The purpose behind the “student cultural exchange program”or “exchange year”, as it is known officially, is to learn about people from foreign countries and from other cultures, in the strictest meaning of the phrase.
What is an ‘Exchange Year'?
The project was clear to me: to have contact with a culture different to yours, which you were born and raised. The people of your host country may have very different opinions than you about many topics; but in the end, learning about this differences will definitely enrich you and the life you have left.
The invisible barrier
Today, the undisputed king of languages is english. Speaking this language will allow to travel to many places and communicate with people from different cultures. But here is an unfortunate catch: it won't help you integrate in your target culture. Which means, it is not enough by itself.
Being in a meeting with foreigner friends is a clear example. They will be talking in the foreign language and if you don't speak their language, they will translate you a few times before it gets tedious. Plus, some expresions can't be fully translated without losing their meaning.
One unseen bonus
Therefore, the exchange year will also help you learn to speak a language. By living among the people of your host country, you will learn the idioms, expressions and how to communicate in a new way. If you go to a country, where english isn't the native language, you shouldn't worry.
The story behind my Exchange Year
In my family, all my brothers (older than me) went aboard in an exchange year.
- 1 went to San Francisco, USA.
- 2 went to Preston, England.
- 1 went to Hameln, Germany.
In my parents words, “go and see a part of the world”. All I needed to know, is which country should I go to?
Why Germany as the Exchange Year Host Country?
For almost one year, from august 2008 to july 2009, I went to Germany as an exchange student. I lived in Köln (Cologne), Kürten and Ahaus. All three cities offered different contrasts which enriched my experience.
Why did I decide to go and live among the germanic tribes? I will leave it for another blog post.
What is like to be an exchange student?
I went to 3 different german families and lived among them. The same way, my parents received other exchange students in my house. In both cases, the families exchanged their sons or daughters for a year. Therefore, the term ‘exchange’.
There are moments where you are just feeling great: enjoying foods out of your reach, having fun with new friends or traveling in interesting places. However, there will be moments when you might think it wasn't a good idea coming in the first place. Sometimes you feel alone, or that you don't fit in this new country, or that you don't progress in your host language (or even worse: you strongly believe that you won't learn anything more).
You may end up eating animals you once considered to be pets…
Next chapters
I hope you enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed writing about it! Thus, I will write about my experiences among the germanic tribes in voyageLlama and I definitely won't write in order. Check out the blog for more related posts in the future.
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Posts during July-August 2008
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Posts during September 2008
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Posts during October 2008
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Posts during November 2008
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Posts during December 2008
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Posts during January 2009
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Posts during February 2009
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Posts during March 2009
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Posts during April 2009
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Posts during May 2009
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Posts during June 2009
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Posts during July 2009, after I returned from Germany
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[…] Don’t forget to visit the voyageLlama blog and read my story about my exchange year in Germany from 2008 to […]
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