A foreign exchange program is where a student goes to another country to study. This usually happens in high schools and colleges. Tunstall recently started a foreign exchange program where students from different countries come to study here. This year’s foreign exchange students are from Italy and Germany. Their names are Andrea Cibrario from Italy and Mayooran Thavarajah from Germany.
Andrea Cibrario is a foreign exchange student from Turin, Italy. He came to America to attend Tunstall on September 1st. He went through a lengthy process to come here. He has been to many other countries, such as Spain, England, Ireland, France, and Germany, but he’s never been to the United States before this year.
Cibrario thinks the United States is a lot different from his home country. Compared to his school back home, it is drastically different here. In Italy, instead of the students changing classes, the teachers come to them and the students stay in the same class. They also have the same classmates for all of school instead of different ones each year. Cibrario likes that he gets to meet new people with how the classes are here. He also likes that he got to choose his classes because he wasn’t able to do that in Italy. Students in the U.S. also dress differently; they dress a lot more casually and comfortably in the U.S. whereas in Italy they dress more formally to school. The classes are a lot easier here, and they are longer. In Italy, they get out at 2 p.m. and don’t eat lunch at school. In Italy, they are also allowed to use their phone during class time. “It’s like in the movies here. I like it,” said Cibrario.
One of the biggest shocks for Cibrario about America was the food. There is a lot of frozen food here compared to Italy. There are also a lot more fast food places here; in Italy, they only have McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King. Cibraio’s favorite fast food place in the U.S. is Chick-fil-A because it’s the best quality.
Mayooran Thavarajah is another foreign exchange student at Tunstall. He is from Frankfurt, Germany. He has also been to France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Denmark. He had never been to the United States before he joined the exchange program. He will only be in here until January. He likes it here because the people are nice to him; whereas in Germany, they are more blunt in their conversations. The school system is also much different than what he’s used to. In Germany, they have much harder classes and different classes every day of the week. Instead of having the same four classes each day, they have ten to thirteen different classes each week. In Germany, they also teach a lot of different languages so that the students can be fluent in them.
A big culture shock for Thavarajah is the food and how in the U.S. we have way more fast food places than Germany. In Germany, they only have McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King, just like in Italy. It was also shocking for him how many calories the U.S. has in their food and the amount of candy and sweets. His favorite fast food restaurant is also Chick-fil-A.
There are a lot of differences between the United States and European countries, but one of the biggest ones is probably the school system. It’s been a big adjustment for these foreign exchange students, but they’re grateful for the opportunity to attend school here and experience what it’s like.
