It’s difficult to believe that my time in France is coming to an end. I have spent the last six weeks meeting people from all over and learning so much not only about the French culture, but also about cultures from across Europe, Asia, and South America. I am so grateful for these experiences, as well as for the improvements that I have seen in my French abilities.
I have found myself growing even closer to my friends from the Institute of Touraine, and I know that it will be very difficult to leave them.
I feel far away from home sometimes, but I am only here for six weeks. Many of my friends are studying at the institute are staying here for ten months or longer. I have realized the magnitude of certain distinct, unjust advantages because of my race and the country in which I was born. While I have tried in the past to consider the privilege that comes with being white, I have rarely thought about how fortunate I am to have been born into a family that speaks English, in an English-speaking country. All of my friends here, regardless of whether they are from an Eastern Asian or Scandinavian country, have expressed the importance of learning English, a task that many of them have found to be very challenging. I now know that I am so fortunate to have learned English as my first language, but I also know that I still feel a responsibility to learn as many languages as I can. There is inherent value, I have learned, in the ability to communicate with someone in his native language.
My physical traits have meant that it is immediately obvious that I do not live in Tours. A friend of mine from India has spoken to me about the isolation that she has experienced because of her ethnical background. She has been here for four months and is staying for another two. My friend says that as there are very few Indian people in France, even in the major cities like Paris, she feels as though it is immediately obvious to locals that she is not from here. Further, as French is incredibly different phonetically from her native language of Hindi, she has difficulty with a few words, and as soon as people hear her struggling with these sounds, they immediately dismiss her, as though she cannot speak the language. Not only can my friend speak French, but she also speaks four other languages, so these attempts to communicate with the local population can be incredibly frustrating.
Another friend of mine is studying in Tours to become an engineer. He has lived with the host family of one of my friends from the Institute of Touraine since he left his home in Kuwait two years ago. Similar to my friend from India, he told me that his physical traits, like the color of his skin, serve as an immediate source of prejudices. In Tours, he has found, the locals tend to be relatively welcoming to foreigners, as there are multiple institutes for foreign study and many universities. In other cities that he has visited, however, this is rarely the case. He told me that people are quick to assume that he has fled a warzone of the Middle East, and this typically leads to a politically charged conversation.
I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to know these incredible people and to call them my friends. I have learned so much about the importance of understanding and respecting foreign cultures during my time here.