My story assignment in Paris is about college tuition and fees. At Hotel de Ville there was a protest (again) to change the Parisian government, but mostly to change the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to change to the current school systems. The change would affect every level of education.
The major con of course to trying to interview Parisians is the language barrier. I really only know how to say pardon me, thank you, hello and please, which isn’t enough when trying to interview a person who only understands and speaks French.
Another not so great thing about not knowing French was not being able to understand what the protesters signs said.
One negative side of Paris that anybody from America has to face is getting laughed at. Today I got laughed at because I couldn’t understand French.
A Parisian man approached me to ask what we were doing, and I couldn’t answer his question. I tried to explain but he just went back to his friend. All I could understand was him laughing as he said American.
On the other hand, three professors came up to Christian Garrucho, Alex Ruiz-Huidobro and I to see what we were doing. All three professors were able to communicate with us through English and explain their position on the matter.
Another great thing was the passion the professors had as they talked to us. They would go on for minutes explaining what had happened to make these teachers and unions angry.
Seeing how much passion they had about the issue, in turn, made me want to work harder to make this story a really good piece. It makes me feel that even though there is a language barrier I can still have a good story, which is all that matters to me.
Shiva Zahirfar
Print Journalism
Hello world!
8 years ago
