a nice warm cup of coffee discuss issues that mattered to society, such as women’s rights and abortion. I was eager to learn as much as I could in my spare time from books and journals that I had borrowed from the library, from the internet and blogs such as the Huffington Post, so that I could contribute to these informal discussions.
On the weekends, I would meet up with my good friend Naa from Harvard, an economics major also on exchange at Sciences Po, to worship God together at the American Church of Paris near the Invalides by the River Seine. Afterwards, we would spent some ‘girl time’ sharing with one another about the challenges and joys of Parisian life, our little crushes on the cute French guys in class and other guys who appeared to be interested in us too. What can I say? Paris is ‘the capital of love’ after all. For dinner, we would head down to the Latin Quarter for some Falafels or Kebabs. Then it was back ‘home’ to our captivating research and engaging readings.
In December, it finally began snowing, making for a spectacular white Christmas. A friend of mine from Seattle and her sister had invited me over to her place for dinner at Rue de Fleurs, located right next to Notre Dame, and we had Chinese food with a light rose wine. After dinner, we watched Love Actually together with the bells of the Notre Dame chiming in the background. Then we headed down to St. Paul’s Cathedral where I had the best Christmas mass in my life. It felt like nothing has changed in Paris since the 18th Century and I was in the midst of this magic, with the choir booming from above, Frankincense in the air and the priests in their long white and green robes.
Just before returning to Singapore, I threw a party themed after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince for my multinational friends. “Because Singapore is small enough to be the little planet where the prince had come from,” I had explained. At the party, the Mexicans cooked up a storm with a delicious pasta in creamy mushroom and corn sauce while my American friends dug into Monoprix chocolate cookies and cheese on baguettes. I have never felt so appreciative of my life, being surrounded by people who had so much in common with me in spite of the fact that we were all from different parts of the world. At the end of the party, I reluctantly saw them off as they reminded me to come back to Paris soon. I gave them my last bisous as I said, “Whatever it takes my friends. Je vous aimez et Paris à jamais.”
* Views expressed are the author’s own.
ERASMUS MUNDUS FUNDING
The European Union offers a cooperation and mobility programme in higher education known as Erasmus Mundus. Now into its second phase, the programme aims to support high quality European Masters and doctoral candidates in a range of disciplines, each run by a consortium of outstanding universities in Europe and beyond to bring together students from all over the world. It offers prestigious scholarships to enable them to engage in postgraduate study an Erasmus Mundus course in at least two European countries and 3 countries in the world. Academic staff are also able to apply for fellowships. For the academic year 2009-2010, the European Commission awarded close to 10,000 new grants, mostly awarded to students and academics to come to Europe to study or teach, and for Europeans to spend periods at partner institutions in countries outside Europe. For AY 2009-2010, 18 Erasmus Mundus scholarships were given out to the applicants in Singapore, out of which, 4 were Singaporeans.
- Erasmus Mundus website
- Download brochure
- Press release on AY 2009/10 scholarships
NUS-LMU Summer School Programme (2009)
The EU Centre worked with NUS and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) to design a Summer School course especially for NUS students on “Approaching the European Union”. The Centre sponsored part of the tuition fees of 7 students based on their academic and financial background from a range of faculties in NUS including Arts & Social Science, Business School and Engineering. A total of 17 students enrolled for this 3-week programme that took place from 1-21 June 2009. The 4 credit course combined lectures, seminars and essay assignments with cultural visits. The topics taught in classes included EU political and economic integration, its foreign policy and external relations such as with Russia and China, and role on the global stage. The students visited the German Parliament Building, Bavarian government offices, and cities of Berlin, Munich and Salzburg. The summer school emphasised how the EU is perceived and featured cross-cutting topics such as the EU’s counter-terrorism policy, and a cross-cultural communication lecture. By being in Germany itself, students were also able to benefit from a first hand perspective of Germany’s role in the EU. LMU is one of Europe’s leading research universities with a 500-year history.
Lithuania, A Rising Star
When considering the options for Student Exchange Program (SEP), my eyes were drawn to ‘Lithuania’ and ‘Latvia’. Immediately, I was hooked on the idea of venturing to Lithuania for my SEP. The primary reason was that I wanted to see how an ex-Soviet Republic would look like and furthermore, in 2009, the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius was the European Capital of culture. Another reason was to see for myself how the emerging Eastern European region would be like. I would say I was not disappointed to dive headlong into this fairly unknown country. In fact, I was the very first student from NUS studying in Vilnius University. In Vilnius, the Soviet-era buildings were scattered all over the place. But in these changing times, Lithuania is slowly emerging from her Soviet identity and has begun to develop economic ties with her neighbours.
The format of studies in Vilnius University is somewhat similar to NUS, though they do not have tutorials but because the class size is small so discussions could be carried out easily. Another point to note would be the ease of studying and using Russian in Lithuania and the Baltic states. During my period of stay, I met quite a number of people from Ukraine and Central Asia there. Thus I believe that these Baltic States, already part of the EU but at the same time having the Soviet heritage would become an important platform to build better Europe-Russia relations in all areas.
Living in Lithuania is not much of a hassle as the younger generation (20 and below) are picking up English in school, some of them study English as a major in universities. Most retail and F&B outlets have staff that speak English or have menus in English. Culturally, the town has much to offer with all its baroque architecture. Yet on the other hand, commercial developments are taking the priority now, thus not much is done to promote or upkeep the old churches and castles, probably there's just too much to do as churches are literally all over the place. Only the few major churches and castles under the UNESCO heritage list had renovations done to them.
Lithuania has a lot of economic potential because of her strategic locality and at the same time being full of culture, this country has so much packed into it that no wonder it is one of the rising stars in Europe.
NTU INSTEP EXCHANGE PROGRAMME
The International Student Exchange Programme (INSTEP) is a reciprocal exchange student programme established to enable students of NTU to pursue part of their studies at an overseas university for a limited period. INSTEP provides opportunities for students to develop global perspectives and connect with different people in diverse cultures, thus broadening and enriching their learning experience. NTU through INSTEP has collaborated with more than 150 universities across 30 countries to allow its students to study at the participating universities on an exchange basis for one or two semesters. The programme allows students to transfer academic units back to their curriculum in NTU.
European Union Centre in Singapore 11 Slim Barracks Rise (off North Buona Vista Road), #06-01 Executive Centre (NTU@one-north), Singapore 138664