Name: Abigail
Country: the US 🇺🇸
How Moved to France 🇫🇷: For internship
Field: Economics
Meet Abigail, our newest hero on Tell Me Panda Talks! Abigail, a student from the U.S., studied Economics at Brigham Young University. We met in Paris at the Blue Factory incubator, where she was doing her internship.
We talked about Abigail's experience moving from the U.S. to Paris, why she chose France, what working and living there is really like, and how she's managing the language and cultural surprises. We also discussed the French education system. Don’t miss her insights on working abroad and life in Paris!
Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:48 - From the USA to France: Internship In Paris
04:07 - Entrepreneurship in France & Internship at Blue Factory Incubator
08:07 - Paris: expectations vs reality
15:49 - "Emily in Paris," how realistic do you think that is?
23:24 - The French Education system: what do you think about it?
36:35 - 3 Takeaways from an Internship in France
From the USA to France: Internship In Paris
Elina: Okay, so tell me a little about your journey. How did it come that you chose France? What are you doing exactly here?
Abigail: I'm from the US and it's not super common to learn a second language but in my high school we were always required to take a couple years and then you can end up taking it through middle school too if you want and French always interested me and so I started taking French and my professors and my teachers were just fantastic, I was very lucky to have very good ones and they're all very passionate about France so it made me always want to come and work really hard in learning French so when I got to the university level with French I decided that after I finish some of my studies that I maybe wanted to do an internship or see how French would work in a workplace and have an immersion experience so I spoke with the French department at my University and they helped coordinate with a professor they know here who used to work at ESCP and I think she coordinates for other people too but she helped to get me placed here so I was very lucky because it was kind of easy for me through my University to do that.
Elina: You're doing your bachelor's studies in the USA. Which University is it?
Abigail: So I go to Brigham Young University, and I'm doing a bachelor's in economics and then French and is a minor, and then international business is my other minor, so I combine all those and come to France and work in that area.
Elina: This internship is a part of your bachelor's program, right? So is it obligatory, or was it your own choice?
Abigail: Yeah, so it's not obligatory. They encourage most people who study a foreign language to have an immersion experience because they have many study abroad programs where you can come over with a professor and other students. You spend six weeks in the same kind of classes in Paris or around France, and they recommend that, but it was not. I didn't need to do it. My long-term goal was always to work internationally and in France, so this was a good time. And after Covid, too, I was so tired of being at home, so I decided to come here.
Entrepreneurship in France & Internship at Blue Factory Incubator
Elina: Tell me more about this because you talk to different entrepreneurs daily, both experienced and those who just started. How do you feel about it? What do you do exactly, and what did you learn?
Abigail: Honestly, the whole experience has been just very eye-opening and unique, and I don't know if I could have asked for a better experience to walk into as someone who studies what I study because ESCP is technically it's all an English campus, but the Blue Factory is all in French so it was great because if I needed something, most people speak English but we could work in French and all of the entrepreneurs I mean it blows my mind honestly like all of you guys are so cool and I never really realized as much how France is a startup nation really and how that's kind of a thing for France to have incubators. I had personally never heard of them when I was in the US besides maybe big ones from like Google or something but all of the projects are so interesting here and it's been very interesting to see the mix of people and cultures and how there's this drive here to take an idea or a passion and turn it into something like a business or a service where you can follow that and so it's been very cool and it has been nice to work and see how that kind of works with an international campus too because we have the Berlin team too so there's the Blue Factory at ESCP in Paris and that's where I work with Mava who's the director and Manuela and then in Berlin there's also the smaller office but we have meetings with them all the time and it's just amazing because it's this mix of cultures I mean I figured everyone here speaks French but also I mean you're from Russia and Manuela she's from Cameroon and the Berlin team one of them is from Poland and then one of them is from like India and I mean you have Italians and Japanese people and everyone coming to this campus and it's been amazing because I've had a French experience but also a very International experience too and seeing how that all comes together has been just amazing. I came here with the mindset that I traveled some before, and I've always loved it because you always have an idea of what a place will be like in your head until you get there. It's fantastic, right? It can change perspective and make you think about things more concretely and how they affect other places. I was expecting to come to France and have that experience here. Still, I also felt all these connections to parts of Africa where some of these entrepreneurs live and other parts of Europe, as well as the concerns and things that go into doing business.
Paris: Expectations vs Reality
Elina: That's great, so how did you feel about France when you just arrived? So, expectation versus reality? Was it worse or better?
Abigail: I had visited Paris once before but just for a couple days and it was cool but it was so fast and all I saw really were the museums and like it was summertime so there was people everywhere and coming and realizing that Paris is a city where people live versus just this kind of fantasy idea of where movies are filmed and things like that coming and discovering and getting into a swing it was easier than I thought it would be to kind of get into everyday life like I go to work I go get groceries but I would just stop on the street sometimes and go I'm in Paris like I'm grabbing groceries in Paris like this is crazy because the opportunities and the things you see are excellent I know a lot of people one of the things that surprised me and I was pleasantly surprised was people in the US I think kind of have this idea in their head that French people can be kind of mean or snobby and if you don't like speak French or if you don't whatever and in some ways it is good to know some French when you come here but I found that people honestly were very lovely and even my French is not perfect and I've been studying it for a long time people were very nice about it and honestly there's a there's a lot of people I mean like you and me who are learning French still and it's kind of something I think everyone has had to maybe adapt to more or less in a city like Paris I'm not sure about other parts of France but in Paris at least it's very easy to find someone and some common ground on yes we're struggling with the language and I need help with something.
Elina: Do you feel that you are still struggling with French? Because you're speaking fluently
Abigail: Yeah when I first got here cause now it's fantastic if you've had an immersion experience with a language it's crazy because I feel like after you have a couple conversations with people when you feel like you've warmed up to them and things like that like we went and got some aperos after like one of the workshops with one of the blue Factory teams and it was crazy because I was sitting there and I was listening and I was like okay direct translate word okay they're saying this and my brain was working so hard and then after a while people started asking me questions and I started speaking in French and after probably an hour because people in France will go and just sit at a bar for hours it was so comfortable and it was terrific because there you have experiences like that and some days are more complex than others but I think there's always moments where you kind of struggle with a second language but at the beginning when I first got here and was like man I really don't know how to say that or how people really say it because you might learn a technical way to say it and in real life don't know what you're saying and getting used to that though once you hear that and you get used to it it's fantastic because you find your start yourself like using it and I know a lot of people like you always say like kesu and like kesu say like what is it stuff like that and that looks so complicated yeah but it's like what is in English it's like not crazy at all and making those kinds of connections so that they're kind of automatic instead of having to think about every moment of it has been yeah that's been excellent in language learning and it's very fulfilling too because I know a lot of people I mean French is demanding a lot of languages are complex and learning a second language can be very, not like it can be like degrading I don't know how to say that but it can make you feel like you're not very smart sometimes. I feel like people who are also here and learning another language there's like sympathy around that and I was very lucky that I don't know I felt like people still knew that I had thoughts in my head even if I couldn't say it out loud but it honestly it makes me have more sympathy too for people when they're struggling and I think that just kind of cultivates some kindness about language learning and it's hard and you can sit there and think so hard about how to say something but your brain is just like tired or something and you can't think of the exact word and it makes you feel silly but yeah and I feel like it's like a line of words in my head and so French words they come in first and then I have to translate it I like oh my God it's not normal and yeah so weird I know and sometimes I'll forget a word in French but then I think so hard about what that word is in French that I forget what it was in English and I'm like what word was I even looking for I like some vague word over there like I can't even remember.
Elina: All foreigners go through the same processes, but at least we feel that our brains work hard.
Emily in Paris: How realistic do you think that is?
Elina: So last year, many people talked about Emily in Paris, and many were not very happy and did not agree with what they showed and how they presented France and French Paris. So what do you think about it? As an American coming to France and Paris, do you feel the same or completely disagree?
Abigail: It's a fun show. Yeah, it's an American romance show, and it's like a comedy and stuff like that; I think some of the smaller moments do happen in friends sometimes, like yeah, there's dog poop kind of places not as much as I felt from that show. Still, people always like flower shops and boutiques, and it's very Parisian. They captured that, and they had the montages of Paris. French workplaces are not brutal, but I have yet to work in a marketing agency. Maybe people didn't love how the French language is portrayed as being so hard, people being kind of mean about it, and everyone speaking excellent English, too. You find a middle ground for sure. I think the one thing they kind of got right in that I really enjoyed and after I came to I just rewatched it because I was like what is it like now that I've been in Paris for a couple months like what does it seem like and the small moments and stuff where in Paris you can just end up going out like every night there's always stuff to do like there's always an expo or like some sort of festival for something or museums and you kind of run into people. I've kind of just run into people and met them at sort of random things or from work and you end up having these really tight relationships because you're both in France for whatever stuff like that so I kind of like that aspect of the show because you honestly do find that in Paris where you go to a restaurant and you can start talking to people next to you or I mean there's that lifestyle of enjoying things and enjoying small things and spending time with your friends and not always being focused on work or school work life. And the fact that the office doesn't open till 10, like here in the US I mean I'm sure a lot of people probably sympathize like you kind of have okay I need to be there by 8, I need to not be late but here I don't know I mean for me at least. Like having more time in the morning cause for me that was new and having it be a little more fluid of a workplace and taking lunch breaks too going out to lunch generally in the US people are like okay you have like 30 minutes to eat yeah I hope you brought food and it was cool because the second time I watched it after I'd been here for a while they have like the clips where they show parts of Paris and I can like see the rooftop from over here but like the pictures I was like oh my gosh I've been there I was like I've stood on that little point on the Notre dame island and there it is in this movie and I think yeah those moments you are living your life and that can be stressful and I believe that in Emily in paris it's not always like roses and stuff but you do realize you have those moments where like I said earlier I mean where you're like grocery shopping and you're like but I'm in Paris and it just kind of makes you a little like it get makes your heart jump a little like you're like I'm in Paris though like it's crazy.
The French Education system: what do you think about it?
Elina: Let's talk about studying abroad because I know you are considering a master's program. What is the most common path for an American bachelor's degree? Do they prefer to work directly or to continue their masters in the US, Europe, or some other part of the world?
Abigail: It's been interesting to see since I've come here because of the French system, I learned about it in high school, but it still was confusing to me cause I was like, okay, you have high school. Then, you take three different types of baccalaureate and go to "predatory," like preparatory studies. Then you start to like your "Leçons," after that, you can do something depending on your University, so it seemed confusing to me, but in the US, you go from school. You go to University, and you can go to a 2-year university, like a 2-year college or a four-year college or University that's like a college with a higher degree program also on the same campus, but it's very different. Here, I've had the impression that you go one after another, and you have to know when you start and where you want to go. It's much harder to backtrack or start a master's later. In the US, you can enter the workforce after you get your bachelor's. It just depends on what you studied, you can work for a couple years and then get a master's and then get a PhD, or you can go straight from your undergraduate to a PhD, and it's just the length of your studies, and stuff is very different. So, coming here and seeing how those programs work, I was like, this seems much more complicated, but I am very interested in coming here for a master's. As an international student figuring out how to do that, it's been very nice to meet Elina honestly and explain that a little more because it's possible. Still, it's interesting to come as a foreigner and see the French school system. There are a lot of international students here, so I think part of it is because I have always studied French, which sounds interesting. I remember one of your other videos, which you can go watch if you want with Van; she talked about how she came for school but also to like travel, and in Paris, you do have a mix like it's kind of known for having a mix of an international people. So also for access to things, especially in Paris, there's an airport where you can take trains and places you're not too far from other student discounts. If you're under 26 in a lot of European countries, there are a lot of discounts, but if you're a student, train discounts, movies, theatres, basically everything, you can get a discount if you're a student and museums too or you can get in for free. They're kind to students in many ways, which always fascinated me when I learned about it. And also the idea of studying abroad. A lot of Americans, at least I know that when they think of going to a foreign University or not doing a master's in the US, that's a little more okay. That seems challenging, and a lot of times, they go to England or the United Kingdom because they are English speaking, and it's cheaper too in the US, a master's program or PhD program I mean that can be very expensive
Elina: So studying abroad is cheaper than studying in your home country. It's exciting
Abigail: It's much less expensive. It's crazy; you can get scholarships for that in the US; there are government subsidies for University in the US, but for a lot of people that's kind of one of the main reasons they choose to study abroad is because it's a lot cheaper, but most people they don't necessarily know a second language or comfortable learning in a second language beyond that so they tend to go to the United Kingdom. Many people think of doing a master's at Cambridge or Oxford or the University in Edinburgh so that always appealed to me because I thought, well, that's great you can live abroad for a few years. Still, you're in a stable situation where you have peers and a network around you, which is a great way to experience abroad because you're with people too. I speak French, and I've always been interested in French culture and things, so that's one of the reasons why I thought, well, why not? I might try in France, so that was the reason. It's expensive to do Master's programs in the US, and in France, they offer different things too, like international business studies. It's a lot different to examine that here you can go to a different campus in another country and have that experience versus if you're in the US and you're just kind of you have the US for miles every direction I so that was kind of it for me personally.
Elina: And you're considering a Master in Management program, right?
Abigail: Maybe management or marketing or strategy, but that's the other kind of a difference because I've had the opportunity to study a little bit, and then now I took a semester to do this internship to help me know what I want to continue learning what other classes I want to take in the US. This is harder to do here because you start your studies and then continue through your studies, and it's harder to take a break. At least I've had that impression, and the six-month internships, too. When you can have those, it's good to know, like with the gap years, because, like mine, my graduation doesn't need to do this, but I got it was easier for me to choose. I'll just take this semester, but then I'm returning, and I get to add more classes to my program to choose collectives. So, in the US, you have your significant other, and at least at my University, it tells you to take these specific classes. Still, in your central 2, you have core classes, which are the ones that everyone takes. Then you have your elective courses, which you pick to specialize in things, so in economics, I could do educational economics or healthcare economics or something like that. So, I wanted to do business in International economics. So, I wanted to take a little internship and then figure out if I wanted to take some marketing classes or something that interests me. So I do have that option when I go back, and from what I've heard here from students, the program is often very fixed, and healthy things are changing. Yeah, I get to go back and use this experience to choose which direction I want to continue.
Elina: Probably the difference is that you are talking about Bachelor studies, and in bachelor, in most cases, it's really like the program is already done, and you don't really have this freedom to choose, so Master is more flexible, but again it depends on University it depends on your specialization, etc. but it's great that you have this freedom to choose and I think it's essential like to have this already for you it's first working experience?
Abigail: Yeah, I've had jobs before and things like that. This is my first International internship in an office. I've done things like this before where I've gone and helped out and got to look, or I don't know, in the US, you can shadow a doctor and things like that to see what a day in the life is like, but yeah this is my first like internship experience in France okay but great yeah it has made me kind of tweak what I want to study for my bachelor's so that I can work more in the things that I've learned that I'm passionate about and that I find interesting
3 Takeaways from an Internship in France
Elina: So let's talk about how soon you'll finish your internship rights and be back to going. What are your three takeaways from this experience? What was the most important?
Abigail: I think number one is that I think most people probably experience this when you start to live abroad I don't know I felt this kind of self-empowerment I was like wow I can really do this like so many people move to a foreign country and figure out the language and learn how to live there and it's so much more possible than you might think. Study abroad is worth it, the experience. My second takeaway, honestly, I will just treasure all of the small moments that I've had with people where I just know I wouldn't have gotten to do that and the international experiences too and the friendships. It's amazing how you meet people here in Paris and I think it's different than the US because here when you make friends with someone they invite you to like come over or spend the weekend at their house and do things and you have a very strong relationship and I've really enjoyed that and I have that in the US but I think a lot of times it takes longer to build up. Number three probably is that I want to come back, I remember speaking with my French teachers when I was younger and I was like how many times have you been to France and she's like I don't know since college probably a dozen and I was like oh my gosh that's crazy but now I understand because it's like you want to come back and you want to like a part of your life has been there and you have experiences and memories there and you want to come back and visit them.
Elina: A friend told me you'll never be a tourist in Paris again because you lived here. I know, so Paris for you is your home, and you will never feel like a tourist because you already have this close experience with this city and it's fantastic.
🎥 Note: this video was filmed in November 2021
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