Exchange Rate

Are you intrigued by far off lands and cultures? Do you feel your life is getting a little dull? Let me guess, you don't have the time or money to travel the world. The answer might be to have a foreign exchange student.

My family and I hadn't considered an exchange student until an acquaintance of ours revealed that she was a teacher at the university and taught Japanese students English. Every year their program would receive several Japanese students who were interested in America and English. In order to keep the students from hiding out in the dorms and not experiencing America, they farm them out to local families for two week stays. Our friend needed another family for one of her students and we volunteered to house her.

Ryoko , as we found out later, was a typical Tokyo girl. She wore expensive clothes and went places with groups of friends. She also new very little English. However, she adored our 3 year old daughter and they played together and watched TV. The fact that she hardly new English was not a very big deal. We could communicate about where things were in the house and that it was dinner time. We could also talk about family members and a little about Japan. When she left we all cried.

We enjoyed having a teenager in the house. When you have been married for a little while and have gotten used to life with a toddler it is very refreshing to have a kid who is a little older around. You get to relive that period of your life a little and you also get a taste of whats in store for you and your kids. People may come from other countries and live in different cultures, but there are things that are the same for all teenagers.

We enjoyed the experience and decided to take it up a notch and apply to get a long term student. Soon the Community College called us. One of their Danish students had been placed in a home with a couple that were not getting along. Being a half a world away from home and staying in a broken home was very hard and she requested a new family. That is when we met Mia. Mia is amazing. She was a professional Ballerina from the age of about six and had performed for the queen in Denmark and in other countries. She spent her middle and high school years at a private school in Germany. We have never met a girl her age that was so mature. In fact, we have met many adults who were not half so together. Our time with Mia was fantastic. Like many Europeans, her English was flawless and she had complex opinions on society and politics.

I think the best thing about her stay was that my wife and I had so much love in our little family, which now included a baby boy, which we got to share with Mia. It brought a lot of joy to us to have her in our home. She was very beautiful and had lots of friends she would go spend time with, but when she was homesick she came to us. She is traveling the world again, but she is always welcome in our home.

Our most recent exchange was another Japanese student. Saki was lots of fun. She had spent a few years in America as a child and spoke great English, better than some Americans. She studied hard so there were weeks when she had exams and all we saw of her was the light under her door, but she also loved hanging out with our kids and watching cartoons. She came to parties at friends and relatives houses and we had fun going on short trips to Seattle and even had a chance to go to Disneyland. You have not been to Disneyland unless you have seen it with a Japanese teenage girl, trust us. We love Saki and she is a great big sister to our daughter who is now five and our son who is almost two.

I think the best advice I could give someone is; do not carry preconceived ideas in your head, you will be disappointed. You are not going to sit around in kimonos and eat sushi all day. Your student probably wont have funny catch phrases like, "No more yanky my wanky!" I guarantee that your Czech exchange student wont be a naughty girl who strips for the webcam like American Pie, and they may not always be as polite as Fez from that 70's show.

Exchange students are real people with likes and dislikes, but they see the world a little differently because of where they are from. If your mind is open a lot of things can find their way in and you and your family will be enriched by the experience. Our daughter can look at our world map and see the little heads of our foreign friends pasted on there home towns and we remember our family that is away for awhile. We love these kids and can not wait to see them again. And you never know, someday you might need a place to stay for a week in a far away land, wont it be nice to already have an English speaking friend to stay with?

To find out more about hosting your own student try your local community college or university. You can also try Youth for Understanding which coordinates thousands of exchanges. All you need is a room for the student, the program provides a little money to cover the cost of food, but don't expect to make a living on it. Our short term student ended up costing us money because of the cost of event tickets and gifts, but I would have paid double for the experience.