by Fr. Pierre de Charentenay, SJ

X

UNIVERSITY EXCHANgES BETwEEN FRANCE AND THE PHILIPPINES

by Fr. Pierre de Charentenay, SJ Former Loyola Chair at Ateneo de Manila, now living in Marseilles, France

International exchanges consist of many different characteristics: it is primarily diplomatic, studying and elaborating new relations between countries, alliances and agreements. It is also economic, in order to facilitate new developments and assure the well-being of the nation in its external exchanges. But we often forget the cultural dimension of diplomacy. It is a long-term, less visible action, but in the long run, it is very important, because it creates the requisite environment for economy and diplomacy to promote new relationships. Since it is not directly and immediately useful for the exercise of power, it is often not a priority. In times of budget reductions, cultural diplomacy suffers the deepest cuts, but it would be a big mistake to do so since it is often the way of renewal and creativity in relations between countries.

Relations between the Philippines and France include these three dimensions. Although there is a great distance between the two countries located in two different continents and separated by diverse histories and cultures, it is interesting to note how the cultural relations between the Philippines and France has been sustained through university exchanges. This demands a knowledge of the language of Molière for the Filipino who goes to Paris or Lille. Some students usually balk at learning another language, but then they quickly realize how language enriches and facilitates the entrance into a different culture. A whole new world of understanding opens up to them.

The purpose has clearly been to offer an alternative to the almost exclusive connection of the Philippines with the Anglophone world and especially, the American universities. It is easier to go back and forth to the US because of the similarity of language, but the connection with France opens up a completely new cultural and intellectual world, that of continental Europe. It has not been organised against universities of America, but with the idea to

introduce an alternative. The purpose was to offer the possibility of studying in another intellectual framework—the French intellectual tradition—a different sense of rationality, a great heritage of intellectual knowledge. The relation to the individual, to history, to theoretical points of views are different. The insistence on reason and rationality sets aside a whole way of feelings and pragmatism. The pedagogical way of learning is also diverse, less pragmatic, more theoretical. Sociological studies will be less quantitative, and more qualitative, sometimes even philosophical. The ethic of truth does not follow the same path. The variety of schools of thought do not correspond to each other exactly, but that creates a new opening for discovery, of intellectual understanding of human relations.

The experience of sharing the joy of another culture gives new light to the student about his own way of living, his own values which he thought were universal but are, in fact, particular—linked to Philippine history and culture. He is able to know oneself and his own country better. So, the university exchanges, for instance, from Ateneo de Manila to the Catholic University of Lille or to Sciences Po in Paris, mean more than just learning a language. It gives the opportunity to enter into an intercultural dialogue which will allow new relationships with another nation. It opens oneself to a larger understanding of the world and his own country.