101STUDYING IN FRANCE ESSENTIAL TIPS

11th. of August, 2007UniKL Malaysia France Institute

Bangi, Malaysia

08h00 – Breakfast

09h00 – Officialspeeches

10h00 – Forum:HigherEducation SysteminFrance

11h15 – Sessionwithcompanies

12h00 – Lunchbreak

14h00 – Groupdiscussion:Lifestyleand Careerprospect

16h00 – Teabreak

16h30 – Presentationondiscussion results

17h00 – Closingspeech

Pre Departure Seminar – The Program

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful,

Good Day and Bonjour to all,

It is with great pleasure that I jot down a few words, eventhough insufficient, to thank all the participating parties of the first ever Pre-Departure Seminar and Dinner, Malaysia. From the sponsors to the participants, passing by the organizing committee, thank you for being a part of the adventure.

MASAF, Malaysian Students’ Association of France, is merely 6 months old. Such a short term doesn’t portrait what it has been capable of doing in the past few months. Since its establishment in February 2007, with the main objective of uniting all Malaysian students in France, despite differences among them, the association has been able to organize nu-merous activities such as its AGM cum Chinese New Year Celebration, MASAF Games Nice, official elections just to name a few.

The millennium year marked the starting point for Malaysian students into France, once again. A long started relations between the two countries in this domain, climbing back up to 1984 has been resumed since 2000, with the first batch of JPA. Since then, many other parties have shown their interest by sending students of their own such as PETRONAS, TELEKOM and many other local universities (USM, UTM).

Rome n’est pas bati en un jour.(Rome wasn’t built in a day)

Realizing this fact, MASAF launched its third biggest activity of the year, this seminar and dinner, the first ever of its kind to unite nearly all future Malaysians to France. These events are destined to familiarize future students with the French education system, link up with current students and also, not forgetting, to honor our seniors that are graduating this year.

I’m hoping that these events will surely please all parties, and bring enormous benefits to all future students. May your student life be filled with enjoyment and fun, despite all the “devoir maison” that has to be done. To all Muslim and Muslimah, I hope that this oppor-tunity is not taken as a one way ticket to a dreamland of absolute control free life. Try your best to keep the integrity and if for any reasons you feel lost or homesick, MASAF is there to assist you.

Let me not forget to thank in particular our event sponsor, VINCI CONSTRUCTION for their gigantic help and interest in making this event a reality, followed by FUGAM, EUROCOPTER, YAYASAN PERAK, Sapura THALES. May God bless you all.

Bon Courage a tous et a toutes, Bon Voyage, Bon Seminaire et bien sur, Bon Appetit!

Syukry Hamidi HASHIMPresident MASAF 07/08

Speech – The President

VINCI Construction is the matrix for the Group’s entrepreneurial culture and management system, which combines networking, de-centralised organisational structure, empowerment at local level and individual responsibility.

Together with a consistent strategy of developing added value and recurring business activity, this model has enabled the Group to achieve constant improvement in its results over the last five years against a backdrop of strong growth.

As the French market leader and a world major in construction, VINCI Construction is the biggest con-tributor to Group revenue.

It brings together an unparalleled array of capabilities in building, civil engineering, hydraulic engineer-ing and services.

VINCI Construction’s business is divided into three major complementary components:

– mainland France, with VINCI Construction France, formed in 2007 by the combination of Sogea Con-struction and GTM Construction, which has a network of 370 profit centres firmly rooted in their regional and local markets;

– local markets outside mainland France covered by a network of subsidiaries offering the full range of construction activities in their areas: VINCI PLC in the United Kingdom; CFE (in which VINCI holds a 46.8% interest) in the Benelux countries; VINCI Construction Filiales Internationales in Germany, Central Europe, overseas France and Africa;

– activities that are worldwide in scope: major structures, covered by VINCI Construction Grands Projets; specialised civil engineering with high technical content, covered by Freyssinet; and dredging, covered by DEME (in which CFE holds a 50% interest).

Our sponsor – VINCI CONSTRUCTIONINTRODUCTION

“You’ve heard about the city of Paris, the most romantic city in the world, about the TGV, the fastest railway train on our planet, about la baguette, a bread so hard that you can whack people with it…You would like to learn more about the land where people’s democracy started with the storming of the Bas-tille, where people use perfume instead of bathing, where belles demoiselles sunbathes come summer. You are ready to go. But wait, before you take off, do take some time out to read what some of your seniors have to say to advise you. They’ve been through it and below are some of the things that will make your life a lot more comfortable as you step into this new strange land waving a story of your own. Voici our 101 Tips on studying in France, all of them suggested by OUR own Malaysian students in France.”

PRACTICAL ADVICE

Winter clothes - As the price of winter clothes in Malaysia is as expensive as those in France, but not nearly as fashionable, it is better to just get 1 set from Malaysia just in case, and the rest you can buy it in France.

Dictionary - It’s cheaper to get it in Malaysia, but do not forget to get yourself a French-French dictionary a few months after you arrive here. You’ll improve your French faster this way.

Wok/Oven/Rice Cooker – Generally, these are not recommended due to their size and the difference in electrical standards between France and Malaysia. You can get any of the above easily here and cheaply.

STPM/SPM/UEC revision books – We find it quite useful for some of us, since we understand English/Malay better than French. HOWEVER, make it a habit to get use to the French way of doing things (like how to explain each step in mathematics)

Stationeries – If you want to save money, bringing stationeries is a must, as I have no idea why pens, papers and erasers cost a fortune here. No papers please, useless extra load. They are cheap.

Brahims/Adabis/Maggis - If you want to taste Malaysian food during your stay in France, chances are that you might want to stock up on Brahims and Adabis. You can actually get them at London, but still not in France, though according to rumors, a certain Indomee is available in Bordeaux.

Electronic items/computer - Electronic items are really cheaper in Malaysia, so your external hard drives/pen drives/mp3 should be bought in Malaysia. For laptops, we would suggest that you get one in France to facilitate the typing of certain French characters like the “é, ç, ü”.

Hand phones – Bring one (nokia 3210 will be enough) with you. When you arrive in France, you have to wait for about three month to do your students visa. During that 3 months, you are not allow to have a phone line. After that, if you want, you can sign a mobile service contract for say, 2 years and you can get a huge discounted phone. ;)

Alternatives medicines - Bring some Malaysian over-the-counter medications that you’re familiar with (Panadol, Minyak cap kapak, Minyak gamat, pil Check Ket Teck Aun or however you spell it)

Nail-clipper - It’s cheaper in Malaysia (learnt that the hard way). Take a pair or more.

Scientific calculators – Better to buy it in France because you do not know in advance what kind of calculator your Profs will ask you to get. Certain schools are permitted to only one type of basic calculator.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

You will surely be missing your family members and friends and will feel anxious to call them all the time and discuss things with them. Yet, overseas phone calls are generally very costly and hence you must stay away from chatting.

Have a plan of calling your family and friends at regular but long intervals so that all you family members will be expecting the call for the scheduled day together, thus, reducing any additional telephone expenses.

Even if you have exigency situations to convey the message to your family, try to avoid calling them in midnights, keeping the fact in mind the time difference of the two countries.

These days, lots of discounted telephone call plans are available in almost all the developed countries. You should enquire about the plan and be smart enough to look for the discounted price.

Take a really good care of your studio/apartment/house especially around the kitchen area. Clean regularly as this will ease your work when you want to move out from your house. Before moving out, the place should look clean, exactly like the first day you move in. If the owner is not satisfied with the house condition, you will lose all your deposit money and if it’s worse, you have to pay extra money for the cleaning service.

If possible, pay the monthly rental on time as this will give good impression of Malaysian students to the house owner. This is important because not all house owner/residence accept SFERE or MSIAN Embassy officers as house guarantor.

Some residences include the electricity/water bill in the monthly rent. But this does not mean you can use electricity/water as much as you like. Certain consumption limit has been set according to the average student use of electricity/water. Some of the residences will pay you back if your annual electricity/water consumption is less than their estimation, but if you use more, than you will pay more.

Due to the reason above, switch off your electrical appliances if it’s not in use especially electric heater as this consume a lot of energy. If it’s not too cold, use slipper/socks inside your room rather than turning on the heater 24h.

Don’t throw away documents like monthly bank statement as this could be useful when applying new studio/apartment as some house owners or real estate agency will ask you to provide the latest 6 months bank statements. Other documents like rental payment slips, electricity bills, phone/internet contracts should be kept too. French administration could sometimes be complicated and difficult when it comes to documents like these.

Don’t hesitate to make full use of the health care benefits in France as your medical treatments are 100% covered by the ‘Sécurité Sociale’ and ‘complementaire mutuelle’, which is both paid by SFERE. Eventhough you will have to pay first, don’t forget to send the necessary documents (prescription and sécurité sociale form) to Sécurité Sociale. It’s better if you have the ‘Carte Vitale’ as this will simplify the whole reimbursement process.

To see a doctor in France, you will usually have to make a ‘rendez-vous’ earlier. But some doctors do operate using the first come first serve basis like in Malaysia. Make sure you check if doctors around your area do have this ‘consultation libre’, this will come handy if you fell sick.

If you need to make a new pair of spectacles in France, you will need to see the ophtalmologist(eye specialist) first to get him/her to check your eye degree. Once you have the prescription from the ophtalmologist, you can go to the optical shop to buy your new spectacles. The reason for seeing the ophtalmologist(to get the prescription) is so that you can get reimbursement for your spectacles. It is

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

to note that spectacles is not well reimburse by Sécurité Sociale & Mutuelle, they only reimburse up to certain amount (150€ +/-).

So it is a lot more cheaper to buy spectacles/contact lenses in Malaysia as the average price for a pair of spectacles (+ visit to ophtalmologist) can reach 300€ ++.

To see some specialist doctors like ophtalmologist, dentist or dermatologist, you have to make 2-3 months appointment in advance. If it is quite urgent, you will need to try and call as many doctors as possible to get the earliest rendez-vous. If it is not possible, try to convince them by saying that it is urgent. The best way is to see them regularly for example dentist.

FINANCIAL ADVICE

If you think your parents will be sending you money quite often, instead of using Western Union’s TT services which costs MYR 25 to the sender and about €12 (Crédit Mutuel rate) for the receiver, ask them to put the money in your Malaysian bank account, and use your ATM card to retrieve it. It costs only MYR 12 (Maybank rate).

Make your own cup of coffee; do not make it a habit of hanging out in cafes like Starbucks. They charge overpriced coffee which adds up over time, you’ll do better saving the money up. Starbucks is not a trademark in France please.

Cook. Eating out is not cheap. Learn basic culinary skills at home, you’ll save a lot of money doing that.

Lots of banks here allow you to have a negative balance on your account, but try your best to avoid it. Not only will you be charged a relatively high interest rate, you’ll also be charge with a €22,90 commission for 25 consecutive days of negative account. (with a basic electron account)

Be careful about passing your spending limit. For every transaction you make after you pass your limit, you pay €8 of fee. Even if you’re like just paying 6 euros worth of stuff at the supermarket, you’ll end up paying €14. (for basic account like electron oso)

Keep 10% of your allowance as savings as soon as you receive it, you might need the money when you move to a new city. (expenses can vary anywhere from €300-1200 without much aid from our sponsors)

Make full use of your student card; in most places you can pay cheaper entrance fees. For certain fast food restaurants like McDonald’s or Quick, you can ask for 1 free extra burger.

Once you settle down, you will sure go to supermarkets regularly for your groceries. Ask for a ‘carte de fidélité’, whenever you buy things, you can collect points which can be turned into interesting gifts. Supermarkets like Carrefour, Champion, Super-U... offer this kind of membership card.

Buy hypermarket-branded items rather than established brands when buying food. The quality is about the same, (most of the time it’s the same producer that produces for both category); it’s also cheaper, and you get more points with your carte de fidélité.

2 times a year, once after summer and the other just after winter, the French will go crazy with their “Soldes”. (Read, gals: Sales!!!) Organize your shopping in such a way to profit from the huge discounts offered. Don’t go shopping for full priced item unless it’s really limited.

24.

25.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Being that you guys will be living together or at least close with each other, buy chicken in cartons (cheaper and can create a feeling of togetherness and jiwangness???)

Smokers could get cheaper cigarettes by buying them on international flights, and ask your non-smoking friends to buy them for you too. (Remember – FUMER TUE !!)

Carefully plan your expenditure. It can help you making your months.

There is lots of competition in the ADSL internet market. The current standard is a packaged one: a phone line, digital television and 20 Mbps internet connection altogether for less than 30€ per month. Check for hidden requirements (e.g.: unsubscribe fees), usually noted with **.

TRAVELLING ADVICE

Do not be STINGY about traveling; Europe’s the perfect place on earth to backpack. Some of OUR best moments in France are spent traveling around with friends. ASK ALAN, HAHAHA.

With the advent of budget airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet, you’ll save a lot of money if you plan your trips in advance. Last minute tickets ALWAYS cost a bomb.

Try to avoid taking trains on Friday and Sunday evening, it’s the peak period in France, train tickets are much more expensive for the period. It is called “période blanche” where tickets prices may be up to 50% more expensive.

If you take train very often, it would be interesting to get a ‘carte 12-25’ to enjoy 50% discount on tickets. If not, whenever you buy tickets, remember to mention that you are below 25, you can get 25% discount for that.

Sometimes you could find great offers on “SNCF”-(French National Railway Society), without actually having the “Carte 12-25”, called the Prem’s offer.

If you happen to hang around in Paris for weekend, get a ticket jeune, it’s cheaper and you can use the Paris transports as many times as you want (Zone 1-3). ONLY AVAILABLE ON WEEKENDS.

Learn how to travel light and lean, one way of doing that is rolling up your cloths instead of folding them. LADIES, remember that you can wash cloths almost everywhere.

Those of you who plan to go outside of Europe (USA, Canada, Egypt, China, etc) be sure to enquire about tourist visas. Go to the respectives embassies or high commissions to get more info.

LANGUAGE AND STUDY ADVICE

For a start, try memorizing a French song, and when you’re in the shower, sing it while imitating the way the singer sings it (this sentence is full of redundancy). It helps to improve your vocabulary, fluency and pronunciation.

Radio - It helps improve your comprehension and at the same time, keeps you abreast of the various happenings in France, which actually provides you with some conversational topic with the locals.

11.

12.

13.

14.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

1.

2.

Les guignols de l’info - A hilarious way to know about what’s happening in France and learn your ‘french’ at the same time would be to watch les guignols of Canal+ every evening.

Free newspapers – Every morning (even evenings for certain city), free newspapers, such as 20 Minutes/Metro/Matin Plus are being distributed. It’s a quick and easy way to improve your French. It isn’t, however, a substitute for paid newsprint as they do offer more in-depth coverage and analysis.

Sharing an apartment – You can even do a ‘colocation’, which means the sharing of apartment with the French. It could be potentially a fantastic idea, but you have to be careful while choosing the people you will be staying with: Choose those who are more laid back and not those who are too rigid about ‘cleanliness’ etc. You’ll not only be able to practice everyday French, but also develop lasting relationship with the locals. You can even taste and learn their cuisine.

Read, Read and Read – Make an effort to read French books, not only will it improve your French grammar, vocabulary and syntaxes, it’ll also improve your general knowledge. Make sure you have good lighting though.

Organize ALL of your documents according to different subjects in a chronological order.

Participate in classes, especially during your language preparation. Do not hesitate to ask questions, give comments or even challenge the professor, this is a thing we Malaysians must learn. The French are naturals in this regard.

If you have any problem, never hesitate to ask SFERE, Edufrance, your sponsor’s student advisors, they’re paid to help you.

Always help each other. You’re abroad; your Malaysian brothers and sisters will be your family there.

Some computer program like Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur can actually help you improve your French in the beginning.

Remember, get into the French way of studying, it’s all not about memorizing but to think critically. Repeating the same type of math’s exercises doesn’t help.

French students tend to study in group in Ecoles/Universities. Try to join them for group studies because this will help you a lot. If you’re not the type to study in group, try to find at least a partner (French if possible) that you can refer to if you’re having difficulties.

Get to know French senior students in your Ecoles/Universities as they will be glad to help their juniors with past year examination papers or lecture notes. Some Ecoles/Universities do have senior/junior program, meaning you’ll be assign to a senior(‘parrain/marraine’). Don’t be intimidated to contact your ‘parrain/marraine’ for help.

Seeing teachers/lecturers after class is also advisable to improve your studies. Make appointment with the teacher if you need more time to discuss your problem.

RELIGIOUS ADVICE

For Muslims, be very careful with what you eat. Read the ingredients. A pasta tomato sauce may look innocent, but some contains white wine while coffee flavored ice cream more often than not contains

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

1.

alcohol. Gummy Bears is a definite no-no.

Don’t forget to bring your “kain sejadah”.

Nowadays, ‘sabun samak’ is available in stores. This will be a useful item there.

For Christians, participating in church activities is an excellent way to integrate among the French. You will practice your French, establish lasting friendship, and visit different places.

SOCIAL LIFE ADVICE

Your friends will organize their famous “soirées”; Participate in them. It’s actually quite fun, once you’re “happy”.

It is important as well to participate in your school’s extracurricular activities. It’s another great way of socializing and actually sees how things are organized the French way.

Be active in various associations such as MASAF, you’ll meet more people, enrich your life and perhaps meet your future life partner.

Remember, being shy does not necessarily mean you have to be anti-social too. They are two different things.

INTERNSHIP ADVICE

Know what you want. It’s the first step in searching for internship opportunities. If you hate being in a production line, then don’t apply for an internship that requires you to be there most of the time.

Once you know what you want, it’s time to really search for internship. There a many ways in doing this. The most common is through your school or university industrial partners database. Another method is through online database. Websites such as www.iquesta.com and www.placeojeunes.com are excellent platforms.

This is perhaps common sense. You have to prepare your curriculum vitae and your cover letter. Having a CV and having a GOOD CV are two different things. The former might get you through your communication professor, the later can get you a place in a big company.

Yes, advice number three does apply for your cover letter as well.

How to make a good cover letter? Personalize it. A cover letter MUST NOT be a one size fits all, you have to custom made it to suit the position you are applying to. Pay extra attention to your spelling. Be rigorous.

Follow up. Executives are hard working people. They hardly have time left to read your cover letter, let alone to really know you. So, you have to make the initiative. Call them 7 days after sending your application, ask them if they had received your letter and sell yourself. Don’t forget to request for an interview to better explain why you are the best candidate for the position.

2.

3.

4.

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

You’ve secured an interview, good. Now what? Well, prepare yourself for that interview. Do your homework. Know the company and the position you applied for. Prepare three to four questions to ask the interviewer about the company. This will make you look really interested and serious about the position.

Be presentable. Yes, it counts.

You’re the chosen one. Congratulations, but it does not stop there. Now it’s time to prove to the company that they had made the right choice.

If your job starts at 8 a.m, then be at your desk at 7.55 a.m. Being late is a big NO!

Don’t be shy to ask around if you don’t know about something. That’s why they call you an intern, you are in the process of learning. Having said that, asking the same thing 10 times is not acceptable.

Keep in mind that what you do during the internship is a win-win situation. The company gets a talented and ambitious young man/lady to accomplish a project/task and you gain a lot of useful knowledge and experience.

You will have to write reports. Don’t take it for granted. If they ask you to do it, it’s probably because it’ll be useful to someone.

You won’t probably be asked to send the internship memoir the second week you’re there. It’s not a reason to practice the art of procastination though. Last minute works often come with bad quality.

OK, you will probably be asking why this booklet is named 101 Tips while there are actually only 83? Well, a wise man once said to his son:

“Son, I can show you the highest mountain. Still, you have to climb it by yourself.”

As you walk the path, you will make mistakes. Learn from them and from others’ mistakes as well. Advice number 84 – 101 are the lessons you learnt from those mistakes.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

Post scriptum: Do not over pack your luggage the first time you go there. follow these tips to carry only the essentials.

Our partners

Malaysian Students Association of Francedomicilié chez Yusry Ghazali

2 Place de Barcelone75016 PARIS

www.masaf-online.org - masaf.info@gmail.com