Chapter Two: Watching a movie.. [3/3]

Are there clashes and tensions of values?

Xavier, Isabelle and their friends don’t understand a word when the class is in Catalan. Isabelle is tasked with telling the teacher for teaching the class in Castilian. However, he doesn’t accept because most of the students are Catalan. When Isabelle talks about fifteen Erasmus students who don’t know Catalan, the teacher talks about Catalan which is official language and he says if they wanted to speak Spanish, they could go to Madrid or South America.

When Wendy’s brother William comes to visit his sister, he starts making jokes about the countries, although he hasn’t been there in the first place. He starts to make people angry with telling stupid clichés about countries.

Clashes and tensions of people?

Xavier’s father wants him to do a job ,but he doesn’t really want. His father helps him to get a job which has something to do with the Spanish economy. So if Xavier studies Spanish economics, his father will find him a job. However, in order to find the job, Xavier has to speak Spanish well and has to know the Spanish market. However, Xavier doesn’t speak Spanish very well. He decides to go to Spain for a year although he doesn’t know what he wants to do really and he isn’t sure at first. When he thinks again he decides to go because of getting out of his situation.

Xavier decides to go to Spain in order to find himself. Also, he is distressed because of the works for joining Erasmus program. He thinks about the world as such a mess because everything is complicated and out of whack and he thinks the fields with cows and chickens which were in the past and according to Xavier everything was much simplier in the past. He compares today and past. Therefore, he has a lot of clashes in his brain and he wants to find himself.

Xavier’s mother makes Xavier angry about going to Spain because she asks him if it is good idea. Because she thinks that this is the idea of Xavier’s father and Xavier doesn’t want to go, but Xavier gets angry because - according to Xavier - it is his own idea.

When Xavier goes to interview to get a room in a shared flat, Tobias asks him some questions and one of them is about the plan of his life in the next five years. This question caused clashes among the flatmates. For example, Wendy doesn’t know what her life will look like in five years and according to Wendy this question is rubbish and ridiculous. However, Tobias defends his questions.
Although William meets with two Spanish people, because of his comments about Spanish people, Isabelle gets angry with him. When Tobias studies to his exams, William comes his room and starts disturb him with speaking about Adolf Hitler and something unnecessary.After these situations Wendy gets angry with his brother and warns him because of his behaviours.

Martine breaks up with Xavier after he has been in Barcelona for several months already. Then Xavier goes to

France to talk to Martine. They start to discuss. According to Martine, Xavier never loved her, he is incapable of loving someone and always cares about his studies, career and the job at the ministry. Therefore, they broke up with some clashes. When he returns to Spain, he goes to the airport with his mother. She asks him why he comes back only for one day and if he is not happy with her. So he gets really angry, because he doesn’t want to talk about it.

After Anna – the former girlfriend of Lars - comes and Lars learns that he has a baby, Soledad gets very angry with Lars because of his cool attitude. According to Soledad, Lars has to do something like scream, cry, smash something, he mustn’t just sit like nothing happend because he is a father and has a baby.

Wendy and Xavier debate because of Wendy’s American boyfriend. According to Xavier, he is a stupid boy. Wendy accepts that he is stupid ,but she’s attracted by him allthesame. When they meet with the American boy, he playes the guitar, they sing and Wendy loves that. However, that is very ridiculous for Xavier because the name of the song is “No woman, no cry”. When Xavier asks about her other boyfriend, Wendy gets angry very much.

Jean-Michel gets to know about Xavier’s relationship with Anne-Sophie and that they have an affair together. So he talks to Xavier and wants to stop him seeing his wife. Jean-Michel gets angry with Xavier.
At the end , when Xavier starts his new job, people seem to be completely opposite than from what he wants. People seem to be really straight, boring and do the same things everyday. He is confused, runs away and starts a career as a writer...

What is the message of the film from the perspective of cultural and intercultural learning?

The group decided, that we don’t give one answer to this question, but everyone is giving his own answer, as everyone sees those things a bit differently.

[Cyril]

“The Spanish Apartment” is a great film. I saw that one about 7 years ago in cinema already, and also the sequel to it. The film shows in a great way, how an exchange semester can be. I’m pretty much feeling in a similar way as Xavier. When I arrived here, I was sad and a bit homesick, but just after a few weeks I met some great people, with which I hope to stay in contact even after this semester! The film indicates, how easy it can be for people from different cultures and countries to live together, as long as they adapt to the others. “The Spanish Apartment” also shows that you can learn much from people from other countries. Xavier finished his exchange year and he hasn’t just made new friends, but got to know himself. He found out, who he is. That is one of the most important things in life. That might happen to some of the exchange students here in Kokkola as well…

[Helena]

ERASMUS is like a password, nearly a keyword that means a lot. In the film, an Erasmus is a foreign student but it usually also means that it is an open minded and partying foreign student.

This film is about finding your way, finding out who you are. It tells the story of a lost guy who is not himself, people have put expectations upon him (his father wanted him to study economics; his mother was contradicting him all the time). He had lost his dreams of sight, his wishes and desires. Being alone in a foreign country allowed him to find himself back and nearly start again from scrap. It’s a film about growing up; about becoming responsible and knowing what you want.

As Xavier said when you leave: you know what you are leaving behind but what will you find back when you come back? I think we can relate to this film. We can wonder what we are going to be after these next months. According to Xavier, people we meet all along our lives become part of us, as we learn from them, we are also what we used to be (that is why we shouldn’t forget our childhood dreams for instance). In that case, we should be very rich ‘on the inside’ after this semester thanks to all the different people we are meeting.

[Liu]

I think this film is very funny, and I can feel some new things. Some of us always think of themselves as very nice, and they only see the others faults. They ignore some other things. But this film describes a new world, where no racial discrimination exists and everybody lives in peaceful coexistence. It is a modern world. But also, someone who leaves his own home to study abroad needs to learn different cultures and changes some of the original habits. Then they will have many different friends, they help each others. Finally, they will come back to their home country; they will feel that they changed a lot. In my opinion, in these changes, maybe we will get a lot of things, and also loose and miss something. But this is an actuality, we must accept it. In a word, I think it is a nice environment; everyone is friendly and helps the others. This is a funny film.

[Mali]

People from different countries sometimes can behave differently because of different cultural backgrounds, but if people respect the cultural and social values of their friends and accept the others with their own culture, they can make good friends and miss the days which they spent with Erasmus.