Now that the semester at Université Paris Dauphine is over I thought I would write a little description about the five classes that I took this semester.
Every Monday from 10h15-13h30 I took an Economics elective called Collective Decision Making. The class was taught in English and it was mostly international students from all over the world. The material covered focused on the public sector and the impact in a competitive market via club goods, public goods, voting processes, etc.
The first few classes were very difficult so I was nervous about continuing and I almost thought about taking it as a Pass/Fail. However, I worked hard during the semester, did the problem sets, participated often, and did well on the midterm! I kept my notebook so if anyone needs to know more about the public sector impact on the economy feel free to reach out to me!
On Tuesday from 13h45-17h I was in a class called Cinéma et Société. The course was about French cinema and it’s history. I decided to enroll in the course because I thought that watching French movies would improve my French and I was right! For the course we had to individually watch movies and then complete resumés. I chose to use a software called Audacity which I would use to record myself speaking about the film for 10-15 minutes in French. All of the other students in the class wrote 2-3 page papers about each film but I wanted to work on my conversation skills and the professor really enjoyed that!
Wednesdays were long days at Dauphine. From 10h15-13h30 I had a class called Paris: cité des arts which was a class about the art and history of Paris. The class was taught in French and I learned a lot about the Haussmannien architecture, La Belle Epoque, Monet, Rodin, and other topics. For our main project, I did a 10-minute group presentation on the Van Gogh/Artaud exhibit at Musée d’Orsay.
After a 15 minute break, I had a class called Europe: Today’s Challenges from 13h45-17h. This class was taught in English by two female French professors. The course was basically a European government course. We discussed the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the European Council (yes there is a difference), the Europe 2020 plan, the role of national governments, etc. It was a difficult course because there was a lot of information to learn and it was especially tough after our April break because we had a final and a 15-page group paper due that Wednesday.
On Thursday afternoons from 14h-17h I had a class at Institut Catholique de Paris which is actually closer to my apartment than Dauphine. This class was an art history class taught in French by Ophélie, the Boston College host. All of the students in the class were fellow Boston College students also studying abroad in Paris. I really enjoyed this course because every week we were required to individually visit a different museum in Paris, answer a few questions, and discuss them in class. I went to Le Petit Palais, Le Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Marmatton Monet, Palais Tokyo, Musée de l’art modern de la ville de Paris, Musée Rodin, Musée Quai Branly, and others. A lot of these museums were close to where I lived because I was in an ideal location. We also traveled to several museums as a class and did a street art tour. Overall, the course was very well done, I learned a lot, and I was encouraged to visit the beautiful museums in Paris. One of the things that I will miss the most about studying in the city will be my solo trips to museums.
The French grading system is a little strange because grades are out of 20 points and do not have letter assignments. I am confident that I did well this semester but unfortunately I will not know anytime soon because the French professors are known for taking the whole summer to grade finals!
La vie de "French Hannah" 