Case study no. 1: A chinese girl in my hall wanted to collect a letter from my hostel reception. She saw nobody but the door to the reception room was opened. She walked in, found her letter and happily walked out. That was when this African guy (who was on duty at the reception that day) shouted at her: "La Chinoise! Arrête!" (Chinese! Stop!). All along he had been standing not far from the reception and chatting away with a group of people. I admit that the Chinese girl was at the wrong for entering the room without permission. However, I worry for the fact that he had to call her by her race. What followed was a loud and heated verbal reprimand.
Case study no. 2: The same African guy was on duty again another day. He made his rounds at about 8 pm and saw a plastic bag of rubbish outside my room that I wanted to throw the next morning. According to my friend on the same floor, he banged my door, wanting to ask me to keep it in my room, but unfortunately I was not around. At 00:45 am, when I was already sound asleep, he had to return and banged my door, not once, but at least ten times; not softly, but VERY loudly. I dragged myself out of my bed, opened the door and he told me that putting the rubbish bag outside my door is prohibited. I told him I was planning to throw it at the big bin the next morning. He replied "No. I can smell it from the end of the corridor." My ASS. My rubbish bag did not even contain any wet food.
I would say that so far I have not encountered any extreme racist gestures. In class, sometimes I do get this feeling that the prof dislikes Asians. Everytime we wanted to ask a question, he would give this "oh no you again" face. Hopefully things will get better as my French proficiency level picks up.
For now, I am just happy looking forward to my weekend trip to Saint Raphael, Cannes and Marseille!
Case study no. 2: The same African guy was on duty again another day. He made his rounds at about 8 pm and saw a plastic bag of rubbish outside my room that I wanted to throw the next morning. According to my friend on the same floor, he banged my door, wanting to ask me to keep it in my room, but unfortunately I was not around. At 00:45 am, when I was already sound asleep, he had to return and banged my door, not once, but at least ten times; not softly, but VERY loudly. I dragged myself out of my bed, opened the door and he told me that putting the rubbish bag outside my door is prohibited. I told him I was planning to throw it at the big bin the next morning. He replied "No. I can smell it from the end of the corridor." My ASS. My rubbish bag did not even contain any wet food.
I would say that so far I have not encountered any extreme racist gestures. In class, sometimes I do get this feeling that the prof dislikes Asians. Everytime we wanted to ask a question, he would give this "oh no you again" face. Hopefully things will get better as my French proficiency level picks up.
For now, I am just happy looking forward to my weekend trip to Saint Raphael, Cannes and Marseille!
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