mondaiji

For this project I had the chance and the opportunity to interview my friend Joyce who is a 15 years old amazing girl. She likes to be called Jo if it is by some of her close friends. I met her through a friend of mine at a party we were both attending. It took place in Paris, 18th arrondissement and we instlantly matched since we talked for the whole night this day. To this day we're still talking and meeting whenever she comes to France to visit.
 
Joyce lives in London and was born there but she is Ivorian and White. So, she is basically mixed. She understands french but can not speak it... actually, she can but only a few words. She also speaks Dioula which is a dialect from Ivory Coast in West Africa, and she speaks it fluently which is surprising since it is a hard language.
Joyce often comes to Paris because she enjoys it a lot and she has a lot of friends here (including me and friends we have in common). Since she is a minor, she always travel to France with her brother whose name is Wilfried. He lets her do anything she wants because he trusts her and obviously, they get along very well.
In London, she goes to school but her main interest is music. She made quite a lot of songs and she goes by the stage name « flowerovlove ». She also plays a lot of instruments such as piano, violin and guitar. She's overall very passionate about what she is doing and she wants to make a living out of music in the future.
Joyce is a very cheerful person who represent the London youth so when she comes to Paris, she feels the difference with people's attitude and personnalities. According to her, french people are arrogant (not all of us but many) and not out-going whereas in London where she lives being outgoing is literally a cultural thing to be. Apart from that she really enjoys France and always want to come back, especially for the baguettes and the croissants.

Joyce's significant place is a park in Greenwich which is near her house. It is significant because she gets a lot of memories from it. A lot of nostalgia comes from there. Moreover, that is the park she walks in to get to her brother's place and everytime she walks by the park, she feels safe and happy.
There are a lot of flowers at the Park which is something really important and deep to her, plus they are beautiful so it adds something to it. And, whenever she gets the chance she just goes and takes pictures with the flowers to immortalize these moments.
She loves to be in the park whenever the sun is about to set too, because that's a « beautiful perspective » to watch. Joyce feels really comfortable and great whenever she can get a look into the park.
Moreover, Joyce feels like she's always been in this park even though she has not known it forever. It is like she has a connection with it because she feels so comfortable, she feels like she always belonged in this park.
Any friend of Joyce has seen this park because that is the only location she introduces someone with.

I chose Japan as my significant place because it's a country I want to go to. I'm really attracted to its energy and its culture. According to documentaries or interviews I have seen, it is a country with a lot of rules and standards. They have this big attachment to respect and traditions, moreover it is a very active country with a lot of activity and energy. It also has a countryside where you can go and be completely emerged by and in the culture.
Japan is very important to me because that is basically where all my childhood's interests are located in and I also want to do my internship there at the end of the year.
I am looking forward to go there and learn a lot of things. I honestly will take this experience as a situation to meet people and overall, just to evolve.
Somewhat, I know that Japan is not that perfect and has a lot of incidents, plus it's a really misogynistic country. Furthermore if you look closely on documentaries or interviews of foreign people there, you notice that people do not smile that much.. actually they look like robots.