There are four exchange students from different places in the world at Lakewood High School. How many do you know?
“You think it’s easy before you experience it, but day after day you figure out that when the school is very unusual big and there are numerous people...it’s kind of not easy to make true friends or good relationships sometimes.” These are the words of May Achour, a 16 year old foreign exchange student from Lebanon. Imagine what it would be like to leave the environment you are used to and leave behind your friends and family without actually knowing what to expect from the exchange year on the other side of the world. During the year you are forced to get to know yourself better, you learn about your strengths and your weaknesses and the most important thing, you learn how it is to be on our own.
I am one of the four exchange students here at Lakewood. When I first came to America from Germany I didn’t know how my host family would be, how the school would be, if the people would be nice, all that kind of stuff that you actually would like to know beforehand. I felt like I wasn’t prepared at all, and my only wishes back at that time were that I wouldn’t miss my flight, that I would have a nice and clean family and that I wouldn’t be placed in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, everything worked out fine.You have to know that one of the biggest reasons for my decision to come here was the enrollment in an American high school. I heard and saw much about your high schools in all different kinds of American movies, and it has always been a dream of mine to attend such a public school. You probably ask yourself, “Why? What is so special about an American high school?” The three most significant things that people from different countries would associate with an American public high school would probably be the school spirit, cheerleading and lots of drama.
“LHS is very similar to the high schools portrayed in the movies,” May Achour commented to me. I totally agree with her and I really enjoy attending Lakewood High School. I personally feel like I’m a lot more connected to the teachers here in America than I am to the ones in Germany. The teachers here are more kick-back, friendly and relaxed, whereas the teachers back in my school in Germany are more formal and strict. Another thing I’ve noticed that is different about American schools is the fact that you get so involved in sports and really get behind your teams. As far as I am aware of, German schools do not have their own sport teams. If a person wants to play basketball or soccer they must join a group outside of the school.
The only negative aspect I can think of is that it is a lot harder to get to know people here and make good friends since it is such a big school with so many different people who are already involved in their own cliques. Still my advice would be that if you ever thought of doing an exchange year, but then got discouraged about it, you should definitely do it. Of course you have to give up a lot of things, but the experience you have is so worth it. You’ll never forget that one year in a foreign country, and who knows, maybe you make friends for life and stay in contact and visit each other. As far as I can tell, it is so much easier to learn a language when you are forced to speak it all the time and when you, at the same time, experience and get to know the culture of the other country. If you are not interested, or if you just can’t spend a year abroad because of financial issues, I recommend that you still try to grab the chance and try to get to know something about the exchange student’s lives and culture at LHS because it always can be useful and interesting.
In order to become a successful exchange student at Lakewood High School one has to be outgoing, self-confident, interested in getting to know different people and patient. LHS students: Don’t hesitate; try to get to know the exchange students so that you can learn from them and avoid dumb questions like, “Do you have internet in Germany?” which is one of the questions that I have been asked.