By Elween Loke Wei Jie
After spending most of the time studying in France, this summer graces four French students – Adrien, Damien, Olivier and Sylvain a three-month opportunity to further explore in their specialised field of studies in Information Technology (IT) at the other side of the world, literally.
It seems like Malaysia was chosen to be the first stop for work placement in their five-year academic studies simply through a game of ini mini maini mo among several top options on their list.
“Our school, TELECOM Lille1 has a collaborative agreement with Utar for student internship placement. We thought this is a good opportunity for us to carry out our research projects and travel around the country in the meantime,” said Olivier, who has a muscular built, but was the most reserved among the twenty-year-olds.
Other than having a good computer system in the lab, he was astonished by the greenery in Utar, reasoning that they could find nothing but only building blocks in their campus back in Lille, France.
“The environment here is good, food is also four times cheaper than the price of our country” said Sylvain who was more comfortable in the English language.
Nonetheless, the French lads missed bread, cheese and wine from their country the most, deeming “France is really famous for food”. It is not hard to sense hunger for country gourmets from their eyes, especially when Olivier expressed his thoughts on our staple food, rice.
Syvain missing his favourite French bread, cheese and wine
“Rice everyday, too much,” vexed by the image of rice in his head, Olivier conveyed his expression in his unique French accent.
Olivier: Rice everyday, too much
Rumour has it that the ‘French-tastic four’ was hardly approachable. I was burdened with this extra worry in my head that I might not be able to take the ‘game’ by the scruff of the neck. But it turned out to be a false rumour; and also a false alarm I carried along all the while.
“We don’t speak good English. Even our tutor who supervises our research project needs to speak slowly in order for us to understand. I am not surprised that people might have wrong impression towards us,” said Adrien.
During their first week in Utar, Sylvain recalled: “People just looked at us in a strange way.” As time went by, they have made lots of friends through the evening game of basketball. He added that they were also acquainted with few Ktar students.
“We do travel with those guys during weekends,” he said.
They swap the identity of students to become travelers during weekends after five days of intellectual-draining project at the lab. When Adrien revealed to me the number of places they have been to within just three months, I was immediately brought to shame by the few countable travelling experiences I had here in the past two years.
“We have been to places like Ipoh, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Gua Tempurung in the last couple of weeks. We will also be going to Pulau Langkawi soon,” said Adrien, who was extremely amazed by the beautiful landscape of Pulau Pangkor he called ‘paradise’.
Adrien in love with the beautiful scenery of Pulau Pangkor
“I can’t say the same for Penang though,” Adrien expressed his disappointment over the polluted beach there.
The sweeping statement saying ‘French guys are romantic’ was posed to them for comments before concluding the interview. The four young men blushed right away when the casual question was made all too heavy on them, it seemed.
Being the only guy who is attached in a relationship, Damien stammered: “French guys are romantic because they take good care of their girlfriends not forgetting the French kiss we are proud of”.
Damien: French guys are romantic because they take good care of their girlfriends
Witty Slyvain gave a round-up comment to save his buddy from further embarrassment: “I guess only girls would have the right to determine it.”
Damien, Olivier, Adrien and Sylvain had completed their research project on optical fiber network which was assigned by Utar. They are currently working on their reports to be submitted to their university in France upon their return in two weeks’ time.
“We really would want to thank our tutor, Mr Lee Sheng Chyan for guiding us in our project. We also want to thank Ngan from the International Student Department for making our stay here a joyous one,” said Sylvain, adding that they are looking forward towards interning in the USA in their next summer break.
Left to right: Damien, Olivier, Adrien and Sylvain taking a break from their lab work for an interview with J-on.
