French Exchange Student Essay

Grace Leung

1/4/11

France Reflection

          My name is Grace Leung and I am a foreign exchange student from the United States. I am going on my third month in a French, small private all-girls school in Paris. There are many differences between the U.S and France, starting with the income of the average French worker to the American. The difference in GDP is huge, France’s GDP is 32,800 and the United States is 46,400 dollars. After this discovery I realized how lucky I was to have lived in the U.S. Another discovery that made me very thankful, being a high school student and going to college wanting a job after that, was the rate of unemployment chances were higher in France. The percent for chances in unemployment in France is 9.70%, while the U.S is 9.30%. The oil use in France is much lower than the U.S making it consume 50.68% less. This is a huge surprise since the U.S’ pollution rates are around the same amount as France. There is a 33.33% less chance of getting AIDS or HIV in France and in France they live 2 years longer than the citizens in the U.S. Also in France it is less populated, because there are 10.12% fewer babies.The many differences between these two countries made me realize how the world can truly be a different place.