Introduction and Culture Shock

I am studying law in France for one semester. It seemed like a good way to take advantage of my many years spent in grad school for French and my two years of law school. I thought it was a good idea at the time but now I am starting to have some doubts. I am away from Sheridan, Abbey, and a culture I pretty much understand in America. So, I am going to do what everyone seems to do in this day and age and publish my thoughts and feelings so everyone (meaning noone) can read them. My friend Steve is doing the same thing about his time in Ireland and I am going to steal some of his ideas. Like, I will try to post a picture and comment on it each day.

However, for my first post, I am just going to give a general update on how class has been going. Most of this simply outlines differences between law school back home and law school here.

First, even though I have studied French for a long time and can very easily get around in almost every situation, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. As it was in law school in the states, it's not actually the words, it's their specific, technical meaning. The problem for me right now is that this Master's program I am doing rightly assumes a certain level of knowledge given that almost everyone in it has done law school in France. Consequently, they know how the courts work , what a pourvoi is, and how to qualifier un probleme juridique.

Second, the bureaucracy is much worse here and maybe more importantly, it is different. For example, I enrolled in school here last Tuesday, the 23rd of September. That may not sound like a big deal but we started class on the 8th of September. To enroll, there is an unnecessarily long process that involves many different departments, none of whom seem to know what the other is doing. After enrolling, you should receive a student card which, among other things, gets you internet access, access to the gym and allows you to check out books from the library. Well, I still haven't received it yet so I can't do any of those things. It is absolutely driving me crazy and the idea that you would expedite something doesn't seem to exist.

Third, there is entrenched hierarchy between professors and students I don't understand. Professors arrive late, skip over breaks, and keep you after class seemingly with no concern at all for the students. The syllabus seems to be an unknown quantity. Each class so far has begun with five to ten minutes where the professor basically tells us that he or she is in charge, we will not ever miss a class, and we will be interrogated daily. Some of this isn't that different from school at home, but there seems to be such an ingrained hierarchy here that there is no room for response.

Fourth, there are no required textbooks for the courses. Instead, there are bibliographies that include 5-10 textbooks, a bunch of articles, manuals, treatises, etc. Because of this, there are typically no assigned readings. This may sound great but it is not. What you get in class is a professor essentially reading directly from a book she won't share with you or just professing, with no reference to any book whatsoever. After a mind numbing three hours, I went to the library and looked over one of the books on the bibliography. To my surprise, the book said almost word for word what the professor just spent three hours reciting to us. Eventually, the book will help me but of course, I can't check it out yet because I don't have my student card yet.

My real question is why not just assign us the book in advance? Because French students don't want to buy the books? A few of my French friends tell me that's the reason. OK, well, first of all, you either don't pay or don't pay very much for school so why not pay for some books? Second, most end up buying them anyway. Anyway, I don't get it but. What I do know is that I really don't want to pay for the books because unlike them, I am paying my home institution's tuition, which is significantly more than the almost nothing they pay. Of course, after you've already paid $34,000, what's twenty euro?

Finally, scheduling is insane. Basically, we were sent a schedule of classes predictably including the following information: time and duration of each class, room assignment, professor's name. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, the only thing is that all of these things can change on a daily basis and some of them do. Most frequently, the class time and room assignment changes. Essentially, I have to go by the admin's office each day to ensure I am going to the right room at the right time.

Perhaps more infuriating however, is that we currently have one class on Monday, one on Tuesday, four on Wednesday, one on Thursday and none on Friday. All of this is going to change of course because classes don't uniformly start at the beginning of the semester and end at the end. They can start and end at seemingly anytime. On Wednesday, we are in class from 10:00 AM until 5:15 with nothing but a 15 minute break every two hours. Then we break until 7:00 and stay in class until 8:30 PM.

It just doesn't make sense. Wait, it makes perfect sense just not from the student's perspective. If you look at it from the professor's point of view, this is probably when they are available and want to teach. OK, fine, I am going to stop bitching now.