So Here's The Lowdown Folks...

My aunt Bente made a good suggestion to me: I should tell you all about my time at school! I'm so sorry everyone, I've gotten so caught up with living here and adjusting to student life in another country that I completely forgot to enlighten you all about l'Ecole de Management Strasbourg.

A Little Background

At my home university of Northern Arizona I study International Affairs. My courses here consist mainly of political science, a specific language as my required minor (French), and required electives in the areas of history, anthropology, geography, humanities, religion, and women&gender studies. That said, choosing to study for a semester at a business school was not primarily because of the classes. I chose to come to Strasbourg and EMS because the city hosts a ton of international students, it is centrally located in Europe, it houses many international organizations such as the European Parliament (which I have already had the chance to visit), and basically there's a lot going on.

EMS (Ecole de Management Strasbourg)

L'Ecole de Management is the business school of Universite de Strasbourg, which (according to Wikipedia) is the largest university in France. There is definitely a diverse mix of students at the school, all with interesting backgrounds and (for the most part) open minds towards new cultures and ideas. There are of course French students attending the university as well, but from what I've seen at EMS they are largely out-numbered by international students visiting from anywhere between three weeks and and three years. Literally, I've met a group of Australians here just for three weeks to take French courses during their summer break (as it's currently summer in the southern hemisphere). I've also met several Hatians, one of which is completing her entire medical program here, and has been living in Strasbourg for three years now. So hopefully I've painted a picture of what walking around school looks like. If not, here's two photos of the building where I go to for classes: (Please note, I did not take these photos, simply took them from a Google Image search)

1) The front entrance of l'Ecole de Management Strasbourg

2) What the inside looks like when you walk in. Normally this type of area would be known as a lobby, but here it is called the hallway.

I was not able to view classes the way other students do until I received my student card on the first day of school. That said, I was able to see what classes would be offered through a listing which is still available here:

http://intranet.em-strasbourg.eu/cgi/visi/guide_cours1v_ang.asp?langue=2

This gave me an idea of what courses I could take, but not when or where they were offered. So I browsed through the many choices, and in addition to French courses I knew I'd be taking, I selected a number of courses that sounded interesting. Some of these included: European Economy, International Entrepreneurship, Management of International Teams, Management of Non-Profit Organizations, and Cross-Cultural Management. Normally at NAU I would never be able to take these types of courses because they are strictly reserved for students in the College of Business. So I was actually sort of excited to get a taste of business courses taught in English (to my relief) at an internationally known university. I knew I wouldn't be able to enroll in these courses until the second day of school because that is just how the system works at EMS. I had no problem enrolling in these courses as I wrote down all the course codes and enrolled in them as quickly as possible when the time came. Five minutes later it was obvious many others had done the same as most of the classes had filled up upon looking through the selection a second time.

I was a bit stressed out coming to EMS because I was sure that I had to take ten courses. However, the staff for international students reassured us that we could take as many or as few courses as we wanted because since we were on a simple exchange we didn't have to meet the ten course requirement. This was a huge load off my mind, though after reviewing my choices with the time-tables at hand, I still ended up enrolling in nine courses. I am honestly interested in business even though it's not my major, so I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. And something else good to note is that as an International Affairs major, most of these business courses will not carry over. They may transfer back to NAU as management courses or maybe political science if I'm lucky, but in the end they will probably only count as electives. Also, I've already met my French language requirement for my program too, so the French courses I'm enrolled in are purely for personal enrichment. Say it with me now, "Mmm, personal enrichment." :)

Classes

The easiest way I can state this is that classes at EMS are so drastically different than what I'm used to. At NAU, you may be enrolled in four to eight classes a term, but typically you attend each class at least once a week for the whole term, or maybe just half of the term. At EMS, some of my classes haven't even started yet, and when they do, they will only run for three or four days, and then finish. This means that if you are taking an entire course in one week, expect to be in class from 8am to 12pm, take a break for lunch and a rest, and then continue from 4pm-8pm. Sometimes it's just the morning session, and sometimes that morning session is also on Saturday. I don't know what the logic is in this, but like I said in an earlier post, I stopped trying to figure out French logic a long time ago.

So right now my class schedule is pretty simple: Cross Cultural Management Mondays 8am-12pm, European Economy Tuesdays 4-6pm, French Civilization and Culture Wednesdays 1-3pm, and two courses on Thursdays, Management of Non-Profits 10am-12pm and Remise à Niveau II (my intermediate French course) from 4-6pm. The weird part is, my cross-cultural management course only meets five times. We've already met four times (since this is the fourth week) but we don't have class again until the 21st. This last session will consist of a two hour review, and then two hours for the final exam. This sounds good, but why the two week break? I could understand if the course had been longer or more intense, but it wasn't. It wasn't even mildly stressful, except for getting up at 7am on a Monday and staying awake throughout class. In my opinion, the two week break is perfect for forgetting everything we've learned, really.

The other two courses taught in English are okay, but in general (so far) all of these courses taught in English are fairly dull. The power points sometimes are just completely plain, as if they had written them that morning with no thought for aesthetics. And they typically have too many words on them, so that they are essentially teaching from the power point slides, or they go completely off-topic and the slides don't relate at all. The instructors' English are good enough to teach, but there are times when they struggle for the right word, and we have to help them. I have no problem understanding them since I'm fairly adaptable to accents and English is my first language, but I can only imagine that other students who don't know English as well are having a harder time. For example, my Quebecian roommate sometimes asks me what certain words from presentations or hand-outs mean. Explaining them is not always easy either, since I have to interpret the context of the word and then relate it in understandable terms. In addition, sometimes the things on the slides are repetitive or there's just no point in writing it down because it's common sense. If they employed English-speaking students to help instructors with grammar and presentations, I feel like the quality of class would go up for everyone. Thankfully though, instructors can tell when the class is dozing off, and will readily call for a ten minute break so we can all go get some coffee from the student cafe and cafeteria.

One thing that really bothered me the first week was that most professors show up late. Five minutes late when the class starts at 8am? Okay, I can forgive that. But twenty minutes late for the first session and every one thereafter? So infuriating. I want to say to them, "If I bothered to show up on time, why can't you, who's supposed to be teaching us how to think and be respectable people?" But my roommate told me that the French are often late, so I've grown a custom to this by also showing up late, and being happy when the class is typically let out early. I don't how French instructors keep their students' respect because punctuality is one of the biggest factors to me. But like I've said on occasion, "When in France, do like the French (and show up 30 minutes late)."

The French courses I'm taking are actually pretty interesting and challenging. Interesting because the first one covers culture while the second one helps my language skills, and challenging because the instructors speak completely in French, and not slowly. There is no second explanation in English, so I typically only catch half of what one instructor is saying. My French grammar professor thankfully understands we are still learning the language, so she talks in a way that most of us can understand, though still not all the time. I've talked to the other instructor to let him know that I really am not catching all of the lesson, so at least I know that the instructors are there and willing to work with us. 

Also, there is a center for language resources at EMS that allows us to borrow books for reading and listening, watch movies on the computers for free, and work on other exercises offered on specific websites. There are also newspapers and other journals offered, so everyone is welcome to go there to improve their language skills for a wide variety of languages. This is something I find really cool and helpful, and I look forward to using it more in my time at EM-Strasbourg.

The staff at EMS can be very helpful, but not everyone there speaks English fluently, which can be frustrating in times of miscommunication. Also, the French value their lunchtime like no other. Many of the offices are closed for one or two hours so all can go to lunch. This includes many businesses around town as well, which can be frustrating when trying to take care of logistical matters.

I attend all of my classes regardless of how late or incredibly boring the lesson/instructor is. I still value education highly, and I'm really glad I got this opportunity to study abroad. I'd already taken five years of French when I came to Strasbourg, but I quickly realized that it only felt like two or three years and I'm glad I have this time to really become fluent. There is not much (if any) homework; this is typical with most European universities from what I've heard. What homework I've been assigned so far consists of reading an article, studying vocabulary, or making preparations for a final project. That said, I haven't really had homework in French, besides grammar work. I realize I could've taken some of the business courses in French, but I feel it would be much harder to keep up with all the new terms, the instructor's lectures, and any readings that may have also been in French.

Student Life

To me, the best part of EMS and studying internationally is student life. The organizations range from sports to arts to humanitarian-oriented, with the bureau d'international (BDI) being at the top of my list. One group or another is always organizing some kind of event for fun or socializing, which is great because it's not always easy to meet students from other countries, even when they are in many of your classes. Each week there is usually a party or pub-crawl of some kind, and there are even trips organized, such as this weekend to Amsterdam! For the most part these events seemed to be organized pretty well, with a cover charge allowing for the organizations to profit and provide the necessary party favors. This is really my favorite part of EMS because I get to meet other students who may be local or international. Practicing my French with a Columbian or Alsacian? Not always easy, but always fun :)

I promise to get my photos up as soon as possible, so please be patient and send me your thoughts!