Foreign Exchange Students at SKHS Break Cultural Barriers

   “People think Brazil is a jungle,” laughs Fernanda Milani, a foreign exchange student at SKHS. “My bus driver asked me if I travel to school by elephant.” In reality, much of her country is urbanized.

            Milani, who lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and attends a school there with around 4,000 students, came to the United States to improve her English and discover a new culture. Milani is not the only exchange student at SKHS who struggles with common misunderstandings such as these.

In addition to the Brazilian native, Yuhe Su from China and Beke Juergens of Germany are spending time away from their home countries as well.     

            Although all three girls say the transition to school in the U.S. has been easier than anticipated, they find some stereotypes of their nations difficult to understand.

            Su, who goes by the name Tia, commented that the United States greatly exaggerates the power of her country’s economy.

“China is still very weak,” she said.  

Another misunderstanding she claimed is the assumption that most Chinese practice Buddhism. In reality, Su said, few people follow a religion.

            Su also exposed the myth that education in China is extremely strict. At her school in Nanking, students do not have hall passes.

“If you are late to class,” she explained, “you simply greet the teacher.”

“There are strict schools in China,” Su added, “but I do not go to one.”

            Su’s host mother, Priscilla Purinton of West Kingston, has realized during her time with Su that the world’s “preconceived notions [of China] are about thirty years old.”

In fact, Purinton said, “It sounds like America in so many ways. Now that I know a person from China, it is much less foreign and intimidating.”

            Su, whom Purinton described as a “respectful, very smart” girl with a “bubbly personality” came to America through the Youth for Understanding foreign exchange program, also known as YFU.

            This organization, founded by volunteers in 1951, matches 4,000 students and families annually in 64 countries around the world. Applicants undergo a careful selection process which requires proficiency in English and academic achievement. They must also demonstrate the willingness to share responsibilities and integrate into the daily life of their new American families.

            Michael Finnell, the President and CEO of Youth for Understanding USA, declares that YFU host parents like Purinton and students like Su “are making a difference by nurturing connections with the world through student exchange. They contribute to breaking down stereotypes while building bridges, connecting cultures, and creating understanding.”

However, at times, the foreign exchange students say they find it difficult to communicate their thoughts in English.

“My brain was fried,” Su said of her first days in South Kingstown. Before coming to Rhode Island, she communicated with her host parents through e-mails.

“I had no confidence in my English,” she recalled. “I would spend an hour or more e-mailing back. I wanted them to be perfect.”

            Even though Su and Juergens have taken English for about six years, far longer than most SKHS students have studied a foreign language, they still worry about misunderstandings caused by pronunciation or vocabulary. The foreign exchange students added that they find it helpful to share their difficulties with each other.

            Despite struggles with communication, Juergens finds certain classes in America to be easy, such as Algebra II. “I learned it three years ago,” she said with a laugh.

            Students in China are on different schedules as well.

“We begin Physics in the eighth grade,” Su said, who recently switched into Physics II because she found Physics I to be repetitive.

            However, both girls struggle in other classes. Su described poetry in her Humanities class as “difficult and confusing.” In U.S. History, she said, she found herself drifting off to sleep while listening to the teacher talk about American politics.

            According to Juergens, teachers in America are also much more willing to discuss their private lives. In Germany, she said, the teachers “don’t talk about other things.”

            One other difference both Su and Milani mentioned is that in China and Brazil, every student must take the same courses and spend the entire day in the same classroom.            “Instead of the students switching classes, the teachers go from room to room,” Su explained.  

            Despite a number of cultural differences, SKHS students may find that the exchange students share more similarities to their American classmates than differences.

            In relation to American teens, Su is more similar than different, according to her host mother. Purinton said she likes music and shopping, makes friends quickly, and plans to join the math team at the high school. At her high school in Nanking, Su participates in Model United Nations. In April, she plans to attend the SKHS Model United Nations conference.

Su’s fellow foreign exchange student Juergens recently signed up for the theater production ‘Keep It.’ Milani, on the other hand, plays on the high school soccer team.

            Juergens and Su both claimed that everything from “streets, refrigerators, [and] potato chips” to “sunglasses” is “bigger in America.”

            “Everything is more,” Su laughed. She explained that when she wanted to buy a pair of small sunglasses recently, all she could find were oversized shades.

            All three girls agree that students at SKHS are very nice, but Milani said people in her country are much more open than Americans.

            “Everyone hugs each other in Brazil,” she said. Milani misses both the friendly atmosphere of her home as well as her native food and family.

            Despite her homesickness, traveling is Milani’s passion. Not only has she been to the U.S. before, but she has also journeyed to Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico.

            In fact, participating in foreign exchange programs runs in the family. Milani stated that her 18-year-old brother stayed with a family in Colorado and his experience inspired her to travel to America as well.

             “I have wanted to be an exchange student ever since I was a child,” Milani said.