What's yourcountry?

4 short TV shows for children from the 1980s

In the late 1970s, Frédéric Térence, a young French teacher, taught FLE (French as a Foreign Language) to a class of "non-French-speaking" students at a secondary school in Paris. He already had in mind the idea of introducing people to his students' cultures and encouraging exchange and interaction with the school community.

Let's continue in the first person.

I first proposed a PAE (Educational Action Project) called "Opening Up to the Cultures of the World," which was approved by the local education authority. I then imagined taking a similar approach for all the children in France who watched television on Wednesday afternoons, and I came up with the idea for a programme that could be included in children's television schedules. The challenge was to convince the Youth Programmes Unit of one of the public-service television channels. It was far from an easy task, but I succeeded.

It was quite a struggle, but a very interesting one—far too long a story to tell here. The result: I managed to produce four short seven-minute segments, four intercultural sketches under the generic title "What is your Country?"

The series was intended to continue as a co-production with Belgium and Quebec—I had established some promising contacts—but the fickleness of the television world meant that it ended there.

Nevertheless, thousands of children, now adults, were able to watch these short programmes, which were broadcast on Antenne 2 and later rebroadcast on TV5 Monde.

Below is the introductory and presentation text for each of these programmes, which have been anonymized, as have all the personal details on this website.

"What's Your Country?" — Principle

A child meets another child. He asks him about his country and off they go on a journey of discovery.

The word "country" covers a whole set of realities that belong both to lived experience and to the imagination. Here we should rather speak of an "inner country."

The dialogue unfolds in a cheerful, playful tone full of humour. The sequences explore various aspects of the cultures of origin in a childlike register. Documents (pictures of the countries, works of art, children's drawings) richly illustrate the subject.

"What's Your Country?" is therefore the somewhat blunt question through which one child asks another about their differences. The answer does not claim to satisfy the child's curiosity. Instead, it aims to encourage them to continue exploring, to seek answers, and to understand.

In seven minutes, a Japanese, Moroccan, Tibetan, or Chinese child answers this question by inviting us on a journey of discovery. He appears in the next episode, interviewing his friend from the other side of the world.

In this wide-ranging game of discovery that has now begun, the process will not be one-sided: it is Nicolas, a young Parisian, who introduces us to Gakou's Japan, while Gakou, the young Japanese boy, takes us to Morocco to meet Ahmed and Kamel. These are small worlds that come into contact and connect with one another. The approach to difference can also be communicative.

JAPAN:

Nicolas, a twelve-year-old Parisian boy, introduces us to his friend Gakou. Gakou tells us about the Boys' Festival in Japan, with the flying fish, explains how Japanese is written, gives us a demonstration of kendo, makes an origami creation, and takes us to visit his grandmother in the suburbs of Tokyo.

MOROCCO:

Ahmed and Kamel explain to Gakou what it means to be Muslim. Together, they visit a mosque. Then they explore Marrakech, and Gakou is invited to share a delicious tagine with prunes—a meal that is so good, they will be licking their fingers.

TIBET:

Today, Kamel takes us on a very long journey to a distant and mysterious land. In Tibet, the Yeti does not exist, Rigzin tells us, but Shinge is a frightening god. He is the god of death, holding the Wheel of Life between his jaws and in his claws.

CHINA:

Xiang and Hui are two young girls from Beijing. They take us on a journey of discovery through their vast country: the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and a visit to the opera. Was the abacus used to count the warriors of Xi'an? Can you write in calligraphy: "The panda eats bamboo."?