banging away

Newspaper interview

Today, I bought the local newspaper. No, I still can't read most of it! It's just that today, they had a supplement about young Laowais (foreigners) in Kunming and I was one of them. Earlier this week, I had answers a few questions by email and forwarded my picture. A friend of my friend is a journalist for 春城晚报 (Chuncheng Wanbao), the Spring City Evening Paper.

Here's the result:
Here's the content online. And here's a direct link to my interview. And here's the pdf file (same as image above).

亮相：Philippe Semanaz（菲利普），法国人，27岁，在昆明学习中文，希望能找到份好工作。

　　

　　第一次见到菲利普是在KTV，卷卷的头发，戴着眼镜，文质彬彬的感觉。菲利普很聪明，学什么东西都比较快就能学会，玩骰子、吹牛，赢了众人好多次，搞得“老江湖”们有些汗颜。第二次在打架子鼓的酒吧里看见他，没想到，这位外国朋友一打起架子鼓来，非常地投入和忘我……

　 　通过交谈了解到，菲利普是法国人，因为非常热爱昆明，所以决定留在这里。他说：“当我还是一个工程学学生时，因为一个项目，我很幸运地在昆明度过了一个 学期。然后我回到法国继续学习。毕业后，我在巴黎做了一年IT工程师。我并不讨厌那里的生活，但我想到国外去体验一些不同的东西。而且我不想等到找到工作 才着手准备。所以目前我在昆明学习中文，希望能够在这里找到一份很好的工作！”

　[Above is my friend's description: we first met in KTV (friend of a friend) and then we went to Speakeasy, with the same group of friend]　

　　对话菲利普

　　Q：为什么选择留在昆明？昆明最吸引你的地方是什么？

　　A：我认为这是一个学习中文非常好的地方，我从来没在上海或北京生活过，我也不打算这样做。当然，我也喜欢昆明的天气，云南的文化很多元，在这样的氛围中学习和生活很不错。这里丰富的生物资源以及奇妙的景观，让人惊叹。

　　Q：在中国，1980年后生的一代人被叫做80后，在你们的国家，20~30多岁的年轻人有特定的称谓吗？

　　A：在法国，我们称之为“千禧一代” 或者“ Y一代” 。众所周知，这一代人是非常灵活而又十分叛逆的。

　　Q：你如何看待昆明的年轻人？

　　A：我在昆明认识了许多年轻人，他们绝大多数都对我的国家以及文化非常感兴趣，并且他们提问时都十分友好。

　　Q：法国的年轻人有什么比较特别的？

　　A：似乎我这个时代的人都被国际化的职业所吸引。我有已经结婚的朋友，我觉得对我们而言，结婚并不是优先的，事业更重要。

　　本报记者 杨颖

My original presentation and answers in English:

I'm from France and when I was an engineering student, I was lucky to spend a semester in Kunming for a project. I then came back to France to continue my study, and when I was done, I worked 1 year as an IT engineer in Paris.
It's not that I didn't enjoy my life there but I felt like I wanted to live abroad to experience something different. and I didn't want to wait until I get a good job opportunity. So now, I'm learning Chinese and I hope to find a good job here because I really enjoy to be here.

1、为什么选择留在昆明？昆明最吸引你的地方是什么？ [why Kunming?]
For the moment, i think it's a very nice place to learn Chinese because the city life is particularly enjoyable. I have never stayed in Shanghai or Beijing and I'm not planning to do that unless I find a good job there. I like the weather of course, but the thing that I like the most, is to be in Yunnan, this region of China that has so much to offer: so many different cultures, rich biodiversity, wonderful landscapes...

2、在中国，1980年后生的一代人被叫做“80后”，在你们的国家，20—30多岁的年轻人有特定的称谓吗？你怎么 理解？[how do you call the generation of people who were born under 1980, I made some Internet research for that one :-)]

In France, we call it the "Millenium Generation" (because they got in the working life after the year 2000) or the "Y Generation" (because born after the "X Generation" which is the generation after the "Babyboomers"). This generation is know for being flexible but also rebellious. Only our grand-parents have know a war on our territories and our parents are often Babyboomers. We generally feel European and we gave up our national money (Franc) for Euro when we were young enough so we adapted quickly.

3、你如何看待昆明的年轻人？ [What do you think of Kunming's young people? question piège :-D]
I have met many different young people in Kunming but I have to say, most of them were very curious about my country and my culture, and always asked me very nicely. It's always interesting to exchange about cultures.
It feels like many of the young people I met would like to travel abroad but it's still difficult and expensive: I feel very lucky to be able to be here.
(On another note, I know most of them are only childs and I always wonder how this might affect a whole generation's "personnality". I have to say that I have yet to find out about this.)

4、在你们国家，年轻人都追求一些什么（尤其是80或者90后）？ [what are people from that generation are looking for?]

Well, it seems people from my generation are attracted by an international carreer. I have friends who have gotten married but that's maybe not a priority: I feel the carreer is more important for most of my schoolmates. We tend to think we can deal with that later, maybe in our 30's.

[I'm still not sure how my answers where translated...]