IENA 2015

LV1 ANGLAIS

How not to treat Brand Britain

The campus of the Department of Management Studies (DMS) is a vision of India’s future disguised as the past. Shoeless gardeners sprawl on dusty grass or haul ancient mowers. Yet the business school, a faculty of the elite Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, is one of India’s best and its students among India’s — which means the world’s — brightest and most driven.
Oxford and Cambridge accept one in five of their applicants. The DMS interviews 3,000 candidates for 65 places. AU computer aces — the school specialises in data analytics — its students are typically in their mid-twenties and have spent a couple of years with a top Indian technology company. After their MBA, they go on to global IT or Consulting firms, such as Accenture or KPMG. They are the sort of high-flying Indians who helped build Silicon Valley, are remaking India’s global image and whom David Cameron yearns to impress. Wooing the new India is “at the top of the priorities of the UK’s foreign policy,” the prime minister told his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on November 16th. The DMS is therefore a good place from which to gauge his progress.
A group of students gathered to enlighten your columnist after hearing a pitch from an American analytics firm. […] All the students wanted to work abroad, where “the levels of innovations are much higher than in India.” Two-thirds wanted to work in America, and a third in Europe, which generally meant Britain. Of 34 students, 21 had a “strongly positive” impression of Britain and nine a “positive” one. […] This sunny view was not mainly for professional reasons; asked how they felt about Britain as a place to study and work, only one felt “strongly positive” and 14 “positive”. Their regard was mainly cultural: “I’m not an extrovert,” said Konark, who had visited both countries, “so I prefer British manners to American ones.”
None of the students was interested in India’s colonial past, but many liked the shared inheritance it had left: “Our political system and institutions are from Britain,” said Rahul. Just as Britons often overestimate how well they understand India because of this, so the students had one or two odd notions. “Traditionally, Irish and Scots like India but the English and Welsh don’t,” said Abhishek confidently. Yet the advantage Britain enjoys from its far-flung culture was more obvious. It was the country most of the students most wanted to visit on holiday — to see Stonehenge, Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, and Lord’s Cricket Ground. […]
Yet there was a cloud on their western horizon, in the form of Mr Cameron’s immigration policy. As Britain’s visa regime has tightened on his watch, the number of Indians studying in British universities has more than halved. Rahul was offered a place by the London School of Economics, but denied a visa to take it up—“because they didn’t think I would leave, even though I go to one of the best business schools in India,” he said crossly. Most said Britain was still accessible for study but, because foreign students must find employment within a month of graduating, hard to work in. “Study abroad is a long-term thing for us because we need to work to pay off the debt,” Utsav complained. “So people are less interested in going to the UK,” said Pavan. Half the students had a more negative view of Britain because of this. Only three realised Mr Cameron wanted to improve British-Indian ties, and one assumed that meant “trying to sell us jet fighters”.
Senior Tories acknowledge the problem. When Mr Cameron, in opposition, pledged to bring annual net migration below 100,000, Britain’s net immigration from EU countries, which it cannot control, was around 60,000. Because of the euro crisis, it has soared, to around 130,000 immigrants this year, forcing the Tories to squeeze non-EU immigration in a failing effort to keep their pledge. This is self-defeating. On his first visit as prime minister, Mr Cameron dared to imagine a new “special relationship” with India; on two later trips he was barracked over visas.
Viewed generously, his recent pledge to curtail EU freedom of movement is an effort to fix this. “If we have fewer low-skilled Europeans we’ll have more high-skilled Indians,” says a Tory minister. But that is not straightforward. With other European governments primed to slam Mr Cameron’s proposals, which he promises to unveil shortly, it risks leading Britain out of the EU.

The Economist, Nov 22nd 2014

I. VERSION (sur 20 points)

Traduire à partir de : “Senior Tories” … jusqu’à “… leading Britain out of the EU. ” (lignes 33-41)

II QUESTIONS (sur 40 points)

1. Question de compréhension du texte :

Explain what the following sentence means:
“None of the students was interested in India’s colonial past, but many liked the shared inheritance it had left.” ( ligne 19)
(100 mots + ou-10%* ; sur 10points)

2. Question de compréhension du texte :

Explain what the following sentence means:
“As Britain’s visa regime has tightened on his watch, the number of Indians studying in British universities has more than halved.” (lignes 25-26)
(100 mots + ou – 10% * ; sur 10 points)

3. Question d’expression personnelle :

To what extent does a country’s reputation have an impact on its economy?
(300 mots + ou-10%*; sur 20 points)
*Le non-respect de ces normes sera sanctionné. Indiquer le nombre de mots utilisés.

III. THEME (sur 20 points)
(traduire le titre)

Ashford, terre d’élection pour les jeunes Français

Depuis sept ans, deux fois par jour, Fabien Henissart change de pays, traverse la mer et décale sa montre d’une heure, dans un sens puis dans l’autre. « Question d’habitude », sourit ce Boulonnais de 40 ans. Chaque matin, il saute dans sa voiture, prend quelques collègues au passage et file vers le tunnel sous la Manche. Ensemble, ils empruntent le Shuttle et, trente-cinq minutes plus tard, rejoignent Ashford, première ville britannique à la sortie du tunnel. C’est là que se trouve SBE-UK, la société d’électronique qui les emploie. « Porte à porte, c’est une heure trente de trajet : pas plus que si je devais me rendre à mon travail en région parisienne », assure Fabien, responsable technique. S’il gagne une heure à l’aller, il en perd une au retour, et rentre rarement chez lui avant 20 heures. Mais pour rien au monde il ne changerait de vie.

Le Monde, 28 août 2014