Today I'm going to talk about spaces and exchanges.
A space can be defined as an area provided for a particular purpose.
Exchange is the act of giving and recieving in substitution for something else.
Exchanges can take many forms : exchanges between people, for trade, exchange of information...Nowadays, exchanges have increased a lot.
What does today's globalization provides to space and exchanges ?
First, I'm going to talk about exchange through the New Technologies of Information and Comunication.
Then, I'll talk about the exchange in the field of transport and travelling.
In class, we've studied Couch Surfing.
It's a website with which you can visit other countries, make friends all over the world, improve your language skills...
Social networks can be the source of a lot of exchanges too ; for example, in Second Life, you can visit virtual spaces, fictional cities, but at the same time speak with real people.
We can also talk about Facebook, which allows you talk to your friends when you're abroad, or to keep in touch with people you haven't seen for a long time.
But we have to be careful about these networks because we can become addicted and destroy our relations in reality.
In the same way, virtual schools can destroy bonds between children and take them away from the comunity.
They can be useful but they can also drag you in a virtual world and makes you lose the sense of reality.
Exchange also are greatly developing through the tourism industry and travelling.
Student exchange provides you more independance, new experiences.
It can make vanish your stereotypes about a country, and you can learn plenty of things about other cultures.
But you can be scared of not understanding the language, or not being able to speak correctly and say what you want, which is the language barrier.
You can also meet dangerous people when you're alone in a country that you don't know.
Finally, you can miss your family and friends.
In the exchanges, we can also count the migratory flows.
These flows concern poor people going to rich countries to find a job, or to run away from a country in a dangerous political situation.
Of course, some people migrate for personal reasons too, like for love or a special interest in the country.
In conclusion, due to the new tecnologies, we can comunicate through real or fictional spaces, as long as we don't get adicted.
There are different ways to travel through websites or studying abroad.
Spaces and exchanges allows the interaction between men and societies.
It gives us the power to explore geographical and symbolic areas.