Laurent Gaillard is a French teacher, born in the heart of Paris. In his 43 years of life, he has traveled to many places around the world, where he taught Voltaire’s language to students. In Romania, he arrived after several years in China. When he first stepped into Bucharest, the shock was strong. The transition from the Chinese rigor to the typical relaxation of the Mioritic space scared him a bit.
With time he has adapted to the daily life in the Romanian capital, and today he says that he likes Bucharest. Moreover, he confesses that he loves Obor Square and Dinamo Sports Club. He likes to walk through Herăstrău Park or through the forest near Baneasa Zoological Garden. When it is warm outside he goes to relax in the Văcărești Natural Park.
Even if he does not speak Romanian, he is not too shy to contact people. He tells me, jokingly, that you can understand yourself with anyone “using the hands”. In Bucharest there are many people who know English, so if he cannot communicate in Voltaire’s language, he can easily speak in Shakespeare’s language.
Moreover, he tells me that he frequently goes to the Obor area, where he negotiates with people the purchase of certain old objects. He refers to the fair of antiquities, which we, the Romanians, see as a social “spot”, ignoring the fact that it is part of the charm of the yesteryear Bucharest.
Currently, Laurent lives in the north of the capital and teaches at the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, where he teaches courses for six groups of students. In parallel, he is involved in other activities within the educational institution.
He talks passionately about his profession, explaining in detail the courses he teaches to his students. “I have been teaching French as a foreign language for more than ten years. I worked in universities, in particular, mostly in China. I teach to students enrolled in different courses: foreign languages, economics, engineering or those who are part of certain university programs. I also worked as a substitute teacher, in Shanghai, within the Alliance Française organization,” explains the teacher.
The decision to come to Bucharest had nothing to do with the city or country in which he was going to work. “After ten years in China, I wanted to continue my career in another environment, to evolve my work and to use my professional skills in another country. I did not decide to come to Bucharest for the city, but for the proposed project, which I found interesting and tendering,” says Laurent.
At first glance, he didn’t like Bucharest
The first contact with Bucharest was not a happy one, being disappointed by the image of the neighborhood in which he came to live and which did not look at all like in the magnificent photos he had seen before embarking on this adventure. As he discovered the city, he came to love it, and today he says “it is a very beautiful, very pleasant city, with a varied architecture and sometimes with beautiful buildings and houses. And very important, there are very warm people here. Of course, it is a very culturally rich city”.
He cannot say that he got to make Romanian friends, but the relationships he developed are cordial, proving to him that Bucharest is a city with very friendly people. He sees this when he goes to market, when he goes into a pastry shop, or when he buys old items from people about he tells me are “cool.”
He admits that it took him some time to adjust to the pace of life in Bucharest. The same thing happened with the courses, where he found that the students from Romania “are not exactly like the Chinese students, but they are not that different”.
When he is not teaching his students, Laurent Gaillard visits the museums in Bucharest, which he discovered one by one. He also does a lot of sports. Having the advantage of living near a sports club, he takes advantage and goes frequently to run around the football field or swim in the pool. When the weather allows it, he takes his bicycle and makes long visits through the city, using these moments to discover the beauties of Bucharest. Otherwise, he has an ordinary life. He tells me he likes to stay at home a lot, where he reads, watches movies, listens to music or delights with different video games.
