By Dan Archer
Guillaume Dablin will be living in Assiniboia for one year as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange. Rotary International has sponsored young people all over the world since 1929. The students are sent to another country for a year to live with host families and experience new cultures and education systems. Guillaume hails from Eaubonne, a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, 16.1 kilometres from the city centre. His favourite courses include mathematics. In the future, Dablin hopes to enrol as an engineering student. Before leaving Canada in August 2018 to attend classes at Assiniboia Composite High School, he studied at the Lycée Louis Armand Eaubonne.
Dablin heard about the Rotary program from an American exchange student visiting France. The student from Chicago clearly enjoyed her experience in Europe as a sponsored Rotary student.
When Dablin registered into the Rotary program, he listed five preferences. Canada was Dablin’s top choice, because he enjoyed a holiday in our country two years ago with his parents. On his previous visit, Dablin and his family toured Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto. He found the people in these cities to be polite and helpful, unlike in Paris, where everyone appears to be in a constant rush. He also noted how the modern architecture in Canadian cities dominate the skylines.
In North America, there is little variance from one historical age to the next in our urban streets – a contrast from Europe, where Roman ruins can exist alongside medieval and modern constructions. On average, North Americans also drive bigger cars compared to Europeans. But Dablin was especially intrigued with Canada’s spacious beauty. Dablin is also attracted to the gentle, relaxed nature of Canadians. He believes Canada is a safer country to either visit or live in than the United States, where violence and fatalities from gunfire is a recurrent issue.
Dablin had to endure a long process of paperwork and forms to become a Rotary exchange student, saying this procedure was much harder to complete than obtaining a visa. Dablin needed to complete a medical check, insurance forms and other related documentations.
He required a letter from the school in Assiniboia before leaving France. Dablin also had to have enough money in his account to receive a visa for this year-long stay in Saskatchewan.
Dablin believes the high school in Assiniboia is more democratic in comparison to his school in France. In Canada, classrooms are less authoritarian than in France, where the teachers extract a greater degree of discipline and order from the students. Students aren’t allowed to enter classrooms before classes start. In French classrooms, you aren’t permitted to eat during lessons.
Lesson are also structured in a different way in France. In Canada, students taking mathematics can progress forwards by re-examining ideas absorbed from previous lessons. In France, new concepts are incessantly pumped into young minds, giving them barely a chance to reflect on information gleaned from earlier courses. French high school students also have longer study sessions during the school year. A school day in France is eight hours long for five days a week, compared to the five-hour days for the students of Assiniboia Composite.
