Interview France

France Interview I do feel that this course has utilized a transdisciplinary approach to studying France. We have studied some of the key elements of French history but also its modern popular culture as well. This paints a better picture of modern-day France, which is a combination of all of these different things. This course has given me a better sense of what it means to be French, and I think that is much more powerful and valuable than simply recounting some history.

There is something in the French psyche or soul that is usually quite hard to capture, so it pays to study many different facets of Frenchness in order to get a more comprehensive view of France and the French people. There are definitely things that I have learned about France and the French people that I did not know before. In studying another culture, I have also had the chance to reflect on things like how my own experience is similar to that of the French.

In other words, when you study another culture you have the chance to compare that culture to your own. You start to see how things are the same, but other things are a little bit different. It is easy to see for example that French culture has some positive aspects -- this is an important country in the world -- and that sometimes the French approach is quite different from our approach to things. The French Revolution in particular informs us about a different approach to liberty and freedom.

This occurred contemporaneously to the American Revolution and carried with it a similar set of ideals, but was at the same time different. So you end up with a different type of governance and a different concept of freedom of the individual. Question 3. There is little question that the French experience can be understood in a complex way as Morin describes. One of the interesting aspects to France is that it is an immigrant culture that struggles with immigration.

Modern-day France was populated by many different groups as we have seen, from Franks to Bretons to Basque and other groups. So through some form of unity in rebelling against the monarchy, modern France emerged bringing all of these groups together in a republic. Now, France has immigration from many former colonies, especially those in Africa, and the result is more troublesome for the French people.

There is a crisis of identity in France with respect to this situation, even though the country has always been made up of a complex web of different peoples. In some respects, this mirrors American tradition, because the U.S. is an immigrant nation that today struggles with immigration. Yet because most of the population in the U.S. is more recent than in France (where migrations were being completed a thousand years ago) there are differences in terms of territorial identification of the people. Question 4.

I think I will remember most about this course is that France is a complex country. It has a long and proud history, and this.