This is a curse need to be ended.

I almost wipe Facebook off my laptop screen as I prepared to retire to bed. Out of the blue, as I was just about to sign out, one of my junior in France said hi. He is one of my close friend here. It was 12am, last Thursday night. The following Friday I got 2 labs session from 8am to 630pm.

He talked about wanting to get out of his Engineering School, even if he need to extend his already fucking long stay in this land of failure. He said that he simply can't take it anymore, it is too challenging, and he is no longer up for those challenges.

Just before this term began, he already talked about this with the company who takes care of us in France, just call it 'The S'. Since our sponsor don't speak French and to make things easier for them, they hire The S to do all that need to be done like being our guarantor for house renting and handling our placement in the universities, to name a few of their tasks.

What did they discussed? My mate asked to get his big fat ass out of that school and doing Diploma instead of it. Well fyi, he is doing a 5 year master-equivalent program at that school. Since he had done quite well in his the year before, The S reluctant to let his ass out.

So my lovely mate told me that as he said he had enough, so he really means it, he had it fuckingly enough. Gave up, this bloke decided to fix his results according to the rules and regulations that can end him up out of there. In other words, erm I don't have the courage to finish this line, I'm pretty sure you know what I mean here.

I hope that he'll find the best solution, at least no need to extend that 7-year stay. Knowing the French 'Grande Ecole' system quite well, I understand his situation.

I might not happen to be in that killer system, but I can feel the burden he's carrying. Struggling while being in a what can we say as an 'easier' system, so I can assume how difficult and challenging it is of being is his shoe.

Again for the n-th time, let me give a brief explanation of how to be an engineer à la française, the French way.

Just like the United Kingdom where students need to pass the A-Level in order to enter a university, France do have their very own Baccalauréat. 'Bak-ka-lo-ghey-ya' or 'bak-ka-lo-yat'. Since we only passed SPM (o-level) in our homeland, we Malaysian future engineer in France need to do a 2 years (now 1 year) preparation program, a baccalauréat-equivalence before being able to suffer in the universities.

Once it is passed, then we have quite a few options of systems to follow in order to be an ingénieur, pronounce it an'-jhay-ni-yegh ;

1. Entering an Engineering School (école d'ingénieur) where we will undergo a 5-year program, in other word it's like doing master directly, no Diploma or Bachelor' degree obtained.

In some school, you need to undergo a general engineering program during the 1st two years before specialization in the following 3 years. That 2 year general program might be done in the same school or another school, depends on the program.

2. Doing a diploma for 2 years in a Technology Institute before entering the Engineering school to undergo that 3-year master-equivalence program ;

or add another year in a classic university after that 2-year diploma to obtain a Bachelor' Degree before then suffering for 2 years to get a Master's degree.

You might enter the Engineering School after degree as well, but to do so, normally you need to enter the 3rd year, not the 4th year so you will need to extend you student adventure for another year.

Ada paham?

Between these options, there are no easy option. There is only a less difficult option, of course the diploma-degree-master, the 1 that I am doing.

Which ever option you choose, the 1st two years after the pre-U (A-level/Baccalaureat) is always heavily packed with class, usually around 35-40 hours per week.

For that guy, not only he has such a hectic weekly schedule, he has class on Saturdays as well. On top of that, it is very hard to pass, yes I said to pass, yet to excel there. Sounds mouth watering enough isn't it? Almost everyday need to be in school from 8am to 6pm, then they rob your Saturdays (745-1245) as well. Plus it is not an easy program!

Please, stop labeling students who extend or repeat their study year in France as a stupid bloke. It is simply not that easy to pass here.

Guess what my friends, there are 33 students (including arwah sorang) in my batch (same Malaysian program). Right now, there are 8 students that need to extend their stay in France. Almost 25% of us. We are the 7th batch. The youngest batch is the 11th.

For the 1st batch, only 6 students managed to grad on time, out of 21 students. (sadly we have no fucking graduation ceremony like you all have in Malaysia, the USA or in the UK to name a few, regardless our struggle).

There are already at least 4 extenders from the batch after me, just the same as my batch at the same moment.

How about you, in your place, what is the percentage of extender because of this so called 'failure'? So you know how difficult this thing is. I might end up like that, Na'uzubillah.

My junior told me he cannot hang on anymore, he suffers too much there. We chat for about an hour, than around 1 o'clock I forced myself to retire to bed. But after 30 mins trying to fall asleep, I still didn't manage to sleep. That conversation makes me think too much, I am simply afraid of this failure curse.

Lit up one, I read a Grisham' book trying to get rid of that thought. Finally I manage to sleep shortly after 2.

If I manage to finish my studies on time, i.e no extension, I'll treat those who leave a comment here (this entry) roti canai and teh tarik at an assigned time, so if you absent on that particular day, it is burnt! Hua hua hua. ;p