{"id":306,"date":"2010-04-12T22:08:06","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T02:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=306"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:36:13","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T09:36:13","slug":"what-is-an-enarque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/what-is-an-enarque\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an “\u00c9narque”? (1\u00e8re partie)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is no big secret that many countries in the world\u00a0hold un st\u00e9r\u00e9otype <\/em>(a stereotype)\u00a0of the French people as being often\u00a0“arrogant” or borderline “cocky”\u00a0in general. Now, imagine\u00a0a group of people\u00a0that the French themselves\u00a0mostly describe\u00a0as\u00a0overly\u00a0suffisant<\/em> and pr\u00e9tentieux <\/em>(pretentious) amongst them…<\/p>\n

These are known in France as\u00a0“les \u00e9narques<\/strong>.” <\/em>As you may have noticed from\u00a0earlier posts, the French are very\u00a0friands<\/em> (fond) of the jeux de mots <\/em>(puns, or play on words.) In this case, the word \u00e9narque<\/em> is a calembour <\/em>(wordplay), formed from the merging of the\u00a0acronym \u00c9.N.A<\/em>. and the word monarque <\/em>(monarch.)<\/p>\n

And what\u00a0is the \u00c9NA<\/em>, au juste <\/em>(precisely)? It is known as L’\u00c9cole Nationale d’Administration<\/strong><\/em>, one of the Grandes \u00c9coles <\/em>in France. A Grande \u00c9cole<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0the French\u00a0equivalent of\u00a0a prestigious\u00a0Ivy-League university\u00a0in the United States,\u00a0such as\u00a0Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, or\u00a0a university member of the Russel Group in the UK, which includes\u00a0the Universities of Cambridge and\u00a0Oxford.<\/p>\n

Therefore, an \u00e9narque <\/em>is a dipl\u00f4m\u00e9<\/em> (graduate) of the \u00c9NA<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You’d be surprised to find out that, contrary to what it may be suggested from its\u00a0name, the\u00a0\u00c9NA<\/em> (literally the\u00a0“National School of Administration”)\u00a0does not offer MBA programs (Master of Business Administration.)\u00a0 Instead, it is essentially\u00a0une machine de fabrication\u00a0<\/em>of the\u00a0French \u00e9lite<\/em>,\u00a0for the most part\u00a0those who are destined to become fonctionnaires publiques<\/strong><\/em> (members of\u00a0the French Civil Service), the most prestigious of which are the Conseil d’\u00c9tat <\/em>(Council of State), the Cour des Comptes <\/em>(The Court of Audit), and the Inspection G\u00e9n\u00e9rale des Finances<\/em>, all three being quasi-monopolies of the \u00e9narques.<\/em><\/p>\n

Getting into the\u00a0\u00c9NA<\/em> is\u00a0akin to taking on\u00a0les Douze Travaux d’Hercule<\/em> (The Twelve Labours of Hercules): Like any other Grande \u00c9cole\u00a0<\/em>(Polytechnique is another one,\u00a0famed to be the “French MIT”), you first have to go through une\u00a0classe pr\u00e9paratoire<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0a sort of a “hors d’\u0153uvre”\u00a0<\/em>or “appetizer”,\u00a0<\/em>where you\u00a0are in for a\u00a0little “avant-go\u00fbt”<\/em>\u00a0(“foretaste”) for\u00a0the sort of\u00a0“treat” coming next. The\u00a0classe pr\u00e9paratoire<\/em> for the\u00a0\u00c9NA<\/em>\u00a0is conducted\u00a0under a school you may have heard of from French exchange students, the famous Science Po<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0leading to the admission exam called le<\/em>\u00a0concours externe<\/em> (extrenal exam.)\u00a0This exam\u00a0begins with\u00a0l’\u00e9crit (<\/em>written test),\u00a0confronting you with\u00a0questions ranging from le droit<\/em> (law) to\u00a0l’\u00e9conomie<\/em>,\u00a0and even\u00a0la culture g\u00e9n\u00e9rale <\/em>(general knowledge, the\u00a0sort of questions that you may hear at a Monday\u00a0Trivia night for example!)<\/p>\n

Most of the candidates would be \u00e9limin\u00e9s<\/em> (eliminated) at this initial\u00a0step, with a “survival rate” of\u00a0less than 10%. The “survivants”<\/em>\u00a0(“survivors”)\u00a0are then allowed to go to what we may\u00a0describe as\u00a0le plat de r\u00e9sistance<\/em>…\u00a0which is l’examen oral <\/em>(oral exam), <\/em>testing their mastery of\u00a0l’\u00e9loquence<\/strong> <\/em>(encore<\/em> l’\u00e9loquence…<\/em>), on a vast\u00a0variety of subjects. This exam\u00a0culminates in the ever\u00a0dreaded\u00a0Grand Oral<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>nicknamed the “Grand O”<\/em>, an ordeal lasting\u00a0about the same time\u00a0as une mi-temps de football <\/em>(a half-time of a soccer game),\u00a0<\/em>where the candidate is generally\u00a0malmen\u00e9 <\/em>(manhandled) by\u00a0all kinds of unusual and often ridiculously\u00a0puzzling\u00a0questions, questions d\u00e9concertantes<\/em>,\u00a0which are in fact meant to\u00a0test his or her\u00a0capacity to think “outside of the box.”<\/p>\n

More about the “special species” known to le commun des mortels <\/em>(the mere mortals, or “the Average Joe” if you want) as les \u00e9narques <\/em>is to come on Wednesday…\u00a0 \u00c0\u00a0mercredi alors!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\""Same

Getting into the \u00c9NA is akin to taking on les Douzes Traveaux d’Hercule (The Twelve Labours of Hercules): Like any other Grande \u00c9cole (Polytechnique is another one, famed to be the “French MIT”), you first have to go through une classe pr\u00e9paratoire, where you are in for a little “avant-go\u00fbt” (“foretaste”) for what is to…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[8224,8129,8221,8222,8223,8226,8225],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-classe-preparatoire","tag-eloquence","tag-ena","tag-enarque","tag-french-civil-service","tag-grand-oral","tag-science-po"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t