Just because I can!

For all you folkies who are interested in exchange, here's my statement of objectives that got me through to the next round in my initial application :)

My main academic motivation for studying at Charles de Gaulle University in France is to significantly improve my French language skills. I've always perceived French as a beautiful language but an unattainable one. When I enrolled in Arts & Commerce at UWA and saw that Arts offered beginner-level French - I jumped at the opportunity to learn and was excited and awed that speaking French could become a reality for me. My enjoyment of learning French really surprised me. I found it incredibly satisfying that I was learning a language that I once thought was out of my reach and ability. Whilst the University of Western Australia provides a sound language course for French, by the first semester of second year, it was occuring to me that I wasn't fully utilising the language and optimising my learning. I felt the main deficiency in my education was my oral confidence. My inability to converse with confidence in French was something that deeply bothered me due to two reasons; firstly, I prided myself in studying French, so any gaps in my ability had to be rectified, and secondly, I had elected French as my Arts major and felt compelled to excel in it. I found myself in a dilemma after the commencement of semester one 2010. I wanted to be accomplished in French but I was finding it hard to allocate time and resources during the semester to maximise my performance. Studying French in Perth means studying in an artificial environment. The grammar was taught well but there were limited opportunities at university to practise speaking. I felt time-constraints like studying for other units and working casually were barriers to fully experiencing French. The incompatibility of wanting to excel in French and not having adequate time to study led to an overarching feeling of dejectedness and a disturbing sentiment that I was wasting my time studying university-level French. The general consensus I arrived at through discussing my concerns with other French students and my teachers was that language-learning was maximised by living in a country in which the language is spoken. In a university context Student Exchange was the ideal pathway for an enthusiastic student like me to take. Aligning with my academic motivation to study in France, the main challenge I hope to face and conquer on exchange will be effectively engaging in French conversation. I really hope to improve my skills in general expression and I want to expand my French vocabulary. I want to reach a level of language proficiency where I can live and interact with the French authorities and other French nationals.

Round 1 Admin...

Allo

I feel it's time for an update! I have been incredibly busy - as to be expected - running around doing assignments and trying to get my preliminary exchange preparation stuff in order!! Let's see...

Unit approvals
I was running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out what units to put down for my approval. If you're doing an exchange under Arts, the whole process is a little different so my first confusion was do I need to fill in both the attached unit plan worksheet AND e-mail the Arts faculty as well? Turns out I just needed to e-mail the arts faculty first.

Then; I needed to be aware of what Arts units I still needed to do in general, so had to spend some time with the lovely and patient lady at the front desk :) she helped me nut out what units I had done and how many units I still needed to do. Armed with this information, I had a clearer idea of what units to look for in France.

Problem: where to find units? The French are notorious for their bureaucracy and my past experience with French (university) websites is is that they are not as organised and straightforward as UWA's. Anywho... after much (much) searching and exercising my French skills, I found the PDFs that listed units in detail.

I basically have one more French language unit to do (French Advanced II) and then French electives to finish off my French major. My 'French for Foreigners' unit in Lille will be the equivalent to that: all good. I've decided to continue on my English major... I might as well since I can meet the minimum number of units required. I'll paste what I put down as my unit plan :)

Unit plan
French for Foreigners (counting towards my French major, upper level, substitute to core unit French Advanced II, FREN3306)

Translation (Translating French into English) (general elective, upper level unit)

French linguistics (I would like this to be a level one general elective linguistics unit)

European Literature and Culture (an elective counting towards my English major, upper level)


Introduction to Information Sciences and Discourse (a general elective, upper level unit)

I've basically configured all these Lille units to count towards pretty much anything except my French major. My master plan behind this is to try to knock out some of the random general units and random English units I still need to do to finish my degree whilst simultaneously leaving me opportunities to do French units when I come back to UWA. I want to still be able to do French upon my return in 2012 through French electives. This is an attempt to preserve my the language skills I have picked up in France! Maketh senseth? :)

Everything I do must be done to extend the amount of opportunities I have to engage in the French language! Bon! (PS all my units will be in French. It won't matter what I make Lille units count towards to really, because I will still be achieving my main objective: improving language skills.)

Alors... So so after I e-mailed off my study plan to the Arts faculty advisor, I still had to hand in some hardcopy documents I received in my acceptance package for the Arts faculty advisor to sign. Arts then conveniently transported that document over to Business for the Biz Dean to sign as well - even though I wasn't doing my Business component on my exchange. This process was a grey area to me for a while. What if my documents got lost in transportation? How will I know whether Business will then forward the documents straight to the exchange office? Will they let me know if they do? I have a deadline to hand these things in!! Stressss.Turns out Business rang me to come pick up all the signed documents so it was all good :) life skilz babeh. Or at least - UWA admin will look after your stuff.

So okay; next on my agenda: loans.

OS LOAN
An OS loan is an extension of HECS. The government gives me a lump sum of monies and I pay that off with the rest of my HECS debt. So... how to get this loan? I'm lucky I didn't assume the exchange office would put in an application for me automatically, even though I checked the box I would be going for an OS loan in my initial exchange application. I typed in "OS LOAN" into the UWA search box and I immediately found the form I needed to fill in.

After perusing the form, I realised I needed to get it in by May 21st but I wouldn't have a clue if my formal exchange acceptance would arrive from Lille before then (you need the acceptance letter from host university in order to complete loan application process). I worried about it a bit, asked some questions and finally made an appointment with the finance officer in student services. She advised me to lodge the application without the official French acceptance so I was in the system and to simply forward on my Lille acceptance e-mail/letter when I received it. Too easy. Because I'll be doing my exchange as part of a formal exchange program, I didn't have to attach any study plans or anything!! One application form and one debt-declaration/confirmation thing and I was done for that loan. So: hopefully the government will give Jess $5611 for funtimes in France!! :D

As for the Study Abroad scholarship of approx $3k, I just have to wait and see for that. I should get it. Hopefully. The exchange office lady said about 99% of people going on exchange will receive some money from the university one way or another!! So pleaseee! Give me moneh!

So that's a run down of the admin stuff I've done since receiving my UWA acceptance of exchange but before I've received my formal acceptance from Lille. There's still a fair few things I'll have to do. Look into student accommodation is the next thing on my list. *shudder* I am not looking forward to that task. I need to go to the student accommodation website... thing... it's called "CROUS" something something. It's all in French. Funtimes. After that I need to research what the process for obtaining a student visa is - I should do this even before I receive my Lille acceptance. ...I just know I'll be spending a couple of hours there nutting out the bureaucracy of that. Then after that... I should be looking at flights and insurance!!! :D

Anywho, glad I've logged all this down.
Wishing myself luck for the next few months...

A bientôt tout le monde!