My first French graduation ceremony

Last Friday I attended my first French graduation / commencement ceremony (remise des diplômes). Well, I didn't know it existed until I received an invitation card. According to hubby, he has never attended any school ceremony that marks the end of a class. So, graduation ceremonies from kindergarten, primary school, secondary and higher education might mean nothing to the majority of French.

As expected, no graduation cap and gown, no graduation hall so the ceremony was held somewhere far from the campus. Very unexpectedly is that only a few students were called up on stage to receive their diploma (real one instead of a cover) . The majority of the students have to collect it outside the ceremony hall.


The ceremony was supposed to start at 6pm but it only started around 7pm. If I knew this I won't had to leave work at 4pm to make sure I could arrive on time.

I know the ceremony would be very different but didn't know it could be so different from the one I know. No students queuing up to go on stage, instead they were called up on stage with their professor. Turned out the ceremony was about introducing all the master degrees and they invited some students to talk about their experience. At this point I became panicked as in our program only 4 students turned up and I was the only international student.

Eventually for our program only the program professor and one out of 4 of us were called on stage. This kind of professor advertising about the program and student sharing about their feeling speech lasted for two hours. Personally I believe the advertising got the wrong audiences. People who present were mostly students who just finished their studies or their family members or the University employees. Shouldn't they do the advertising to students who are still in their 4th year and haven't decided their major on the 5th year?

We finally got our diploma outside the hall.

The ceremony was followed by a cocktail party, a very common practice for the French. They invited some artists to entertain the guests.

A jazz band for the night.

After several glass of cocktail hubby was not sure if he could still drive. He tried the alcohol test and he failed. So, I have to drive him home instead.

The whole ceremony was an eye opening for me. Since it was only the second year they organize this event there are still room to improve. If I knew the whole ceremony is about advertising the master courses I wouldn't have come. But on the other hand I was glad to see the other classmates and the professor again. As for hubby, he was the real "victim" of the night as the only purpose he came was to see me getting my diploma on the stage and feel proud for me. Well, now we know what a French graduation ceremony looks like.

Exam result

I finally got my exam results. The University screw up as they sent it to my old address. I don't know how this could happen considering that I received all other correspondences (ie letter of acceptance) on my current address.

Anyway, I was not super happy nor upset about the result. My first impression was that cool I didn't flunk it. Before I entered this course I thought I would fail all the subjects required to be written in French. I was just a bit disappointed that I didn't get pass the 16 point mark to get the "mention très bien" which I could have gotten if I manage to send out one of the assignments on time.

Well, basically, I got 6/20 for a subject and I was 100% at fault. We need to submit an assignment for this course before the internship presentation, and I totally forgot about it. The thing is, this professor gave us the assignment 6 months before the deadline, so of course I waited until the last minute. Once the presentation was over, I got too overwhelmed by the joy of finishing school and for me "homework" was a total history.

Of course, the joy was cut off when I got a reminder email saying that I still haven't submitted the assignment. Worst, emails sent to the mailing list always appear one day later in my inbox. So, when I saw it, I had 8 hours to do it and I was still at work. Eventually, I rambled up something and had to beg hubby to proof read it = face the hubby who got fed up with reading my bad French writing. Still, I managed to submit it before the deadline according to that email, but I think the professor punished me with the poor note.

Well, such is life, you don't get by easily every time.

Exam results: Should they make public or keep in private?

I got two of my exam results and I still couldn't get used to "everyone can see your grade" kind of mentality. One of our professors literally sent the result directly to us, so everyone in the class knows the note of everyone else.

As contrast, when I was working in my University in USA, I have to help my professor to key in one by one quiz, test and exam results online. Students can then consult their results through internet. They need password to login to their account so they won't know others' results except told by others. In Malaysia, my University sent me the semester results by post.

It is hard to understand this concept as the French emphasis privacy principle a lot but this practice is certainly against it.

No graduation ceremony in France

Well, the school is over, and I just realized that I won't have a graduation ceremony like what I did in Malaysia and USA. There will be no graduation gown, photo session, family and friends coming over to celebrate with me. Only at this moment I realized how much Malaysia's education systems have been influenced by the Anglo-saxon culture. I grow up watching graduation ceremony for pre-school, primary school, second school and University.

Graduation photo session in University of Malaya. Different collar color represents different discipline (Sains, Business, Engineering...).

Graduation ceremony in the USA. Throwing the cap to the sky (cap toss) is one of the ceremony traditions.

During the ceremony (commencement).


Personally I do not mind to not have the graduation ceremony since I had had two in my life. But for the other students, won't they miss something wonderful in their life? Anyone knows whether other European countries like Germany or Switzerland are having this kind of ceremony?

Class over

Thursday we had our last class. During the night we had a party. It is hard to believe that I won't see some of the classmates for a while, or for the rest of my life.

Overall, it had been a very nice class. Classmates have been very friendly. I will miss the time we went to eat in the canteen, prepared for our presentation, having coffee and tea break, taking about the internship, making fun of people, their funny accent when speak English...

C'est la vie like the French said. "People will face sadness, happiness, separation and reunion" like the Chinese saying. No matter what saying, I enjoyed a lot the friendship from these people, and I will miss them. The time for nostalgia is already started.

Final exam week

We are having our final exams this week before starting our internship. Having studied in three different countries for degree and master program, I have to say that the way the final exams are carried are very different and it has largely influenced the I prepare for the exam.

In Malaysia (bachelor program):
Every paper had one final exam. It was very painful as all of the exams were open questions and you have to memorize the whole book to be able to score well. Of course I didn't do well as I didn't like this exam method. To add the pain the courses were taught in Malays and all text books were in English.

In USA (master program):
The exam system suited me well, as grades were distributed out to projects and final exams did not weight as much to the total grade. The most exciting part was that most of the time it was open book system, you can refer to whatever reference you want during the exams. Sometimes I was allowed to bring in a piece of "cheat sheet", where you put all the relevant formulas or definition in an A4 size paper and bring with you during the exam. Scored very well in this system.

In France (master program):
This course has very big influence from USA system since we are having partnership with Georgia State University. Most of the class don't have final exams. We are evaluated through our presentation, group projects and case study analysis. I will have 2 exams coming. I have to say that the exam questions from first semester were a lot tougher than those I had in USA. I couldn't tell how well I score as we haven't gotten the grades from the first semester! The professor is too busy he still hasn't come out with his grade thus delaying all other grades.

Conclusion: Personally I think the US and French system are a lot better than those in Malaysia, but the fact that I'm having master courses rather than degree might raise the differences. Since it is my second master program I do not have much motivation, as long as I can pass it will be ok. :-) Don't really care for my CGPA, plus the French have 20 point system so nobody will understand what it means anyway. Nobody has every gotten 20/20 so why bother?

Let the seniors teach the juniors

There is one aspect in my course that I really love and think they should be implemented in the Malaysian education system. It is the strong ties between the alumni and the current students from the same course and same school.

With the strong link, we manage to have a network who provide useful advises and powerful network contact in looking for an internship. Some alumni actually sent us the internship offers from their company and we got to contact the HR recruiter directly.

Most importantly, the school hired some seniors to share their professional knowledge and experiences in the class. This enables us to expose to the latest trend and skills demand in the industry. Recently we had a seminar, one senior actually brought along his company director for a very interesting topic. What impresses me is their willingness to keep the ties and share their precious knowledges. As a result, more companies have confident in our course and do not hesitate to hire us.

I used to think that there is no free lunch in the world, so free/cheap education system must lead to low quality education. I have to say that I'm very wrong, this course certainly provide the best price/quality return I have ever have. :-)

We won

We had a simulation games today. We were divided in groups and had to sell a solution to a company (played by students). Among the four groups, we were chosen. We won the project, wow!

It was a meaningful win as despite my broken French, I managed to transmit the message during my presentation. Besides, my team mates were able to understand me and helped me transform the ideas into written form. It boost up my confidence to stay competitive in the French speaking world.

On the other hand, the professor had a very valuable remark. I was proposing a solution and justified it through the French culture, in which I pointed out the French "resist to change", directly in front of a group of French directors (played by students). In the professional world, it would have caused us the project, as it would created dissatisfaction due to my insensibility to the culture and pride of the audiences. The French students didn't find it offensive, as they have gotten used to my critics all the times. :-) Still, a note to myself.

My first presentation in French

I learnt a lot! It was just a 10 minutes presentation, but the whole process was just amazing.

I would really like to thank my professor who invited me to join this conference and assured me that this is more important than an exam (I was exempted from an exam for this).

At the beginning, I was not very confident for this presentation, and got even scarier when the main speaker, a Spanish woman told me that Asian governments emphasis more on money and economy than really create a knowledge society. So Singapore, the country I will present, shouldn't be qualified as a digital city. My title of the presentation was "Singapore, the digital city" and she was telling me that I was wrong. Wow.

During the conference, she repeated that she doesn't consider Singapore as a digital city since it is not a knowledge society. At this point Only Europe could be considered as knowledge society. According to her, a knowledge society is a society where people from the bottom take the initiative to access and create knowledge than being pushed by the government. However after my presentation, an audience commented that while the idea of initiative from people is ideal and nice, people should be taught of using different tools to access and create knowledge. He mentioned some example that I gave during my presentation. Wow this guy just saved me! At least someone benefited from my presentation.

After all it was not so scary to give a presentation in French. What I found scary was how to intelligently answer a spontaneous question. I think I didn't reply well to a question asked by the host.

Interview

I'm going to have an internship interview tomorrow. The first hour will be the presentation of the company, the second hour will be the logical test. Only candidates who have positive test score will be called for interview. My goal is to at least pass the test. I tried to do some test online and I found it quite difficult. I like mathematic questions but those with French language I failed miserably. I hope they won't test too much about French expressions.

Anyway, it seems that for every interview, you need to prepare to talk about your strengths and weaknesses. My classmate said my strong point is the ability to adapt in different situations as I have moved from Malaysia to USA then to France. My husband said I work hard. In terms of weakness, I found on internet that nobody will reveal their real weaknesses and a good interviewer shouldn't have asked this question. But, I was asked this question before so I will need to talk about it. I'm going to say that I work too hard until I sacrifice my leisure time. What do you think?

Can anyone share the "nice" strengths and weaknesses to talk about? This is going to be a consultant position.

Eating, speaking with handsome guys, and party

It was our inter-alumni party night and it was an eye opening event. Around 50 seniors came from around the country and some from overseas to share their professional experiences with us. I was a little bit timid and stayed in my corner, nonetheless I managed to speak with some nice people, including those handsome guys. :-) The organizer prepared a slide show about us in the class and how we behave during discussion, presentation... The party ended...where do you think? It has to be a nightclub with alcohol and smoke and dance.

In the dancing floor, I look at those people, crazily drinking, smoking and dancing, and couldn't associate them with their professional life. I remember one of my managers in US was so drunk at one company function that he become the laughing target for several weeks. And here I was looking at the bright and energetic talents, and wondering why everyone in this country just need to end up in a place doing this kind of stuff. Is there no better thing to do in life than drinking and smoking? I'm not judging anyone, but I have tried to put myself in their shoes and just couldn't see why a party has to be associated with alcohol.

Another remark, if this party was held in Malaysia, most of the budget will be spent on food. In this party, cost covered hard liquor like whiskey and vodka. It won't surprise you if I tell you that I was hungry and went for a kebab at the end right?

I had a fabulous semester, and lunch

Despite the fact that I'm stressed over the internship and my French level, I have had a fabulous semester. What left now are some projects to be completed, some presentation to be taken care of and of course the scary final examinations.

Most of the professors are very competent, friendly and willing to share their experiences, especially those who work professionally in the high tech lines. I felt very sad at the end of some classes, as we wouldn't have classes again with them in the next semester. They have given me a lot of constructive suggestions on how I can progress in my career when I finish school.

On the other hand bond has been built between classmates. In our class there is an association who takes up the responsible to organize events to foster the friendship between classmates. We have went out several times to restaurants, and this coming Saturday the guys are having a football match and we will have an inter-alumni night soon. The inter-alumni night will provide opportunity for us to talk to the alumni.

Despite the fact that I don't like to air kiss people in the morning, my classmates have been extremely nice to me. All of the foreign students are francophone who speak good French, so people tolerate my French mistake and try help me out as much as they can. There is no sense of competition among class or "kiasu" spirit, I found this pretty amazing. One of the class was held in French and very technical, some of my classmates approached me and expressed concern whether I could understand and whether I need help. Brief, I have met a bunch of nice people here.

In terms of the cost, the cheapest ever paid in my life for this kind of quality education: 208 euros per year.

Hubby cooked this for lunch: Sesame tuna with rice and salad

Having class in secret!

Apparently our faculty was the only one "allowed" to have class last week. The others faculties were ordered to close down since their students voted to continue blocking the University.

We had our technical class this morning, which was held in one of the faculties that was ordered to close down. The professor was kind enough, he arranged the guard to come open the door for us and closed it after. We could not get out of the building during the course else we would not be able to come back in. We were like having class in secret, hoping the union won't spot us as they might give us trouble if seeing us having class.

Well, no one spotted us so everything went well. We managed to talk to the professor, who appearantly didn't support this strike, and still teach his students by distant courses. He said the program goes on as planned and those on strike should be responsible to catch up with the syllabus.

Pray hard we could finish this semester as planned!

Short cut to Georgia State MBA program

"Robinson's Flexible MBA Program was ranked #8 in the nation in the US News and World Report's 2008 survey published in March 2007." This is what I read in Georgia State MBA program website.

So, why am I telling you guys this here? In fact, the course I'm doing now has an exchange agreement with Georgia State Robinson College. Two of my classmates are actually going to study one semester there.

This is just a nice short cut to enter Georgia State MBA program. If you apply from the USA, you need to have super high GMAT score, and it cost USD64,000 to foreign student. But if you go from my University, you don't even have to take GMAT exam. A good TOEFL score is sufficient, plus you pay only the living expenses (USD5k), as the school fees were supposed to be covered by the students or professors who would come to study in my University.

Of course this is just for one semester, but it seems that if you managed to study one semester there, you will have very high chance to be accepted to complete the whole MBA program next time.

A nice short cut hah?

So angry! They closed the University!

The President of University of Nantes decided to close the campus from 16 November until 20 November. It means that I won't have class until next Wednesday. I'm so pissed!!! We just finished a team work and we are supposed to have our presentation on Monday. We are very motivated for that and I really don't want to wait for another week.

I know the President is right to be cautious. Yesterday night there were about 150 students blocked the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Literature, and this brought worry that these people will become violent and start destroying the precious school properties. The University has to use force, by calling the police, to chase away the students.

I was so disappointed. Our faculty (Economic and Management) usually is not effected by any students demonstration. But the whole campus in the area is ordered to close. This morning I went to the faculty, and had to go home bcos everything is closed, including the library.

I personally think that this law is good, that the University should have right to fund their own expenses. Won't it be good to do some researches that would be used by the enterprises and in return get some sponsorship instead of relaying on the government?

These students, if they don't want to have class, they can just get their asses out of the campus. Isn't it so selfish to try to achieve something by preventing other to conduct their day to day activities?

Class cancelled due to strike

Remember I told you that November is the month of strike in France? Well, this will be the first time the strike directly impact me. Our professor from the Faculty of Science Information just informed us that the class on Saturday will be canceled as 600 students out of 4000 decided to blog the school.

Why the students want to blog the faculty? Sincerely I don't know much, it's something against the new regulation, that the University will have more autonomy in terms of fund raising. The students are scared the private companies will control the University and less populars courses will be threaten to be eliminated.

Most of the students who participated are in the first or second year, they are not out in the working world, so they don't care about the classes. People in the final year like me and the others, just hope to graduate and find a job.

So after all it might not be a bad idea to forbid students from participating in the politic and just concentrate on their studies. This has been implemented for ages in Malaysia, at least all of us won't go on strike so that don't have to go to class.

Theoretical Vs Practical

These days I have been busied studying a topic about "organizational knowing" which I need to present with my group next week. There were so many theoretical words: embedded, enacted, tacit knowledge, epistemology. In quite some part of the courses we need to read articles like this. I found it painful and meaningless. The researches like to use big words and I was so confused after reading. It always request repeat reading just to understand a point. Why can't they just use very simple words to express what they want to say? Sometimes after reading an article I didn't feel like learning anything.

On the other hand, we have professors from the different companies who give classes about very practical information, such as ERP system, how to implement SAP in a company, how to conduct a project, how to apply Business Intelligence in a company. They share their experiences and tell us what's happening in the current IT industry. I found it a lot useful, and none of them actually talk about those theories we had to learn. These professors always challenge us in a very practical way. It was very interactive, and most of the time we manage to come out with some ideas, but at the end they would give us some perspective in real life business which we missed or would have never guessed. At the end of the class I always feel that I learn a lot.

Real life professor, who has first hand experience in the field we are studying, bring a lot of values to the course. At least this is what I think. How about you?

Conflict with the professor

We have an American professor who would like us to conduct a research paper. We work in group and these days he has been asking us to submit and present to him the research outline.

The first time, we passed three hours presenting and watching others present. He commented on each group and we were asked to correct our outline and resubmit to him.

Two weeks later, a day before the class he asked us to present again the outline. Some classmates disagreed as they think that it took too much time to have every group present and it was very boring while others are presenting. We took this issue to the professor who is responsible for the whole Master program. He asked us to write down the good and bad points of that professor, and he would talk to him so that we don't have to do the presentation openly in class.

However, when the professor came in the class, we were asked to do what he had asked, as like nothing has happened. We all felt very reluctant, and felt upset that he didn't respect our opinion, instead imposed us to do what he wanted. According to my classmates, his teaching method might work in the USA but not in France.

Personally I prefer to have open discussion with the professor in class so that he is clear about what we are thinking, instead of passing through another professor. But, it seems that he is quite stubborn that nobody will be able to change his mind.

Do you guys have the same experience of professor who would not change his way of teaching?

Study nightmare

Our visiting professor from the USA arrived this week, and we will have class with him tomorrow. The person in charge of our course just sent out an email, asking us to go download some articles and prepare for the class. The preparation involves reading materials of 50 pages.

This person in charge is also our professor for one of the classes, and he requested us to read 3 articles as well.

Conclusion: I have like 6 articles to read and I started only at 11pm. I was in the school whole day for other group assignments, then got invited to hubby's friend's place for dinner.

Life as a student could be very tiring. I missed the time where I went to work, came home 6pm, spent the whole night doing nothing, and at the end of the month money appeared in my account. Those sweet old times.

When your teammate didn't do her/his work...

What do you do in this situation?

The assignment was given two weeks ago. I sent out an email to my teammate last Wednesday and the due date was today. My teammate agreed to do the part. However yesterday, a day before the due date, I still didn't get the part, so I sent out an email. I got a reply, saying that there was no time for the job to be done. The latest available time for this person would be 1 hour before the due date.

Me, what did I do? I covered the part yesterday night. Submitted today, with that person's name. I didn't eat lunch as I was told those who wanted to present should prepare a Power Point Presentation.

We did a good presentation, I did most of the work.

What would you do if you were me?