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SM South News

the student news source of shawnee mission south

SM South News

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The Road to Kansas

The+Road+to+Kansas

Bustling, locker-lined hallways, the excited roar of pep assemblies, te broad, brass sound of the school fight song and cheerleaders brimming with school spirit are images in American high school often deemed commonplace by students. What tends to be forgotten is how iconic this setting appears to others from around the globe. Just as Americans view good food, accordion music, and impressive architecture as European trademarks, the United States public school system is just as widely known. For foreign exchange students, this is only one of many major differences encountered during their year of cultural and worldly experiences.

As they step off the plane and onto foreign soil to meet their families for the coming year, these differences are made clear. For Luxembourg exchange student Tom Arend, this was a moment of slight confusion. Because his flight had arrived unexpectedly early, he waited for his host family in the airport. Though they had corresponded briefly, the prospect of meeting them was still daunting.

“It was kind of strange, because you know they will be your family for the next year and you don’t know if they are nice, if they’re what you think they are. It’s kind of interesting,” he said

Brazilian exchange student Aline Sartori harbored fears about the exchange in general.

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“I was afraid that people wouldn’t like me. I was afraid to not have friends or not get together with people,” she said. “And of course missing my family and that kind of thing.”

With the knowledge of his destination given to him only four days before the flight, Arend wasn’t sure what to expect of his surroundings.

“I didn’t even know what Kansas was,” he said.

While other exchange students admitted to having big city dreams, the location of their exchange depended on the family who accepted them. Fortunately, none were put out when the organization informed them they were Midwest-bound.

“Everybody wants to go to New York or California but they wouldn’t have the experience like the American culture,” Sartoti said. “I wasn’t disappointed at all.”

Chinese exchange student Runjie Liu didn’t have any qualms about Kansas City either.

“The weather is very nice here, and the city is beautiful,” she said.

For German exchange student Heinrich Dettman, his arrival was made easier thanks to personal connections with his host family.

“My brother was also with my [host] family and [they] invited me too,” he said. “I knew them very well because the host mother was in Germany; she met us and we met the family in London so we knew each other, but it was exciting.”

For all these students, the idea of an exchange had been growing in their minds for years, whether stemming from family members’ past experiences or from a cinematic perception of American high school.

“My mother was an exchange student when she was 16 in Long Island with another organization so I always wanted to go to USA to do the same thing,” French exchange student Camille Lingre said. “The stories she told me were really interesting.”

Dettman also has family members who have experienced exchanges.

“My two older brothers also did it so everyone asked me if I also wanted to do it,” he said.

Colombian exchange student Natalia Rendon became interested in the idea after witnessing the changes it had brought about in others.

“One year ago we saw the other exchange students leaving to another country,” she said. “They came back and they were speaking another language and they were bigger, [more] mature, and I really wanted to go.“

While German exchange student Eileen Kirsten didn’t make the initial decision to do the exchange, she agreed it was a good idea.

“My parents said I have to be an exchange student since I’m a baby, and I said it’s OK,” she said.

Tired and jetlagged, not much was registered their first night in the states.

“I arrived late at night so I slept [for a] long time,” Arend said. “I put my stuff in the drawers and closet and stuff, I made myself comfortable. I tried to fit in as much as possible.”

Over the course of the next two weeks, however, they began to pick up on cultural differences.

“Everything is big here: your cars, your houses. Even the streets are really, really big,” Arend said.

These students also found that there was truth in some of the stereotypes they had heard, however unflattering they might be.

One concern was for their health. Unfortunately, just as typical as public high school has become, so has American fast food. Many students noticed a general increase in the amount of junk food they ate, noting that it is much more accessible than in their home countries.

“My fear was that I would become fat,” Dettman said. “At home I don’t eat so many sweets. I love it, but I don’t want to be fat.”

Kirsten also noticed differences in the food consumed in the US versus the food she was accustomed to.

“Your bread is white and in Germany we have dark bread. It’s more healthy,” she said.

Despite these observations, some also realized that the stereotype was often exaggerated.

“That’s not really true, I mean there are fat people but not everybody is fat, you can eat good food actually,” Arend said. Not only did they find the food itself was different, and in their opinion unhealthier, but for many, American eating

habits were also considerably different. “You drink some milk at dinner. I find it so weird,” Lingre

said. Dettman also had to make some adjustments. “[I had to eat] by myself [at] breakfast and dinner,” he

said. “In Germany, my family, we sit often together and eat. It’s not so typical at my family here.”

Among the many adjustments associated with coming to a new country, transportation was another factor.

“Here I depend too much on rides. I need someone to take me everywhere,” Sartori said. “Also you guys don’t have buses or subways and I was really used to that in Brazil. I used to walk a lot because everything is kind of together there, here everything is more spread. But it’s OK, my family is really nice, they take me everywhere I want to go.”

Lingre also noticed this difference. “We don’t need cars, because all is really little,” she said. Perhaps the biggest obstacle these students had to

overcome was the language. Though many had been studying English for several years already, they found that learning vocabulary and sentence structure was an altogether different experience from being immersed in a foreign language.

“I’m not used to speaking a foreign language all the time. I cannot even speak my native language at home. You’re used to speaking your native language and I cannot do that here, I have to speak a foreign language everywhere,” Arend said. “You get used to it but I think language is the hardest part.”

Besides getting used to speaking the language itself, students are also expected to learn already difficult subjects in this language.

“Sometimes it’s kind of hard to understand it when teachers [are] speaking,” Liu said.

Students also found the school system here to be marginally different, yet not completely unexpected. From shorter breaks to more movement in the halls, most of the students found these traditions and customs to fit their perception of “American.”

“The high school is also very typical, I think. So many lockers, and then during breaks everyone is running through the halls,” Dettman said. “We know the American movies and it’s really true.”

They also encountered differences at lunch time.

“Wednesdays it’s two and a half hours [in Luxembourg], and everybody leaves for lunch so we go out to the city or town to get something to eat,” Arend said. “Nobody stays there to eat actually at school.”

Despite all of these differences however, all exchange students are enjoying adapting to a new culture and navigating their way through the American school system.

“A big advantage is here you have school spirit. We don’t have anything that’s like that. We go to school, learn stuff, don’t have fun at all, we go home then have fun on our own. People that go to the same school don’t really have the feeling to belong to each other,” Arend said. “School here is very cool because you can have fun at school. I never knew this, that you can have fun at school.”

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The Road to Kansas