In this ad, the girl’s car is compared to her dog. She grows in her life accompanied by her dog but we see the car at some moment in this video and at the end, the final sentence presenting the car is “a best friend for life’s journey”.

·      The object of the advertisement here are the Chevrolet’s cars and the target are people who have pets. But, as for me, even people who don’t have animals can be targeted by this ad because it highlights the fact that car is the product that will follow us during our lives.

In France, it would maybe not be understand. Indeed, most of people would be wondering what is the link between a car ad a pet and that would not inspire confidence to the brand, that would not seem professional.

In France, I never saw car ad comparing car to a friend or other thing. Most of the time, the car is presented for its characteristics (its quality, the brand, its design, its price…) and sometimes the way of life it can procure such as having a high level of life. Let’s see a French ad to compare:  

Here, it is clearly the physical aspect of the car which is enhanced and this product appeal people to buy the car more for itself than as a mean to do something else.

Canada is fifteen bigger than France and inhabited by half less people. So: most of the activities and building are spreader than in France.

That’s why, to my mind, cars here are more consumed as only a MEAN of transportation than as a product in itself. I can’t generalize for all Canada but in Newfoundland, I didn’t see really luxury cars. Moreover, in Newfoundland, a good car is a big truck so that being able to drive in the snow and carry some stuff. So, they value a car more on its convenience than on its aesthetic or the brand.

Indeed, roads are covered with snow during a huge part of the year and this snow quickly becomes dirty because it melts, is polluted by car rejections and people walk on it. So, most of the cars are quickly spotted by this snow which doesn’t make them good looking. Because cleaning his car would ask a washing per day, I guess people don’t really mind about the look of their car.

 That emphasizes that: a car is a MEAN to have a good social life such as going to work, do shopping or see one’s friends. Indeed, the other foreign students and I don’t have a car and we notice that most of the travels are quite complicated if we can only use public transports. There are only few bus lines, they don’t pass very frequently and bus stops are not really comfy (it is sometimes only a little placard on a post). Moreover, stops’ names are not announced inside of the bus so, if you are doing an unknown ride, it can be difficult to find the stop. Hopefully, bus drivers are most of the time very kind and help us.

Obviously, my statement is not true if we compare a Canadian living in Montréal where he can have many public transports and French who live in countryside. But, I can assure that in Canada, public transports are in general fewer than in France. so taking public transports is quite difficult and takes time so having a car is almost mandatory to have a comfy life. That’s why, in this advertisement, they compare her car as her best friend.

I am going to talk about the celebrations in Canada and more specifically about Valentine’s Day which they celebrate differently than us.

I have already been in United States so I would be able to say that in general, in North America, events are more celebrated than in France: people celebrate each one whereas in France some events are less celebrated such as Halloween or Valentine’s Day and people more decorate their house as we can see many decorations in stores.

So I have been surprised when, at the middle of January, shelves were already full of gifts, chocolates, decorations and cards for Valentine ’s Day. For instance, Dolarama, which is a little and cheap store, had more than one shelf dedicated to it!

Other example: I saw on one of those websites that on valentine’s day : children make cakes in school in shape of hearts. In our university, some events were organized such as decoration of valentine's cakes.

But the other difference is that valentine’s day is the celebration of “love and friendship”: It’s a “global valentine’s day”! So, friends give gifts to each other, even if those are chocolate in shape of hearts. For instance, one of our friends received a chocolate red rose from one of his best-friend. The idea is to express our feelings to each person for who we have any kind of feelings: friendship, filial love or love to our partner.

To put in a nutshell, it is almost a national event in which everybody must do something whereas in France, it is more a private event and single people can meet each other to support this (harsh for them) evening but don’t offer gifts to each other at all.

To my mind, we could link the fact to celebrate a lot the events to the optimistic state-of-mind of North-American because it is easier to have the envy and energy to prepare and enjoy an event when we are in good mood. I already noticed that in United States and here again: people are hopeful and dynamic! Indeed, we learned in “consumer behavior” than more than 60% of baby-boomers were really optimistic about the future! I also noticed that in my “entrepreneurship” lesson in which we had to think about project:  my mates were really involved in their work and upbeat about the demand which would fit our product. Moreover, they have an optimistic vocabulary: “awesome” is a daily word. One time I was waiting for a friend in a store and a sailor asked me what I was looking for, I answered “I am waiting for a friend” and she said: “oh! Awesome!” At the end, the way of grading is really optimistic: I never had a grade below 65% yet whereas English is not my native language and teacher sometimes explain it in the cover page of the exam: “we are not here to seek why we could give you a bad mark but why we could give you a good one”. In response, in students’ mind, 50% is not a good grade!”: maybe at least 70% is the satisfying one. 

sources: 

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/dossiers/st-valentin/

http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadianholidays/a/Valentines-Day-In-Canada.htm

http://blog.abritel.fr/2014/01/tour-du-monde-des-fetes-de-la-saint-valentin/

I arrived in Memorial University (Mun) two weeks ago!

Mun is an aged university since it has been created in 1925, in memory of the dead soldiers during First World War.

 It’s a big campus with many facilities. Here is the website where you can see the campus in more details: http://virtual-tour.mun.ca/

Mun is located in St John’s, Newfoundland (NL): NL is an island located in the east of Canada. It belongs to the province: Newfoundland and Labrador. Historically, it was a region where French and Irish people were fishing. So, there are still French and Irish cultures here. For instance, George’s street is full of Irish pubs! It’s the most easterly place of North America and St John’s is one of the most colorful cities. But, to one of my teacher’s mind; Canadians often think that NL is a non-attractive region which is known for its bad weather. That’s why Newfoundland government launched a big marketing campaign which highlights the beauty of this region, in order to increase tourism receipts. Here is one of their videos: 

I arrived there at midnight, January 10^th. I had asked for a pick up, so Shiva (a volunteer girl) was waiting for me at the airport. We took a cab which brings us at a special office in which we can have our keys outside the regular hours.

Shiva brought me to my apartment. In the living room, I found Théophile, an Esdes student which arrived the same day as me but didn’t have his flat’s keys. He told me that it was the apartment of Cecile; my roommate in Lyon! Even if Cecile and I asked not to be with French speakers: we have been put together! So, living on campus doesn’t necessarily mean “living with Canadians”. If you really want to live with English speakers: you can do a colocation off-campus. You can find it in France on: “kijiji.ca”, or in the mun website in the tab: housing/off-campus

I choose Burton Pond’s apartments because Platon college was more a boarding school and New residence was more expansive than Burton Pond’s for, as for me, a less convenient accommodation such as common bathroom. Nevertheless, Burtons Ponds apartments are older than the other ones so, if you want a renovated flat, ask to be in “Cabot”. 

I was surprised by the numerous actions memorial university did for us: we received a “swag bag” with prospectus and a memorial T-shirt, a folder with very important and practical informations at the International Students Administration (ISA), met our mentor teacher Victoria Greey who spent one hour with us explaining the rules here, some aspect of the Canadian culture and listing all the services we could use! I listed some of them: the writing center is a place where we can ask English speakers to correct our papers, ISA is the office which organizes events for international students, and she even spoke about a place we could go if we feel homesick!

For the moment, we spoke mostly with the international students because we met them during events. Canadians leave the class quickly and already have their personal life so it’s less easy to speak to them. Moreover, many students, even if they study at memorial since several years, come from many countries. So, last Saturday, we went at a party with: Mexicans, Chilean, Czech, French, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Bangladeshis, Indonesian and Canadian. We had a very good time and it was very pleasant to speak with people from so many horizons! Above all: don’t forget to register at the mentor program! One student will be your mentor, so you will meet him as much as you want and you will be able to participate at “Mun mentor events” which are good opportunities to meet new students! It’s mostly there we met our friends!

Here are all lessons I took:

- Consumer behavior: It’s definitively the course I prefer here. I recommend you to take it because the teacher speaks very clearly, is dynamic and make humor. So, I perfectly understand her lesson.

- Marketing research: the teacher speaks faster so it’s more difficult to understand her. But after some sessions, I adapted myself to her way of speaking. So now: I have fewer problems and find her course very interesting: it has a strong link with consumer behavior.

- Intro to Entrepreneurship: I was disappointed by this course so I changed it. To date, I only had my new course one time so I can’t talk about my impression except saying that we will have many guests, which is a very good point!

- NL, society and culture: As for entrepreneurship, I changed it because, in my first course, we had to speak about NL culture in groups. So, I was with Newfoundlanders speaking and debating about their culture whereas I didn’t know anything about since I was here, precisely, to learn it! So I took another course but it seems more difficult: we will read books about NL culture and critic it studying writer’s life.

- Zen, Buddhist meditation and Buddhist psychology: it’s a really interesting course! I recommend you to take at least one course different from business because it’s maybe the first and last time you can choose what you want! Just notice: business students don’t have class on Friday so taking another course is a risk to have lesson this day: like me. The teacher speaks about the history of Buddhism, the evolution, the practices…, and, as in the other course, we will do analysis on books.

Lessons have some common points with French courses: teachers speak with a power point downloadable on memorial@home which is the equivalent of claroline.

But there are many differences: students don’t have many lessons: five courses is the maximum we can take here. But they have a huge personal work: we have to read books before each lessons. Let’s speak about textbooks! You will need at least one per course: you can find most of them at the library or its website but you will need to buy the rest and they are more expansive than in France: 150$ is a common price for ONE. So you will need good deals! There are two Facebook groups: “mun used text book sale” and “Sell your MUN text books!” You can also find them on memorial website. If not, amazon.ca can be a good deal but be careful of the delivery time, because we will need them quickly! Indeed: we don’t have final exam in some courses so we have 2 or 3 mid-term exams and first ones are two weeks after the beginning of the class!

In class, students don’t speak between them but participate a lot! They don’t hesitate to raise the hand (or not) to give their personal opinion on what the teacher said. They debate a bit and then the course goes on. We don’t work in group as much as in France. Sometimes, teacher says us to do little groups of three to speaks fifteen minutes on a subjects but that’s all (for the moment).

As for me, Canadians are influenced by the United States concerning some subjects. For instance, sport took an important place! So going to memorial is a good way to try new sports! Indeed, we have the field house and the aquarena:http://www.theworksonline.ca/

In the field house: a huge racetrack surrounds an area where you can do table tennis, tennis and fitness courses. On the first floor, there are many cardio machines such as bicycles… All is free! Except the aquarena but we have great discount! The sea hawks is the mun’s basketball clubs and, according to a friend, matches are really exciting: they take place in the house field, crowded for the event, and even if the public is really implicated in the match; there’s a strong respect of the opponent.

Sources: http://funtastique.fr/les-villes-les-plus-colorees-du-monde/

I knew I was going to St John’s in Canada two months ago.

I began by taking my plane tickets because prices were quickly increasing. I founded on Air France a round-trip at 750€ thanks to the price for youth.

Caution! Take the right destination: St John’s YYT, not St John!

I enrolled in flying blue club which permit us to cumulate bonus points which could give us discounts for a second suitcase for our return.

I have been accepted in an on-campus accommodation: Burton Pond’s Apartments: it’s a flat of four bedrooms for approximately 1800$ per semester which correspond more or less 330€ per month, depending of the dollar value against the euro.

 We must begin lessons on January the 6th but we can move in Burton Pond’s only from the 4^th so be careful if you plan to come early!

I will explain you the visa details in later articles!