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Making Friends as an Exchange Student

Written by Sooah Jeon

           First of all, I used to be an exchange student in Kentucky, the USA during 2016-2017. My hometown is actually Thailand. It can be seen that these two countries are obviously far away and completely have different cultures. Since I have stayed in the US for a year, there were so many experiences that I have been through. One of them that I believe that it is very useful for exchange students is making friends.

           It is undeniable to say that there is nobody who lives by themselves. Trying to socialize is one of an important key during the exchange year, but what if there is all new, and you do not know how to get involved with people as foreigners? Here is some advice about how to make friends as an exchange student.

Do not be afraid to talk

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             I can say that being a non-native speaker in a foreign country seems to be terrifying because I have felt that way at first. Being in America where everyone speaks English might be hard since I do not usually talk in English in my daily life. However, communication is a significant factor in life, if you do not try to talk, you will cut off every opportunity of your experiences. The first reminder is that you do not have to be afraid of speaking English (INOMICS, 2016). Speaking up something will bring you to the conversation. For instance, I usually said hello and asked how they were doing which were very easy questions. This could even start the conversation which made me know more people and become friends. Unforgettably, if you say in an incorrect way, they will not be going to hate you but actually, try to understand what you say. Once, I said vanilla incorrectly, and I repeated saying it so many times which became a big conversation at that time with my friends. This shows that only speaking up something can surprisingly start the conversation. Hence, there is nothing to be afraid to talk because if you do not talk, you will not make anything up better, including friends.

Join sports or clubs

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           Since I have grown in Thailand, I realize that most Thai students do not really pay much attention to sports and club except studying, and I am one of them. Differently, people in America usually do sports in school, so you can use sports as one of the ways to meet people. During the exchange year, I decided to join cheerleading which I had never done before, and it completely made my exchange year a lot better. I met people in my cheerleading team, and we had to do a lot of practice after school every day and cheered for many games. This was one of the impressive opportunities to get myself to be in a group of people and get to know them. Also, Miranda Fiedler (2016) who is an exchange student from the AFS program said that she even had the sleepover with her friend from her sports team. This shows that joining sports is not only doing sports, but it is actually hanging out if you are getting closer with people in the team. Therefore, sports are doing activities together, and it can be an initiation to help you to talk to people, and then surprisingly, they and you will become friends without notice.

Do not stay home often

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           After a long week, I understand that you might want some free time being with yourself at home. On the other hand, you should remind yourself that you have limited time for this exchange year. Going out of your house is one of the effective ways to go to see people and new experiences. For example, on Friday night, I was usually invited to a bond fire by my friends, and they also invited other people who I did not know. Going out to do something made me know many people and get to talk with them. Consequently, we knew each other, and they would become closer after we hung out often. What is more, Amy who is an exchange student from Italy shared that saying yes was an important key, and you should not deny people even though it was only for a coffee because they would ask you again as long as you said yes at the first time (Nacel Open Door, 2018). Thus, you should try to go out because this can make you meet other people and then become closer to them.

           From all above, even though you are an exchange student, making friends is not as hard as you think. Different nationality and different languages do not mean that we cannot become friends, and there are various ways to make friends. These advices that I have mentioned before are only some of the ways that I believe that it is useful for people who are planning to be an exchange student. Lastly, I hope that my advices will benefit you somehow during your exchange year.

References:

Fiedler, M. (2016). 15 Tips on how to make friends as an exchange student. Retrieved from: http://www.drifter-life.com/15-tips-make-friends-exchange-student/

INOMICS. (2016, September 20). Five best ways for making friends while studying abroad. Retrieved from: https://inomics.com/insight/five-best-ways-for-making-friends-while-studying-abroad-746656

Nacel Open Door. (2018, November 5). Exchange student tips: making friends. Retrieved from: https://nacelopendoor.wordpress.com/2018/11/05/exchange-student-tips-making-friends/

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Facing Differences During Exchange Year

Written by Sooah Jeon

              Once, I used to be an exchange student in Kentucky, USA for about 10 months. 17 years old girl who had never been apart the parents like me had to be through a lot of new things during that year, but this was the most unforgettable experience that I could never find anywhere.

              “It’s alright, it’s okay, it’s just different.”, this quote was what I had always been reminding to myself during the exchange year. The reason of it is that most of what I have through in the US was totally new which sometimes made me feel uncomfortable and could affect me in both positive and negative ways.

Culture

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               Since the first day that I landed in the US and met my host family, I suddenly faced “culture shock” when they came to hug me unconsciously. This might be common to some people, but I can surely say that hugging for greeting is totally uncommon for most Asian like me, for an example. It took times to get me comfortable, but since my host mother always gave me a hug before I went to school every day, it made me feel that this was one of wonderful American cultures. Especially the day that I did not feel very well, getting a hug from my host was a perfect way to start a new day. As well as Elaine Abonal (n.d.) who was an exchange student in America, she said that it was really sweet to receiving a hug from her host family. At the same time, she mentioned that hugging the opposite gender was also normal over here which made her shocked sometimes since she was Filipino (Abonal, n.d.).  Undeniably, I also have faced this culture shock as well. Therefore, I would say that if you plan to go to exchange, and you are Asian, you might need to be ready for this hugging American culture.

Lifestyles

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              I have been in Bangkok, Thailand for the whole of my life, and my lifestyle is quite more like city girl. Living in America was definitely different from living in Thailand. Would anyone think about transportation that I found it as a big problem during exchange year? Yes, I need to say that transportation in Kentucky where I lived was completely inaccessible. For almost one year that I was there, I could not find any public transportation at all. Differently, I usually take the bus and sky-train in Thailand. This was one of big issues when I wanted to go somewhere because I needed to ask someone to take me instead. Still, who I always asked was mostly my host family, so sitting in the car with them was a good moment that I could get closer to them. What is more, Tuva who was an exchange student in the same program as me, EF also said that she could normally take public transportation in her country, Norway which was a big difference between living in Norway and America (as cited in Bailey, 2017). Lastly, it can be seen that people are more likely to use their own vehicles than public transportation which can be hardly found in America.

Events

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              In America, there are actually many holidays to celebrate such as Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. For my opinion, unlike living in Thailand, we do not get to celebrate with family as many as what Americans do. Also, the religions between in America and Thailand are different, so this leads to different holidays which they mostly spend time with family. However, these events influenced me to face “homesickness”. According to Crislip (2019), homesickness is common for most exchange student. For my case, my host family made a big meeting and invited many relatives in Thanksgiving Day, and me seeing them having a good time together was quite hurtful which made me think of my family. On the other hand, I tried to have a good time with them by learning their culture through holidays, so I still could enjoy with them during those events. If you want to be an exchange student, I would suggest that when you get homesick, you have to find the ways to enjoy at the time that you are there as much as possible.

Lastly, if you are reading this and planning to go to exchange, there is nothing to be afraid about. Even though I have gone for 2 years ago, these memorable experiences are still in my mind. From all above, I hope that some examples of situations that I have faced during exchange year would guide what you will face in the future. These differences are not worthless, but I want you to think that they are the key that can change you positively. After I went back to Thailand, everyone said that I had grown a lot from the past. Thus, would anyone believe that going to exchange for one year could give you a lot of benefits? For me, it is totally undeniable to say, but facing differences in another country is exactly learning to make you stronger for this world.

References:

Abonal, E. (n.d.). An exchange student at 17. International Student. Retrieved from: https://www.internationalstudent.com/study-abroad/guide/exchange-student/

Bailey, S. (2017, March 6). Ambassador spotlight: Tuva from Norway. EF High School Exchange Year. Retrieved from: https://blog.efexchangeyear.org/ambassador-tuva-norway

Crislip, K. (2019, February 24). What is an exchange student?. TripSavvy. Retrieved from: https://www.tripsavvy.com/what-is-an-exchange-student-3149741