American High Schools: as Exchange Students

American highschools as Moving to another continent, leaving your entire life behind you to start a new one; maybe something won’t work out, but those students left all their thoughts behind them and moved to the USA. Anastasia Bracher (Germany), Valentina Cipolla Lunardini (Brasil) and Sofia Berta (Italy) talking about the differences here, first impressions and what is negative here.

The US school system differs greatly from the German school system. For example, in Germany the students have around 14 different classes a week rather than just eight. German students don’t have to earn college credits, but they also don’t have the opportunity to choose all their classes. All the foreign exchange students think that the classes in the U.S. are much easier than in their home country.

One aspect of living in a new country is the food., “The thing that I miss the most is the good food,” Bracher said. “Obviously my family and my friends, but it’s really nice making new friends here and getting to know new people. And so much is happening here.”

Berta really misses her food from her home country, especially pizza. But also her first impression of America is really interesting, she thinks it’s just like in the films about highschool and general life in the USA.

Cipolla Lunardini really misses her pets from home. What she wants to teach them is how to cook food, the same thing Berta thinks too. Bracher wants to teach them different things, for example basic knowledge about Europe.

She answered: “Probably some basic informations, because I feel like Americans don’t know much about Germany, especially European , because, one time I asked friends about things about Europe and I realized that Americans just don’t really know a lot about [it], which is kind of sad, because I felt it’s not that we are not in a relation to America.“

There is a big difference between saying “good morning” or asking how the day was and being interested in people’s life. Many people in the United States really give a lot of compliments to make the person’s day.

In Bracher’s opinion, the people are way more welcoming, friendly and open-minded than in Germany, they’re more interested in how you are feeling.

Being homesick is a really big topic too, but all many of the exchange students figured out in a good way they aren’t often homesick because so much is happening. Everything is new and everything is so different from their home countries, that there isn’t enough time to be homesick. Bracher tries to talk with her family on the phone, which can be challenging.

“The time difference is eight hours,” she said. “And I just get to call my family, in the morning at 6am or something, when I’m getting ready for school. And because when I’m at school, they’re awake, and when I’m out of school they’re asleep.”

Doing an exchange year is really amazing, meeting new people and gaining so much experience and all the exchange students can recommend it, even if it’s sometimes hard, it will be worth it.