The advertisement I have chosen is called “I am Canadian”.

The advertisement is for the beer brand “Molson Canadian”, that has launched an advertising campaign, emphasized the Canadian aspect of the product. This commercial appeals Canadian people, proud to be Canadian and probably mostly young Canadian, that figuring them out being like this young man. This commercial reveals the stereotypes people have on this country and the pride to belong to this country. It awakes the Canadian national attachment.  It is humoristic and revealing on the same way.

This kind of advertisement, based on the national belonging pride, could not really be applied in France where this feeling, the attachment to the country, is not so intense, or at least hidden. For example, the national day in France is much less popular than in Canada or United States. Nobody go down in the street, with their family and friends to celebrate it. Only official commemoration ceremonies are made.  Besides many Canadian products, as the beer brand, own a red maple leaf symbol, the Canadian symbol, on the packaging, to remind the significance of the origin of the product when customers buy it. It strengthens the national pride and gathering feeling.

Many French people are certainly proud to live in this country and part of this nation. However, this feeling is much more hidden in France, quickly perceived as nationalistic and associated to the extreme right wing party (Front national). It is almost seen as racist or traditionalist to endorse French culture in France. That is why this kind of advertisement wouldn’t have worked in France or would have taken shape  of a Front National cliche.

Nova Scotia has a population of some 950,000. Of this number, 37,000 people, or 4% of the population, have French as their mother language. The number of French speakers, bilingual in or not, amounted almost 100 000 in Nova Scotia. The large number of young Anglophone Nova Scotians attending French immersion programs can explain this figure.

The Francophone community of Nova Scotia consists of Acadians, French Canadians from other provinces and French-speaking immigrants from around the world, particularly Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For the most part, they are Acadians from the other Atlantic provinces, especially New Brunswick.

Francophones are very active in economic and political life and in the arts and culture sector.

And now for a little history…

The French presence in Nova Scotia dates back to 1604, when a small group of colonists from France settled at Saint Croix Island, on the current border with Maine (United States) and New Brunswick. In spring 1605, the colony moved to Port Royal in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. The colony was named Acadie (Acadia), and its population grew to several thousand people by the end of the century. In 1713, France ceded Acadia to England under the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1755, the English began uprooting the Acadian colonists from their land and deported them to the American colonies. This painful episode in Acadian history was called the Great Upheaval. Under the Treaty of Paris (1763), the English authorities allowed the Acadians to return to Nova Scotia in small isolated groups. They then founded communities where many of their descendants still live today. These communities are indicated by yellow stars on the map of the regions.

The Acadians of Nova Scotia live mainly in two regions – Cape Breton Island and the southwestern peninsula, and in the Halifax Regional Municipality, which boasts the largest contingent of Francophones in the province. These three areas account for more than 80% of French speakers in Nova Scotia.

In Cape Breton, French is the dominant language on Isle Madame. In the northern part of the island, Acadians make up more than 40% of the population in certain areas, and they are the driving force in community organizations in a number of villages, including Chéticamp. French is also spoken by a thousand people in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (Sydney), an industrial centre that has become the main service point on the island.

In the southwestern part of the province, Francophones are a majority in the municipalities of Clare (Baie-Sainte-Marie) and Argyle (Par-en-Bas), where they have developed a diverse network of institutions that contribute to an active cultural and community life.

The Halifax Metro region includes some 11,000 people whose first language is French. This urban concentration aside, most Francophones in Nova Scotia live in the province’s rural regions.

I find Canadian people very welcoming, at the first sight. They look very open-minded and speak to each others without many boundaries (in the street, in the bus, and every place of the daily life). Their way to talk, even to people that they meet for the very first time, is quite informal. For example, the cashier or the seller in a store, would say you, to greet you “Hi! How are you?” as if you were his friend! It can be your professor, your boss, or your best friend, everybody say “Hi!”. And as people always use “you”, I feel like saying “tu” to everyone!

Welcoming people

The gesture to greet is also different, just a hand wave when you don’t know the person, and for friends, a hug. At the beginning, I found their way to greet people (great smile, big hug….) a bit overplayed. In many situations, I have met girls who greet me on a amazing way, but after we didn’t have much things to tell us. Actually, we didn’t know us very well.  It is part from their culture.

About religion, I find that religion have to them, a greater influence. It is possible to study about the religion and, as I went to the catholic studies, I could notice there are many students who attend these classes, compared to France. I think catholic canadian students are less ashamed to assert their faith. This point is less “tabou” than in France. Moreover, the catholic community is really developed on the campus. There are a chapel and church on the campus, a center run by sisters, where the chaplaincy gathering hold and where students can come studying and eating during the daily time. There is a chiore during mass, on Sundays, and a band made of students who play christian songs. And the JAM (name of the chaplaincy group) is totally run by students. The priest doesn’t do anything. Also, as, it is at the fundamental point a catholic university, it can explain this deep involvement of the religious involvement on the campus.

This trend can maybe explain their open-minded way to talk.

About the eating habits, I find that Canadian eat rather on a fat way: many cakes, from the whole sizes, colors and flavors are sold in stores and very sweet or very salt things. Their meals contain much sauce and fat and their dishes and cakes are less refined than these in France. They appreciate to eat ice cream. They also don’t have any specific time to eat, that means they eat when they want it in a day.

A poutine, a fries and mozarella canadian dish.

Meanwhile, I find their way to live quite healthy, as they are much sportier than us (I have encountered  many people who do sport three or four times a week). The sport center is opposite my residence, and there are often plenty of students who do sport over there, especially in the gym room (on machins). It is their way to keep the fit. People here are bigger and many are overweight. However, they smoke much less than us.

About prices in stores, dairy products (yogurts, milk, cheese…) are much more expensive than France. It is because dairy producers in Canada have quotas to respect. (they can not produce over a particular amount of milk). Yogurts are sold in big packs (as for cream cheese in France), that worth from 5$. Fruits and vegetables are also pretty expensive. In the whole, life is more expensive here. In Nova Scotia, as it is on a peninsula, far from the continent, all these products need much transport to be brought here. Products are also translated in French, that is very convenient to figure out the different features of the product.

A big event also in Canada is the Super Bowl. It is a football match (American football, off course) broadcast on the 2^nd February, that everybody watch, by eating on the same time (it is a moment of the year where people eat the most, after Christmas event), and the most famous part of this show is the break, because a guest star makes the show. This year, it was Bruno Mars.

Super Bowl, 2014

Hockey is really the national sport here. American football and basketball have also a major place. Every weeks hockey and basketball games are played at the university.

A hockey game in StFX

The national celebration day is the Canada day and it is celebrated on the 1st of july. It is also called by some medias Canada’s birthday. This date celebrates the gathering of the four British colonies that were Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec in 1867. Even if the British still owned the political control until 1982 when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution, on that date Canada officially became a kingdom with its own rights.

I have 5 different classes: 4 in business, 1 in sociology. The bad point from having taken business classes is that we have already studied many of these classes. Most of the concepts seen in class, I have already heard about them or learnt them in Esdes or in high school. But on the other hand, it is easier to understand, and I don’t need to do all the readings or doing all the exercises to do understand what the professor tells. So it is all a lot of work less.

International business: Globalization is studied, how companies deal with different cultures, international exchanges, the different actor of  globalization… The professor is interesting, he speaks on a rather slow way, with a good accent (I mean, understandable). There is readings to do for every classes and an assignment in group also, report or oral presentation.

Business Decision Making: it is management; so it is very wide and many different domains are taught: finance, managing a team, managing money… The professor that I have is very boring and speaks always on the same voice, on a boring way. Nobody is listening to her. So classes are not pretty exciting. As an application of the theory, there is a enterprise managing game, as Kalypso, that we play in group. It is called “Mikes Bike”, and as Kalypso, we have to decide the amount of production we want to do, the investment…for every year, in competition with the others group from the class.

Consumer Behavior: It is a marketing class, as the title expresses it, focused on consumers. The teacher is very dynamic and interesting. We quite often have little assignments to do in group, in class or to prepare, and to present our result to the class. It is stimulating and so people get easily involved in class. We also have to do a presentation, in team, for the exam.

Marketing communications: It is a marketing class, focused on communication channels, the message, how delivering it, in content and form. The professor is nice, always kidding and joking with students. He often shows us an ad at the beginning of the hour, so that’s entertaining. Meanwhile I find the content pretty boring, as it is concepts that we have already studied at Esdes.

Tradition in Social Thoughts: The title from this course could seem very boring, but actually, it is really interesting. It is the no-business subject, that I picked up and it is my favorite one. The whole sociological thought is reviewed here, from the industrial revolution to nowadays, with all the different thinking movements and great historical sociologists. The professor likes his job and his subject, and it shows! Even if there is a big clock upon the board in the classroom, I forget time running in every class. The bad point: an essay has ti be written by our own (so not in group), and that’s is not the shortest! (6-11 pages). And readings have to be made for every class (as for every classes, actually), and it is not the easiest ever since it is the original author textes. And as I have not obviously studied the concepts before, it is better, if I want to well figure out the things in class, to read them on a previous hand.

I have also attended to catholic studies classes. Friends from the JAM told me about it and as I was curious to see, I came. The teacher is really nice, calm and speaks on a slow and very understandable way so that is really amazing to get all the informations. The class is about the catholic history and religious concept: great characters as Mother Teresa, Jean Paul II or famous saints, but also catholic principles/fundamentals (virtues, sins, holy spirit…) are here taught. It my recreation class, because I am free to attend or not, and it is really relaxing (above all thanks to the professor’s way to talk).

Besides, I met the international students. There are not many new exchange students this semester, only 8, including 5 French students. But in the group there are many foreign permanent students or some who arrived in September. Parties are organized in a house, off campus, or in a flat on campus, very weekend.  Many Canadian people are invited and join us, that make often a good atmosphere, with more or less 30 people. There is a pub on campus, called “the inn”, with different kind of parties: rather calm and informal, people are sat around table and drink, talk…with a band who plays guitar, as in a bar, so or club atmosphere with electro music, to dance. There are also bars downtown. I have never tested yet, but I’m planning to do it.

I have met also other people, students from teamwork, or by acquaintances, or through societies or parties, and I get in touch with some of them: I went at their place or had a coffee together. I met quite a few Chinese people also, really nice, and as many are in business, we are often together in work groups.

Meanwhile, it is not easy to get integrated with Canadian people, because they already have their friends, their habits. They don’t try to meet new people and to make new friends. Moreover, they are here to get their degree, they work more than us so.  Fortunately, there was the JAM, and it was a great opportunity to me. 

The Chinese New Eve Event.