ERASMUS CHANGING LIVES OPENING MINDS fOR 25 YEARS

Matthieu
Cisowski
‘I mixed with people that I’d never have met otherwise’
Home institution:
Paris IV Sorbonne University, France
Host institution:
Bremen University, Germany
Field of study:
Philosophy
Duration:
10 months (2000)
Frenchman Matthieu Cisowski was studying at the Sorbonne and wanted to
learn a foreign language as well as live in a new and unknown environment.
‘I was interested in the personal dimension as well as exploring a new approach
to philosophy.’
His trip to Bremen in Germany lasted a full academic year and exceeded his
expectations – ‘by 130 %’ – as well as giving him professional-level German.
‘I lived the reality of Europe. I discovered that what we have in common is greater
than what divides us.’
The teaching in Bremen was less formal than at the Sorbonne and academic
staff were more accessible. He appreciated the difference, but says it did feel
‘more like a “café philosophique” than a lecture’. Ultimately, what he found
most rewarding was meeting a wide variety of acquaintances. ‘There is a real
Erasmus community, and you have this one thing in common. I mixed with people
that I’d never have met otherwise.’ The experience prompted him to take
a further exchange two years later while working on his doctorate, this time to
Bergen University in Norway for three months. It confirmed his memory of
Erasmus as ‘happy; professionally fulfilling; and personally enriching’.
Now working in Luxembourg as the Human Resources Manager for a multinational
industrial group, he says it is thanks to his Erasmus exchanges that he
feels so at ease in an international environment. ‘It taught me that I was adaptable,
and made me more open-minded and tolerant. I grew more confident in
myself and learned to take greater responsibility.’
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