In this episode of “Here we are – People of Prilep”, I interview Elodie, a French Evs volunteer.
We talked about her country and cultural integration, Macedonia and Europe.
The following lines are only some extracts from the interview, in which you can also listen to three French songs chosen by Elodie (have a look at the bottom)
In France Elodie lives near Nantes, “a very dynamic city, rich of culture and life, but that it’s growing too much”. She thinks that “we French people are too proud of our nation. We have a past of colonization and a lot of people came to our country, and that’s what makes our history and our culture now. We are mixed people, we have people coming from every area of the world. But we don’t care of them, we don’t do enough to integrate them in our nation and in our life”.
Elodie says that “before coming in Macedonia many people asked why I wanted to come in this country. There’s a bad impression of Macedonia in France, but it just comes from the lack of knowledge about it”.
Indeed, she continues, “Macedonian people are very welcoming, when they invite you at their home you feel like part of the family. And they are proud people, not in the negative way I meant for French people. They want to share their culture because they know that they are not well known abroad”.
Finally I asked Elodie what she thinks about Europe: “For me it is like a melting pot – she says – and even until now it’s not working a lot, hopefully we’ll find a way to work all together and help each other. My French nationality is like natural, but I want to give more importance to my European identity”.