FRENCH homework

Student’s Name

University Affiliation

Interviewing my Cousin About His Experiences in France.

I had an opportunity to meet by cousin who had been staying in France for six years. While in France, he took a bachelor’s degree and will be doing his Master in the United States. Before he came over to the United States, I could only imagine the experience he had there as a student and as a citizen. On meeting him, I was eager to know how his experiences were back in France. He had much to tell me.

I couldn’t wait to know how much French he knew. So I started off by greeting him with the little French that I knew, “Bonsoir”. I got the pronunciation wrong, we laughed before he shortly replied, “Bonsoir”. His reply came more as a way to correct my pronunciation. I was shocked he could speak fluent French and on asking him, he responded that French is not a hard language to understand.

When I asked him about the culture in France, he had much to say. First, he explained about the French national holidays and how they are celebrated. According to him, France has eleven national holidays, which they called jours feries. Among the major ones include the New Year, Labor Day every first day of May, Second World War Victory day on eighth May and Christmas. There were similarities, such as the New Year and Christmas.

Secondly, I asked him about the French food and how different it was from that of the United States. He responded that the major French food includes meat such as beef, lamb and poultry, which are always in plenty. Additionally, there are fruits such as fresh apples, grapes and pears among other fruit types. Some of the traditional foods as explained by my cousin include sea foods such as salmon and shrimps, which he said he liked.

I also asked him about the education system in France, anxious to know if it was different from that of the United States. According to his explanation, there is no much difference in the two education systems since the education system moves from the kindergarten, elementary, high school and post high school diplomas through to college and higher education. The higher education, just like in the United States is divided into three level: Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and Doctorate. This therefore makes it easier to facilitate international education, in which students can move from France to the United States easily.

When I asked him about the religion in France, my cousin responded by saying that most of the people practice the Catholic religion. However, there were also other religions. Islam was the second major religion in France while there were other religions such as Buddhism. Again, I realized that there was no big difference from the United States.

I was also eager to understand the ways in which the French people spend their leisure time. In his explanation, my cousin explained that typically, the French are known for spending much of their time on leisure activities, such as going for the holidays and taking long lunches. This, he explained is a bit different to the United States culture, which he says works more and enjoys less of their leisure time.

To conclude the interview, I asked my cousin bout how he was received by the French people, for which he said that the French are very friendly people. It didn’t matter whether you were strangers, people often greet one another even other streets, which, according to him, made him easily comfortable. He was therefore able to adapt easily in the French culture and was able to settle in very much less time. He concluded by saying that France is generally a good country to visit, and that I should one day visit the country.