My parents are like, "Oh, but are you

sure you want to go to Serbia?" Then

there a bit violence. Not at all. Like

it's the country of that.

>> Meet Aloa. He is a Frenchman who has

been living in Serbia [music] for 7

years. Here he started a YouTube channel

with funny sketches about the

differences between Serbia and France

and now he works as a French teacher. He

shared how he managed to live in Serbia

while disliking pasum, why Serbs see

spice in every foreigner and what Serbs

and French really think about each

other. I what was your first impression

of the country?

>> Honestly, it was not great impression at

first because I came in February in

Noviad. This place was not as green as

it is now in November. And also the food

that I first tried was really bad. They

make me try like borax serum. I hate I

could not eat bor for years after that.

Now I I can I like it. That's fine. It

was, I don't know, 8:00 a.m. We French

people, we eat like sweet for breakfast

and arrive here and they give me this

like 500 grams like bor with only white

cheese inside.

>> It's my dream.

>> I like it so much.

>> Okay, [laughter] good for you. For me,

it was awful. But then, of course, now I

like kind of like bor, but I love

Serbian food. But that was my first

impression. Novi Bog in the winter,

polluted, cold, borum

quite bad. But then the more it went,

the better it was. And I really loved

living here and I really loved my Novi

Bograd much more than the city center.

>> What can do the better than Bexa Serum?

>> Everything.

>> First you should say pasum. Basically I

think if I'm not mistaken borax should

be only with meat and if you add some

anything else it should be called pa.

Sometimes yeah people in the banana are

a bit like Italian you know. Oh this is

not carbonara because you put fresh

cream.

>> Oh this is not bor because there is

cheese. So anything is better than bulk.

I can tell you 27 dish that I prefer.

>> First three.

>> Salma is the obvious one. I love salma.

Anything with this type of kus. I love

it.

Type of thing. Okay. Let me tell you

four things then. Third, let's say. I

love it.

>> Yeah.

>> And fourth, which is something like

really common, but it's shops that you

have in every restaurant. For every

meal, you can take this. And we don't

have that in France. We can only have

like in restaurant like a green salad or

then it's a full meal salad. But here

there is this something in between like

this shops casala that is everywhere.

It's always good.

>> So for you it was not a problem to get

accustomed to Serbian food after French

cuisine.

>> Oh no it's quite similar. We also like

we call it like palon sauce like sauce

meal like puna paprika salar those type

of things. No I mean and also you know

here like there is a lot of French

restaurant. I mean I never go there but

if really a French person is like oh my

god I need my bino. You can go to some

French restaurant. In France, you know,

I mean, there is the French fine food

that is like known worldwide, but most

of French people eat normal stuff that

is very similar to what they eat here.

>> What do you miss from France here?

>> The cheese. There is some French cheese

in Belgrade you can buy, but it's very

expensive and you have only like I know

10 15 choice when we have like more than

500 type of cheese in France. Second

thing will be the butter. Uh, where I'm

from, we eat like salty butter, but this

is something also I will miss if I move

to Paris.

non-salty butter which is for me an

absodity people need to try. One thing

that I miss is here the piaza they don't

have already prepared food from all

around the world. Uh you can buy a lot

of vegetables and sometimes like cook

fish but that's it. In France when

you're lazy you can go to the pata you

have a lot of stand like even in small

village I'm talking for example the the

pata of near my parents that is in the

village of 6,000 people. You have like

Spanish guy that is making paella. you

have um Thai from Thailand food. So

those things are really nice like to

change

>> every week you're going to take

something different for your Sunday and

you're also going to buy your vegetables

for the next week. That's one thing I'm

missing also here. Uh I love the pata

here but if only they could have more

like of those prepped food but they

cooking in the patza in front of you and

you take a bit like cooking puna in

front of everybody and then you just

give to people. I'm missing also, I

would say, a clean air. I'm missing a

bit the ocean, but I'm not missing a lot

of things to be honest. I think that

will be the main stuff. Uh, here I'm

very happy with the life I have. You

have everything you can wish here. As

long as you have a good job, then it's

really amazing. My first flat in Serbia

in Belgrade was in this building in the

first floor, a bit more there. uh I

think they call it like televora

television building because of those

little square thing that look like the

old you know TV. So for me it was

amazing memories uh first because I was

with all those people from all around

the world in this apartment. So it was

incredible. A lot of them are still

coming regularly to Belgrade. Also one

of one of them a Spanish girl from

Barcelona she met a guy from Bosnia and

know like they they were building a

house in a village in Bosnia. I was

helping them like to actually make the

house the the house made of wood. Uh it

was really nice. A lot of them actually

kept um really good memories and ties

with the balcon. Maybe I'm going to say

a fake news, but I heard it and I want

to believe it's true that Tito himself

when he saw this building, he said this

is the ugliest building he ever saw. I

hope it's true. For me, it's my one of

my favorite building obviously because

of the sentimental attachment I have to

it.

music.

Radio

Foreign

speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.

Slovench.

Francisco.

for

alphabet.

fork.

movie.

What an abomination.

On your YouTube channel, you made a lot

of uh funny sketches about stereotypes

of foreigners about Serbs and Serbs

about foreigners. What are the funniest

stereotypes about Serbs in France? In

France?

>> Sadly, the stereotypes are not so great

mainly because

we heard a lot about Serbia mostly at

least my parents because of the war like

in the '90s. We knew for example a

friend of our family was a journalist in

Salvo in 1985. So, you know, they had

lot of those ideas. That's also why I

don't like stereotypes because my

parents are like, "Oh, but are you sure

you want to go to Serbia?" Then they're

a bit violent and not at all. Like, it's

the country of that. Now, let's go back

to the question. So, you were asking

about funny stereotypes, which is

[laughter] not my answer

>> that they eat a lot of meat. That's one

of the stereotype that maybe I'm also

pushing because of my video, even though

it's not so true because

>> because of here people are very orthodox

sometimes. uh they eat actually less

meat than French people because of that

about bark generally that they smoke a

lot that they have a lot of superstition

uh that's also there is a lot of truth

in that they have superstition for

everything like right now we're sitting

in a bench that is made of food so it's

okay but if we dare sit on this thing oh

my god like you're never going to have

kids you're going to get sick blah blah

blah

>> what are the funniest stereotypes about

French people in Serbian society

>> very bad stereotypes as well that we

smell bad that we don't know how to

speak other languages. But otherwise,

let's say the good one, yeah, will be

the baguette, which is absolutely true.

The cheese, the wine, the fact that we

complain all the time, but in Serbia,

they complain even more. I guess also

the general stereotypes about the west,

yeah, that they don't take care of the

elders or this type of thing that have a

little bit of truth, but not so much.

>> Serves are famous for their directors.

>> Yeah, that's true. I kind of change a

little bit on that. No, I'm also much

more direct. I feel like to my friends

or family home, I like it the

directness. One consequence of this that

I don't like is the lack of politeness

>> in Serbia. What's the point of saying

dodan mim when you just want a beer or

thing?

>> But for me, those stuff even though it's

a bit useless is still important.

>> Yeah. And as I told you I was working as

a barman here and that was quite

frustrating when people come and ask me

like hey dam without like doan that is

still annoying me I still try to say

doardan as much as I can but sometimes

people like even like why are you

telling me doan in traffic they don't

even answer that to be one of the

consequence of the directness that I

don't like but generally I think it's a

very positive thing to be very direct to

say what you actually think I lived a

bit in Canada before Serbia and it's the

complete opposite in Canada. Like they

are all very smiling. Uh everything is

good. Uh everything is everybody is nice

at least. That's what you first think,

but they don't really care much about

you maybe or they will not tell you if

something is upsetting them.

>> What do you think about stereotyping in

general? Does it have to have limits?

>> Our brain works that way. Everything has

to be in a box. Not just people but like

the word fruits or vegetables doesn't

mean anything in the real world but we

like to put things in boxes for words

but also for people because we need to

you know our brain need to react fast.

So it's human nature to have stereotypes

about everything and it's generally a

bad thing because the more you go deep

in any person you will realize everybody

is very different everybody is their own

person like there is a lot of those

psychological thing I don't know for

example you see someone that is pretty

you're going to immediately think oh

he's probably smarter blah blah even

though you don't really think it but

it's really hard to pass by it but also

it's funny if there is stereotype it's

also it doesn't come from nowhere like a

lot of them are true the stereotype of a

French person with a bagget under the

arm is 100% true. Like when I come back

to France, every morning I will go to

the bakery and I will come back with my

baguette and be I'm a French person. For

stereotypes generally like it's not uh

great, but they are based on some truth

and it's funny to to use them for jokes.

>> What do you think about Serbian sense of

humor? Is it similar to French sense of

humor?

>> Yeah, it's very similar. Uh they love

dark humor like we do. Uh they love

absurd. They love to play with words.

Uh, this last one is really hard for me

in Serbian because it's much harder to

catch. But they have a very similar

sense of humor, I would say. Very black,

very dark. Uh, laughing of your

situation and here because the situation

is harder. It makes it even better.

>> Also, on your YouTube channel, you made

funny spy reports. Why this spy thing is

in Serbia?

>> I think it's kind of a joke. I guess in

the time of Yugoslavia where there was a

bit maybe less foreigners coming they

will be like oh maybe they are spy but

no I think it's more a joke oh you are

French people and you want to live in S

but you're spy for sure but as a joke I

think I I hope at least maybe they were

not joking I don't know uh and maybe I'm

not joking maybe I'm a spy but this you

will never know

>> in comment section I got the impression

that they're not joking at all every

time I am uploading video with English

guest a lot of comments spy spy spy spy

>> in the media the main media in the

country they say a lot that the protests

whatever are like funded by you know the

west and all those things. So I guess

maybe because of that a lot a lot of

people think especially since this past

year without joking that there is spy

coming to for that reason. Have you

watched this this uh very good uh

Yugoslavian film? Uh

I love it. It's one of my favorite

movie. When I first watch it, it start

as a comedy.

>> Yeah.

>> And then the more it goes, the more like

what the is happening. It's like

>> Yeah. Crazy movie. Crazy movie. Maybe.

Maybe. But again, I think maybe at the

Yugoslavian time, people are more like

literally thinking there was spy coming,

which might be true. And nowadays I

don't think there is like actual spy

going like I mean there's maybe a few

obviously but not as many as during the

Yugoslavia. So maybe it's more like a

joke.

>> These windows why why are they have this

shape?

>> Ask an historian. I have no idea. I

guess just for the style you know at the

time of

>> Oh yeah

>> Yugoslavia architects actually had

style. No like today like when you see

other parts of Novi Belgrade it's it's

really horrible. Like first you don't

have all this space in between

buildings. That's one thing I really

like here in Novi Belgrade. It was made

for people like it was made for living

here. You have space, you have school,

you have basketball field, like you can

really hang out here. There is no cars.

Now when you go a bit towards Lein in

the new like blocks that they're doing,

it's very different. You basically just

have like parkings and towers. It's

remind me of the suburbs of France,

which is not a good comparison. It's

like quite bad.

>> So yeah, that's I would say my favorite

part of Belgrade is this block. Also, I

love the block deset where my Tashta is

living near the K like the Chinese

neighborhood. But yeah, no for me is

really the the best part. And that's

also that was a big shock for me coming

from a village of 6,000 people. I mean

small town but this we don't have that

like this is like really and also in

France when you have this type of

building because it used to be in very

poor area this type of construction uh

you will feel like maybe you're in

danger maybe like there is you know like

people that going to rob you but here

it's like very very safe but I never

lived in suburbs so maybe it's actually

the same in France I just have this

image that it's maybe a bit more

dangerous

>> when you go to France what do you feel

after living for so long uh in Serbia

>> every time is the same thing. I have to

see all my friends one after the other,

be with my brother and sister a little

bit with my parents, play card games

because they are all it's an epidem like

the ball games and then we buy kilos of

cheese and butter and they're ready to

come back to to Serbia. It's the same

thing as in Serbia. You I go to see my

friends, we are going in the teras and

have a coffee or a beer. The same as

Belgrade like the everyday life is so

similar. I used to make fun for example

of Serbian people because they put water

in the wine or stuff like this or

Coca-Cola.

[laughter]

>> I'm not religious but I'm going to say

that it's blasphemy.

>> Yeah.

>> But let's not talk about that. Let's be

positive.

>> Okay.

>> But for example, yeah, I was used to

make fun of people here. But then

recently I was at my grandpa and then I

remember how he will always put water in

his wine also. So it's also something

our grandparents used to do. The same

for like in France. We never drink like

strong liquor but our grandparents used

to do and they used to make their own

like liquor like we call it water of

life literally ov and it used to be very

common back in the days. So also yeah

just to tell you that France and Serbia

are not so different that you will feel

a big difference moving from one place

to another. The life in the end is the

same.

Oh,

speech speech.

Okay.

for

unique daughter.

for

That's

what is the main thing that Serb taught

you

>> to care less about how you look like.

No, wait. I mean that when I go to

France, if I go out with a jogging, my

parents are going to look at me like

you're going out like that. Like uh why

don't you put a gene on something like

to be presentable?

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> And that's really annoying me. Like why

do you care so much about how people

think of you in Yeah. Nobody cares. Like

everybody is in trousers in jogging.

Also another thing is that don't pay

attention to yeah stereotypes because

people in Bosnia, Serbia, Albania like

they all so nice people everywhere like

most of the people actually are really

nice. 99% of people are amazing and you

should never judge people before you

meet them based on their nationality.