Je remarque que nos définitions du bon co-locataire se rejoignent.

Cependant, il est apparut à la lecture des réponse du côté MIT que vous semblez définir la collocation comme une chambre seule pour deux personnes alors que pour nous, cela fait plutôt référence à un appartement avec au minimum une chambre par personne et une pièce commune.

Pourriez-vous nous renseigner sur votre définition de la co-location ?

Bonjour tout le monde,

Sur ce sujet, je peux constater que nos idées convergent pour la plupart. Néanmoins, nous sommes les seuls à parler de taches ménagères, c'est pourquoi je rejoins Eric lorsqu'il dit que vous voyez la co-location comme une seule pièce commune. Nous, en plus des chambres, nous avons une salle commune dans laquelle nous devons faire le mènage, nous mangons et nous devons faire la vaisselle.

Est-ce que beaucoup d'entre vous vivent ou ont vécu en co-location ?

Eric was right that when we talk about "roommates", we mean two or three people sharing the same room. I guess the word "roommate" in English and "co-locataire" in French might not exactly have the same meaning. 

At MIT dorms, most freshmen live in doubles or sometimes triples. Only a few get into singles their first year. Upperclassmen have priority to choose whether they want a single or not. So I guess most MIT students living on campus have shared a room with a roommate or roommates for at least one school year. 

I live in a single this year, so I have no roommate. In my dorm building, the bathrooms and kitchens are shared by half of the people who live on the floor (so that's about 10 people). We have a maintenance staff who cleans the shared facililties for us. In another dorm building, the bathrooms are shared by about 4 people, but those 4 people have to clean the bathrooms themselves. I guess those people would care about sharing the cleaning responsibilities more than I do in my dorm.

Does your school provide living accomodations for everyone, or do people have to provide their own housing?

Because I've noticed that many of the French responses are specific to things like being clean and does the dishes.  Are most of you friends with your roomates, or are things strictly business?

I also live in a dorm.  I have had a single since freshman year. I share the bathrooms and kitchen with 8 other girls on my floor. I like the fact that I don't have to clean my own bathroom and kitchen so I don't mind sharing. 

Are the living accomodations at ENSAM close to your classes?

After having studied abroad in Copenhagen for a semester, I've noticed that many European students become friends / acquaintances with their roommates only after they've moved in (or not become friends) -- whereas most of my American friends often room together with people that they have known for some time (from school, work, summer, etc.)

Is it important for you to live with people that you know well?

In general, do French students place a lower priority on living with their close friends?  

How do French students view the concept of a living in a dormitory (as in many American universities)?

Stéphane,

There are a lot of different housing situations at MIT. In some areas, I think it would be exactly what you call "co-locataire," where several people each have their own room, but they share a kitchen and living room. We would call those people "suite mates" though. The word "roommate" to college age Americans means that you have one bedroom that you share with one or more other people. 

Most MIT students live in the dorms on campus. Dorms have different cultures. And usually the students living in the dorm can decide what new students to move in. In my dorm, East Campus, we share bathrooms, lounges and a kitchen on my floor. Every morning, someone will come to vaccume and clean the common area for us. But we sometimes take turns to do dishes and clean up the fridge. A rough guess of the number of people on my floor would be around 40. And of course, I don't call them my roommates, but we know each other very well.

I think the problem rooming with any person is that we usually have very different schedules. Some people like working late, and I don't. With my last roommate, it happened a lot that I just woke up, but she was going to bed. There's much more freedom to live in a single. E.g. I don't need to clean up my space too regularly.

Can the students living in the appartement pick who they want to move in?

A l'ENSAM, nous pouvons choisir d'être en co-location ou non et nous choisissons aussi les personnes avec lesquelles nous voulons être. C'est pourquoi, nos co-locataires sont aussi des amis. En première année, lorsque nous arrivons à l'école, nous ne connaissons pas forcément beaucoup de monde, on peut donc choisir d'être en co-location sans savoir avec qui nous allons être. Mais nos co-locataires deviennent souvent des amis.

Pour la distance c'est vraiment pratique puisque notre résidence est en prolongement de notre école. Nous sommes donc à 2min de nos salles de cours. Il y a même des racourcis à certains étages de la résidence qui permettent d'accéder directement dans l'école.

Pour la maintenance de la résidence il y a des femmes de ménages qui passent dans les couloirs. Sinon c'est à nous de tout gérer, y compris les toilettes communes pour ceux qui en ont. Nous avons également un groupe d'étudiants appelé les "Aff'ss Intern'ss" qui s'occupent de gérer la résidence, le lien avec l'administration, la distribution des appartements et tous les problèmes qu'il peut y avoir.