Arushi Jain

Q1) Can you describe a situation in which you felt it necessary to be an ambassador for your India? For example, has there been a situation in which you needed to clarify erroneous stereotypes or assumptions about our home culture? How did you handle that situation?

    There were plenty of situations. Many people had a misconception about movies in India. They felt that Bollywood movies did not have sense, only music and dance. That was quite a funny stereotype. We exchange students used to tackle this by telling them about some classic movies that India had made and how our culture is different because of which the movies we make is also different.

Q2) Did you experience a culture shock during the exchange? If yes, how did you deal with it 

    There was no culture shock as such, however, it was different from ours in some aspects. They were quite open about drinking and clubbing. It was a usual thing for them. Also during class breaks, both professors and students used to smoke together!! There was more of an independent thinking amongst people there. We adjusted by socialising and keeping to our limits.

Q3) What are the major problems that you had to tackle while on exchange? Did they hinder your development or were they a part of your growth as an individual? (Keywords - Language, Accommodation, Transportation, Food, Staff, Profs, People in general etc.)

  • Language: since we were not fluent in speaking, and less people knew english, it was tough to communicate. Moreover our exchange could have been much more fun if we knew the language better. Many a times we had to use google translate which was not a good way to communicate with people around. It defeated the purpose of cultural exchange at times.
  • Getting equivalent courses and that too in english was a major challenge: The curriculum difference and less overlap of courses with iit delhi's courses of study.
  • Also i would say there was an indian master student living in our apartment. Had we not met him we would have faced troubles knowing where to get our groceries from, how to travel etc...So having an Indian Community contact is essential to save from many problems.

Q4) How has your exchange experience helped you to improve your skillsets, be it academic, extra-curricular, interpersonal etc.? Could you provide specific examples? 

    I learnt how to talk to new people, how to strike a conversation. Basically it opened me up. I learn how people from different nations work and live. The most important thing being, even though everyone is different in their own ways, yet the basis of every individual is the same. On the academic front, i learnt how organised french were. They were dressed properly even for a 7 am class, the had all the stationery with them (scale, different colour pens, highlighter, compass etc), they made perfect notes (everyone used to write in class).The professors were extremely friendly and their teaching style was different. They focussed on practical applications. In a nut shell, the curriculum and the students have clear ambitions and streamline their studies accordingly.

Q5) Has your experience in the host country helped you gain an appreciation of how the world is interconnected on all levels (environmental, sociocultural and geopolitical)? If so, can you cite specific examples? 

    Yes. We had a class for Oral presentation where group discussions took place. There were several days where interesting debates took place. Ex: debates on how Indian democracy is different from french politics. How people exercise their rights and it was interesting to see that every student in the class had his/her opinion and was aware of the country politics (They were able to criticise so well).

Q6) What are the biggest differences you see between the college experience here and in your host country? What did you like the most/the least about your host country?

    Some differences include:
  • Flexibility of courses: In India we need to study subjects even if we do not wish to take them. Here, it was a choice based system and in fact from the first year they were given specialisation options.
  • Student accomodation and services: The kind of infrastructure they had was much better than ours. They had student recreation areas like area for barbeque parties etc.