L’école en France: Jenny Hy

Après de nombreuses semaines d’attente nous sommes finalement arrivés. Notre attente était bien remplie à la vue de la grande et belle l’école.

À notre grande surprise il y a une sonnerie qui sonne comme une alerte au feu. Être en retard c’est désagréable parce que il y a des surveillants qui gardent la porte.

Les professeurs sont sévères, pas les amis des élèves, mais je crois que les étudiants apprennent beaucoup de choses, plus que nous peut-être.

Les élèves en Suède se plaignent souvent de la queue à la cantine mais comparée à la queue en France, notre plainte est mal fondée.

L’école maternelle, le collège aussi bien que le lycée étaient entourés de clôtures. Les étudiants étaient pratiquement enfermés dans les écoles. Pourtant les élèves ne semblent pas en souffrir. Dès leur jeune âge ils apprennent à avoir des cours assis dans leurs bancs comme les élèves plus âgés qu’eux-mêmes.

Malgré que Suède et France soient des pays européens proches, c’est intéressant de voir comment nos systèmes scolaires se distinguent.

Des préjugés français envers les Suédois: Petter Johannsson

Tout le monde a des préjugés et quand nous étions en France nous avons trouvé les préjugés français envers nous les Suédois. Le préjugé que la plupart des personnes françaises ont dit était que tous les Suédois ont les cheveux blonds, sont grands et que nous avons les yeux bleus.

Les Français croient qu’il fait froid et qu’il y a de la neige toute l’année, Ils pensent aussi que nous nageons en hiver et qu’il y a des ours blancs dans les rues. Les maisons où les Suédois habitent sont construites de bois et tous nos meubles, nous les avons achetés à IKEA.

Concernant notre nourriture ils n’avaient pas entendu parler des boulettes de viande mais ils croyaient que nous mangions beaucoup de poisson. Une chose bizarre était qu’ils disaient que beaucoup de Suédois sont des alcooliques.

Alors, quelques préjugés étaient vrais mais un peu extrêmes. Les préjugés qui étaient les plus faux étaient qu’il y a des ours blancs ici et que nous buvons trop.

What is a French by another French man: Nicolas Chazeaux

Who hasn't ever wanted to live in France? Probably none of you has. But don't worry, I'd like to say it's perfectly normal. You'll be warmly welcomed here by our custom officers if you are coming from a rich country – yeah, I have to specify it, otherwise you would be given a plane ticket back if you came from any Arabian country.

Who said ecology? If you are interested in ecology, you found the perfect country to express your opinion about it. French people would be glad to include you in their « Papers Throwing Improvement Project ». They will teach you how to throw your wastes properly in the street and how to increase your car CO2 emissions. Then you'll be a true French.

Wait, that's not enough, you have to take some swearing lessons, then you'll get there.

Who said sports? Who said keeping fit? Nah... Nobody, those words don't exist in French... A little reminder: the worse person you are, the better French you are.

What is a French by another French Corentin Vessot

A French is quite tall, with brown hair and has a big moustache. He is plump and he always wears a cap or a kind of hat. He loves eating, but only French food such as bread or cheese, and he drinks wine or champagne three times a day. It takes him 30 minutes to one hour each time. He drinks all the time, although he drives after that. He always smokes as well, even if he becomes poor   because of the price. He doesn’t know how to drive, drinks alcohol before driving, and even sometimes when he drives. If someone dares tell him not to behave as he does, he insults him and shouts at him and calls them rude names. Actually he is rude for everything. The French are also used to disobeying the laws or to rebelling for anything when they’re angry at something. A French is also very lazy and he loves not working at all. The French are always on holiday or on strike when they want to have a break. They are not very open-minded towards the foreigners, and furthermore, they do not speak foreign languages. They’re very nationalist and patriotic, and they spend their time in French famous places or they always stay in the same lively French cities that they love.

What is a French: a stereotype or reality by a real French: Geoffroy Ruhla

A French man is a strange animal…Indeed he is not like the other people in the world. French people are said to be medium height, brown haired, brown-eyed.

 French people are not very serious and very often don’t abide by the law. They always want more freedom. France is the country of the human rights is a tradition.

They are a mix between North and South. Indeed they are not as serious as Swedish people but they are not as disobeying as Italian people. French people are not reserved in general, when they disagree with something or someone they always show it because they expect the others to listen to them, their opinion.

Nevertheless French people are generous and open-minded. Even if they  are open-minded they are a bit lazy, it is very difficult for them to work, that’s why they sometimes use rude names to describe other people…to be more relaxed…

According to everybody, French people are very good at love…everybody has heard of the « French kiss » or the « French lover ».

French people are not racist…they are not prejudiced in anyway. To prove it you just have to see the big population of foreigners like Arabs or Africans in France. Nevertheless they admit that a lot of problems in France are just because of those foreigners. For example, a foreigner steals the jobs. But I insist…French people are not prejudiced. An American said to me : « French people are very lucky people….everybody is jealous because everybody says that France is too beautiful for French people »

Finally French people are…very French…

Alfred Nobel by Kamillia Guenouni

Born in Stokholm in 1833, Alfred Nobel moved at the age of 9 with his family to St Petersburg where his father set up his firm of naval mines. After its failure, he went to America with his father.  There, he worked hard on the marketing of the nitroglycerin which was discovered in 1847 by Sobrero and manufacture of explosives.

In 1867, he created dynamite. In 1871, his factories KemaNObel and AkzoNobel opened. After a serious explosion in one of them which caused the death of his brother Emile,  Alfred preferred devoteing his time to nitroglycerin which is less dangerous!

At 40 years old, he moved to Paris but he left the capital quickly to move to Sanremo in Italy. There, he died on December the 10^th in 1896. He is now buried in the cemetery north of Stokholm.

He had left his testament in which he decided to give his fortune not to his heirs but to the creation of the Nobel Prize. It will reward the benefactors of humanity in the following areas: peace; literature, chemistry ; medicine and physics. Some people say he had refused to honor  mathematics to avoid rewarding the mathematician Gosta Mittag who had bitten his girlfriend.

Astrid Lindgren by Manon Ferrand

Astrid Lindgren, born in 1907, was a Swedish secretary who became an autor for children. Astrid had a daughter named Karin who was sick. Indeed, she had pneumony.

When Karin was young, Astrid told  her stories. Astrid decided to put all her stories since 1941 in books and to publish them.  Her most famous character is FIFI BRINDACIER, Pippi langstrump in Swedish. She wrote other books like the story of Karlsson pa taket in three books. It's the story of a young boy who has a friend, Karlsson who isn't real. This story had a good success in Russia.

Astrid received the Nils Holgersson prize in 1950 and the Nobel alternative Prize in 1994. In 1967, the Astrid Lindgren prize was created. It  rewards an author of books for children every year.

In 2002, Astrid died, she was 94 years old. For her death, a new prize was created, the commmemorative Astrid Lindgren Prize.

By John, Måns, Madelene, Alexandre, Thomas, Florian

In Sweden, children begin school when they are six years old, they go to junior school for six years. After, they spend 3 years in middle school (they learn the same subjects as in France). During this time students don’t pay anything.  After middle school they go to upper level school for 3 years. When they are 15 years old, teachers begin to put grades on the students.  At the end of this level students have to manage “the national test” like “le brevet “in France.  At that time you can choose what you want to learn (for example sciences, economic…).  It’s not an obligation but most of them choose to continue their studies for 3 years.  After the high school 20 per cent choose university and the rest start working.

In Swedish classes, students often work in groups whereas in France, students work alone. They haven’t got many classes but they’re very attentive. Pupils can call their teachers by their first name and they don’t have to say “Mr.” or “Mrs.” In France we use more respectful pronouns to call teachers

In France children begin school when they are 3 years old, They go to “l’école maternelle” for 3 years. Afterwards they go to primary school for 5 years. When they are 11 years old they go to “college”. After 4 years they have a test called “le brevet des colleges”. In Sweden students don’t pay what they need (papers, pens…) whereas in France students have to pay for it. After the “college”, students can choose professional school (student learn a job) or general school in a “lycée”. After 2 years students have the French test and after 3 years students have to take the “BAC” and if they don’t pass it they have to repeat the “terminale”, which  corresponds to the last year of high school. After you can choose what you want to learn (for example, “IUT”,”FAC” …)

The stereotypes

by Emmanuel Thomas, Guillaume and Florian

During our trip in Sweden, we had to check the prejudices that we had talked about  in France. For example it is true that a lot of girls in Sweden are blond-haire, blue eyed and beautiful but there are brown haired too, with blue eyes always.

In Sweden , the weather is very cold and there is snow in the street. The towns are very isolated because there are forests and fields everywhere. Moreover the country is very flat. Swedish typical houses are a red and white  made of wood. In the houses the design looks like the Ikea’s furniture. The inside of the house is very clear  (white dominates) and everything is made of wood.There are also iced lakes and during the winter, the sun appears 3 hours per day. Sweden is a very dark country in winter. Swedes never drink alcohol before driving. But when they don’t drive they drink like us. The car brand which dominates is Volvo and in general cars are very large. Swedes enjoy ABBA like us though.We tought that there were wolves and bears in towns at  night,  but it is very rare. The Swedes aren’t more xenophobic than people in France. Contrary to that, they were very friendly and welcoming. The Swedes recycle a lot but they have big cars and they let the lights on all the time.

We think somes stereotypes were wrong but there were some right things

 Our trip to Mjölby

 by Charles Aymes, Sébastien Cusey  William Loew  Luc Venaille  VictorDurand

To go to Sweden, we took a plane (Airbus A320) with Air France. We took off at 10.50 to go to Paris. The flight took 45 minutes. A  few boys went to the cockpit to see  the pilot post.n Paris we waited for another plane. We ate at Mac Donald’s and we played video games and a few boys watched T.V (Simpson’s). At 15.55 we took off to Stockholm with an Airbus A321 (Air France). In the plane we ate chicken and chocolate. The flight took 2 hours.

When we arrived in Stockholm, we expected to see a big airport but it was very small.When we found our baggage, one boy didn’t have his bag. He finally got it 2 days later. After the plane we took the bus for 3 hours to arrive at Mjölby. Our host families were waiting for us on car park at about 10.30 p.m..

The visit of Mjölby

by Quentin, Alexandre, Rolland, Benoit and Florian

The first day at school was a Monday . On that day at Kungshögaskolan, in the afternoon, we went to visit Mjölby. First we went to see a dam with a Spanish teacher who speaks eleven languages; he transalted to us what the guide was saying in Swedish. It was nice to see the turbines; they produce approximately twenty-percent of Mjölby’s electricity. After we saw an exhibition of modern artWe also visited a commercial center. There was nothing interesting to buy. There we went to the library where Charles and Geoffroy looked at all the books about planes. In the library we saw an exhibition about bindings; it was nice; we saw a scale model of Mjölby in 1912. In the end, we went to   “café Gusto”, where we had a drink; we could have a cake with our drink.