Luisa Fricke, Reporter
A foreign exchange program can cost a fortune, and can come with psychological challenges every day, including culture shock and homesickness. So why do so many students decide to spend six months to a year experiencing the American way of life?
Vashon Island High School is currently hosting exchange students from Japan, Germany, Finland, Turkey, Italy and Brazil.
Of course, the cost depends on the distance between your home country and your host country, but to give a little context, my current exchange program from Germany costs about $10,000.
For me, a year in America is worth that price because of the memories I know I’ll make. I’ve been here twice before, in Alaska and New York City, and I think that the people are really nice. Also I think that the US is exceptionally variegated in the aspect of nature and surroundings.
Over the past couple months I’ve experienced many things I’ve never done before. I traveled to Disneyland and Canada, went to baseball and football games, and went cross-country skiing for the first time in my life. I also plan to play softball in the spring.
The idea of becoming an exchange student was brought up to me by a friend who had really enjoyed her stay in America. I began to think about doing one too because I really wanted to travel , and I thought it would be a very good way not only to see the country, but also to really live in it.
However, everyone has their own reasons for choosing America as their new home country.
“I just wanted to experience a high school life in the US and eat ginormous food,” said Japanese exchange student, junior Yuta Koike.
“I would like to be an exchange student because I’ve never been out of the country before,¨ said American sophomore Talia Roybal, who is looking forward to her exchange in Germany next year. “It seems really fun to experience a new culture.
“I also want to meet new people, [and] broaden my range of friends,” she said. “It would also be cool to be able to speak another language fluently. Plus, exchange programs look really good on a college application.”
Current exchange students confirmed that their time in America has provided much of what they had expected.
“I [have] learned a lot about football, wrestling, English, American culture, [and] religions, especially because they are all new stuff to me,” Koike said. “So far I feel that I’m learning more about the culture than English.
“The reason why I tried out [for] Football and Wrestling was because trying out new stuff and having new experiences was one of [the] goals of my exchange year and also because I wanted to keep being active.”
Of course there are challenges with being an exchange student.
“I’ve always been a very shy person,” said Ernst. “It took some time, but eventually I was able to open up and find a big group of friends which I’m already sad to have to leave in June.”
Being away from your usual surroundings takes a lot of courage, but it also reveals things about you that you didn’t know about yourself.
“The things that I realized about myself is that I’m becoming more cheerful and outgoing since I came here,” said Koike. “I feel this when I’m saying hi to people that I have no idea who they are. I’m not sure about taking this back to Japan, since nobody does it, but I would like to keep trying — talking and meeting new people and being outgoing.”
Luisa Fricke is a German student doing a year-long exchange program at Vashon High School.