Johan Rivallain

I decided to interview Johan Rivallain which comes from France. It's now been three years since he lives in Mont-Joli. It is sports trainer at Club de natation les Espadons de Mont-Joli and it is the responsible of aquatic of the city.

Upon arriving, he did not understand the conversations; it was as if we spoke English. He could not understand our expressions quebecoise. Moreover, the words we use are not the same for a same object. For example, for the Quebec people «liqueur» means «boisson gazeuse» for the French people or «barrer» for Quebec people means «verrouiller ou fermer à clef» for the French people. It took him about 2 months to get used to the language of Quebec.

There is also a difference in education. First, the French began kindergarten at age 3 until age 6. In Quebec, we are going to kindergarten at age 5 for one year. Then, the French go to elementary school for four years instead of five years as us. Then, the high school lasts four years instead of five. In high school, the French people begin with the sixth, fifth, fourth and finally the third years so there are reversed. School is free in France as us in Quebec from kindergarten to high school. After that they go to «lycée» and we are going to college, it's equivalence to the two countries. We finish both with the university. At college and university, in France, they work per year while we operate with session.

There is no major difference in terms of religion. In France, the majority of the population is Catholic as in Quebec. By cons, the French students do not have religion classes in school because religion is not controlled by the state.

For food, in France, «poutine» and French onions don’t exist. Therefore, they are happy to come to Quebec to taste these specialties. Johan has noticed that the price of cheese and dairy products is more expensive than in France. By cons, seafood and meat is cheaper than in his country. In France, it is forbidden to "boost" the food that at Quebec we have the right to do.

The French and Quebec people are substantially similar to the work and family. The salary is almost the same, the job also. By cons, in Quebec, at your job, you hold more responsibilities than in France. For the family, the French people are a little less close to their families than Quebec people. The Quebec people speak several times a week to their families and the French people much less.

In terms of holidays, in France, there are holidays for the armistice that is to say on November 11 and May 8 that we don’t have in Quebec. The Halloween is not celebrated in France. By cons, he celebrates Christmas and Easter as us. At Christmas, instead of «tourtière», «cipaille» and turkey as in Quebec, the French eat mainly seafood. However, the «bûche de Noel» is as traditional in France and Quebec. In France, at Easter holidays, it's the bells that bring the chocolate, not bunnies. In addition, the tooth fairy does not exist in France, it is replaced by the little mouse but they do the same work. He leaves money or a gift under the pillow instead of the tooth.

In conclusion, France and Quebec have many differences but are very similar. Johan says he like Quebec and is not near to exit it. He has become accustomed to the Quebec language and now speaks like Quebecois but with a French accent or course. Then, he is very pleased that snow is also present in Quebec and the mountains are near towns because in France he had to drive 2 hours to go skiing from his city.

total : 635 words

Be proud of us !!

There is more than a year; the Charest government announced it would increase tuition for university of $ 325 per year. This increase has created a lot of social, economic, moral and political issues. Of course, students do not have this up and decided to show their opposition to the government by causing a strike. First, let me explain a little bit the situations to the rise and strike. Subsequently, I will give my opinion on my experience of this student movement at Rimouski.

To start I'll give a brief summary of positive and negative consequences of this increase. First, the increase in tuition of $ 325 per year would allow the government to pay its debts and more equalized tuition university of Quebec with the other provinces of Canada. Allowing us to have more places for us in universities for Quebec students because tuition is lower in Québec brings students from other provinces to study in our universities and take our places. In addition, any increases around us, whether for food, natural resources, etc., so why not also for tuition. By cons, higher tuition fees will prevent hundreds of students from middle class to higher education for lack of money. This would reduce students in universities. This reduction will have negative consequences for society as the baby boomers will retire and the young people will need to fill the places of these retirees. So we face a big dilemma social and economic. There are probably other ways to allow the government to make money by not reducing accessibility to higher education students from the middle class. By cons, is to find this famous solution that will please everyone and that everyone will not be disadvantaged by this decision.

Now, after several attempts to change the government idea, students are made ​​to opt for the strike. As we are in a country where democracy is in power, we have the right to express our displeasure and react to this decision. The advantages of this movement are to show the government that we do not abandon our debate and we are ready to do everything to retreat from its decision. This strike gives us more chances that the government changes its mind because the strike will cause changes facing the school calendar and hours of leave for teachers. By cons, the strike will bring the students to finish their session only at the end of June. This will prevent some students to find summer employment, and by extension, companies fail to employers for the month of June. More, for students in technical programs, internships could be in danger.

For my part, I was undecided face this student strike. It is difficult to take position because he has no bad or good position and there are repercussions for both. It's not only us students who are affected by this increase, it is also future generations of students, employers, in short, all of Quebec society is affected. I find that at Cégep de Rimouski, we did all in democracy. Every week we voted for or against the strike and the position which obtained the highest number of votes gave the result. So it was just and equitable for everyone. For cons, I'm a little disappointed that some students have shown a great lack of respect for people of any opinion contrary to theirs. I prone that everyone is entitled to choose its position on this debate and others should respect it. Furthermore, all demonstrations and picketing were made ​​in Rimouski done in calm and peaceful manner, which proves that we are serious and we want to change things. More, I think it is our duty to show the government that we do not agree with his decision and we want to negotiate with him. What I found a little bit disappointing is that some students took this student movement as a holiday rather than see it as a way to make things happen. So the majority of students on 1200 students voted for the strike but only 50 people were in front of the CEGEP to stake. Finally, I am proud that the CEGEP de Rimouski is involved in the biggest strike student. This strike will mark Quebec society for many years.

How to survive at the end of session (final blog post)

With the end of session that happens, students are particularly nervous. They think that they won’t have the time to finish what they need to do. They don’t have any time-out and all the teachers put their work at the same time. The students search how they will go though the amount of homework they have. Everybody can see on Facebook or another social media than students are upsets and exhausted by this situation. As students too, I suggest you few advices to successful calm down and go though the tons of work to do.

1-      If you like sports, you can do many activity like swimming, run, basketball , weight because it’s prove that sports eliminates stress and nervousness.  

2-      Do some activity with your friend or boy-friend to change your ideas as seeing a movie, eating in a restaurant, going to bars or something like that. Don’t forget to laugh because it’s a phenomenon that has a positive effect on stress.

3-      The evening before going to bed, take a hot bath to relax and unwind. You can add essential oils live lavender to increase efficiency.  

4-      There are several relaxation techniques as «yoga» to help you to relax, you can check on internet for many propositions.  

5-      Take the time to eat healthy and get enough sleep because they are a big effect on your concentration. Do forget to take a breakfast; it’s the most important meal in a day.  

6-      If your boyfriend or your girlfriend has a talent for massage, you can ask them that you do one to relax and breathe.

7-      For those they smoke, it’s not a good way to reduce your stress; you need to stop for this moment. 

Tying to manage your time and not be too much at the last minute. So plan your day and divide large tasks into smaller ones.

Do not give up we're not the first to go through in it and for many people it is not our first. So take a big breath and then everything will be fine.

What is your best technique to reduce your stress?

Occupy movement (post#4)

Today, I will talk about a specific subject that is popular now in the social media. This subject is ''occupy mouvement''. For people who don’t know what is this international group, it’s many people who protest against social and economic inequality back to government and financial services. This movement started at Kulua Lumpur followed with New-York and San Francisco. And actually, there are more and more group that protest for different things in many countries and cities. In Canada, the first group was ‘’Adbusters’’. The majority of the protesters group uses this political slogan: We are the 99%. All the decison that have been taken by the group follow the democracy and there are appouved by the general assembly of this movement.

I find that it’s a good idea to create a group like this one to protest about different things we don’t agree with but sometimes it’s going too far. I think that everybody can says their opinion and want to do something to change some situations if they do this in appropriate way that is to say don't use violence and don't break something. If you respect that police don't have the right to arrest you because you show that you don't agree with something. There has been many violence actions like lagging road and hitting police man so it's for these reasons that police and government don't accept manifestations and this form of protest. It's true that there are many things in the actually model of democracy that it need to be revised but you need to be realist because there are many things that nobody are able to change. You must consider all the aspects. You must also try to understand why government do that and what is the solutions you have for them before claiming something. Finally, it's a great solution to imporve our society if it's made in a good way.

What is your opinon about occupy movement?

Are you for or against this kind of group?

a hard choice... (post#3)

In four months, all the students who want to go at the university next year, will have a hard choice to make : Where am I going ? AND Which programs would I like to do?

It's not easy make a choice than affect us for our future life and to imagine what we will do for much of our lives.

When we were a child, we start thinking about what you want to do but it's still too early to make a choice. We want to be an astronaut, a firefighter, a teacher, a policeman and a doctor because it's the trades that we see and we found ''cool ''to do. It's always that for every child. I worked with many children and I always ask them about what they want to be and they answer me a profession like those. But there are a lot of professions and programs that we didn't know at this age.
When you're gone to secondary, the variety of business open to us. What makes the choice even more difficult and more pressing. We meet counselors, we make tests to know our personality and trades that go with our personality, we visit the colleges and we did the choice of our college.
In college, the choice is pressing, we have some time to find our future profession. Since I was in school, I saw four conselors and I finally made a choice about my future this session.  I think I spent at least seven career choice before finding it. So, it's great but now I need to choose an university. It's another hard choice because you have to look at what it offers you more and everything. To complicate matters, we can't be allowed wherever we want because many programs are quota and requires a good ranking marks. So, we must start at the begging to find some other things that interest us for a second plan.


I find very bad that when I was young, everybody said to me : ''you can do what you want to do in your life and If you really want it, you can get it. '' But it's not true ! If we didn't have good marks, you can't be a doctor. So, I think it's preferable to say : You can do what you want in the choice you are able to do like with your marks and your intelligence.


In conclusion, it's my day's blahblah. According to me, it's the bigger choice we have to make in our life and it's important to think about that and to make a choice for yourself.


Do you find it's a hard choice?
How many time it took you to find your future profession?

Sugar-free soft drinks are not harmful to health (post#2)

I know this article is not a testing article but I found this subject is very interesting for everyone so I want to talk about that. More it’s an important fact of life that one must be aware of. 

Since the population is more concerned with their health and knows more about the dangers of certain products, food industries benefit greatly by offering thousands of supposedly diets products, that is to say calorie-free. This is the case of diet soft drinks like Pepsi, Cola, Coca-Cola, Coke, 7Up, etc. 

By cons, new products are unhealthy and are not better than regular soft drinks.  Several studies have been conducted to prove problems caused by these products. So don’t believe that «fat-free» and «diet» are synonymous of health.  Of course, the soft drink companies do not speak of these studies, which may affect their image and their profits. They rely instead on advertising to make you forget what you drink.  They showed thin people who drink the product; put a lot of colors, a great atmosphere, all to make you crack.

Many news studies want to prove that artificial sweeteners are bad "interpreted’’ by our brain which causes sugar cravings. So after drinking a can of pop, we want to eat something that contains real sugar. This subsequently increases the problems of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. However, the shelves of grocery stores are filled with varieties of diet. These seemingly "healthy" drinks are full of potentially harmful chemicals and are unfortunately still as popular to the public. The chemicals are artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

 

In conclusion, if you are a heavy drinker of soft drinks, beware of labels and learn about the product you use because it’s very important for your health. It’s better to change your lifestyle than being sick. 

Here is an interesting article about these drinks so-called "sugar free". 

http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2008/04/28/26/is-that-soda-really-sugar-free-test-it-with-tes-tape-before-you-drink/

It’s about a girl who found that diet soft drinks in a restaurant are not really without sugar.  She realized than after have drunk a diet soft drink her blood sugar was high. She talks about her experience and what she did after she found that. This article has been written to educate people about possible situations like this one and to warm against the ads for these products. 

Source :

http://www.caringmedical.com/media_articles/Diet_Soda_Pop_Good_or_Bad.htm

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/diet-soda-may-be-making-you-fat-2504019

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Volume milion lashes mascara ? (post#1)

This article is for girls of course...

The first product I tested is the Volume million lashes mascara of L'Oréal Paris.

He has appeared on the shelves of cosmetics in the summer of 2010.  The producers sell the merits of this mascara because it has a brush spinner-dosing, which aims to release the perfect amount of product and thus avoid packet. 

They created an ad to increase sales of their product. To have a better success and that people relate to their advertisement, they used a celebrity to promote the mascara. So, the ad was produced with Eva Longoria. The audience of this ad is all the girls who looking for a good mascara to add volume and lengthen the eyelashes. The purpose of the ad is to sell its product and illustrate why it is better than others.

I'll let you look at advertising to let you know the function and properties of this mascara if you don't know the characteristics of it. In advertising, they’ll tell you why this product is so great and why we should try it. Then I tell you what I thing of this product.   

I tested it and this is my opinion on this mascara.

I’ll make a list of strengths and weaknesses that I observed. 

Strengths

- Good performance 

- Beautiful appearance 

- Separates the lashes well

- Makes no lumps through edges that blot the brush 

Weaknesses

- Lumps clinging to the tube

- produced little volume

- Expensive 

So if you want mascara that lengthens lashes and separates them, it's for you. By cons, if you want volume, use another one.

For those who have tried it what do you think?