Interview with Foreign Exchange Students
Photo of Italy provided by Elena Bertoncini.
“Do you know what video games are?” Foreign exchange students, even from many well-developed, European countries, are often asked such questions. And yes, yes they do— obviously, many things that exist in America also exist in Europe. However, upon interviewing students from Italy, Germany, and Spain, I also found that aside from obvious similarities, there are also quite a few differences between continents, as well as each country in Europe itself.
First of all, there was some contrast in the students’ expectations and reality of the United States. Elena Bertoncini of Italy explained, “I saw so many American movies, and I thought it was like High School Musical, like every school.” However, she was surprised. Although certainly not like movies, American high schools certainly differ in many ways from European ones.
Lea Bucksch of Germany noted, “I didn’t expect people to be so casual about everything. Like you go to a store and then you just have like a five minute conversation with the cashier because that’s just how small talk works.” The students tied this friendliness back to high school as well, and discussed how Americans are much more open to talking to other students, even strangers, than in Europe. That’s where it gets interesting: Bucksch explained that although everyone was so friendly, it could be hard to make really close friends because everything seemed to be so casual— for example, many people offer to spend time with you all of the time, but it never really ends up happening.
This is something certainly experienced by many Americans on a daily basis, and Bertoncini agreed, “It’s really hard to make close friends here… really hard.” Bucksch also said, “In Germany, if you talk to someone you actually invest a bunch of time talking to them… here people have like 200 friends or people they call friends because they just say hi in the hallway to each other.” Clearly, Americans are friendly— but does a surface of friendliness with everyone really outweigh the meaningfulness of being able to establish real connections with just a few people? This point perfectly highlights some of the differences in culture between different countries throughout the world.
Besides the social interaction of high school, some parts of the actual education system are different. In America, essentially everyone goes to free, public high schools unless they choose to pay for a private one, and everyone is expected to undergo the same level of education before reaching adulthood and deciding to go to college or not. However, the future of many German students is decided by the time they reach fifth grade. There are four different tracks of schooling after this level— one for mentally and physically disabled students, one for behaviorally or very academically challenged students, one for “average” students, and a highest level, “gymnasium,” for college-bound students who did well academically through fifth grade. For these top students, such as Bucksch, college is free.
Certainly, not having to worry about how to afford a college education you deserve is a bonus to living in Germany, but Bucksch certainly also expressed contempt for the unfairness of the entire system and the issues with it, especially for the many kids who will never have the opportunity to go to college. Another difference is the offering of electives in American public schools, and our ability to choose our classes. Alvaro Gomez of Spain noted, “The chance to pick your own classes is so nice… you can choose what you want to do… in Spain you have to take some classes and here I have web design and it’s so fun.” In Italy, it seems that students can also choose to go to a trade school or a regular academic high school, allowing them to focus more on learning about what they are actually interested in, although students still cannot choose their individual classes. So, American schools do offer many electives, but there are certainly other systems that allow people to learn.
Returning to some of the interactions of high school, another interesting difference is the relationships of students and their teachers. All three foreign exchange students agreed that their interactions with their teachers in Europe were much more formal than they are here, and that many students in America are friendly with their teachers and even discuss their personal lives with them, something that would never occur back in Europe. With this higher openness in everyone’s relationships in America, Bucksch also explained that people discuss mental health here, and she appreciated that people were open to talking about it and not quick to judge others for discussing it. Although America certainly can always make improvements in how it perceives mental illnesses, this analysis has certainly given me hope in the way that we continue to understand and discuss it.
Many European schools also seem to place a heavy focus on academics. Bucksch said that German schools don’t generally offer extracurriculars, and focus on education instead of having sports, or clubs such as drama. Being a talented actress herself, Bucksch is involved in an acting company, but it is not a program offered by the school itself. This difference is certainly surprising for many Americans to hear, because although academic success is a huge part of getting into college, extracurricular activities and sports are also often determining factors in the college acceptance of many American high schoolers. Bertoncini also explained that her school does not offer extracurricular activities. However, Gomez noted that although his school does not have clubs, it does have sports teams.
Many European countries have a legal driving age of 18, and this has admittedly been an issue for many of the students in Wisconsin, where most things are very spread out and people drive to get anywhere and everywhere. In Europe, public transport is apparently more common and most things are closer together, making driving less of a necessity. Unfortunately, in the town of Sussex, a car is needed to get to many places, and this is an obvious struggle for everyone who cannot yet drive, especially in high school where driving is very common among students to go places. But driving to get food is one thing that may not be very enjoyable because all three foreign exchange students seem to have come to the perhaps unsurprising consensus that European food is superior.
Bertoncini noted, “The food is so sweet here… Americans put sugar in the bread.” I personally was not aware of our bread’s sweetness, but Bucksch also mentioned that she was very excited to eat fresh German bread again. Additionally, it seems that there are more food options in Germany— Bucksch said that even going to a fast food restaurant, it is easy to find vegetarian choices in Europe, which is certainly not the case in America. Gomez said that he did like the food here although he also enjoyed food from Spain, and Bucksch also noted that she specifically really misses German chocolate. I personally have had the opportunity to try some, and I can attest that it is certainly better than its American counterpart. In conclusion, European food is probably better than ours.
On a final note, I also think that the music situation is really interesting— I noticed when interacting with Bucksch that she seemed to know quite a few American pop songs already, and she said that she mainly listened to American music. This held relatively true for the other students as well, and was surprising for me because I certainly do not know any pop songs from Italy, Germany, or Spain. However, this may be partly due to the fact that a lot of Americans do not know Italian, German, and Spanish, while many Europeans do learn English, and this may contribute to the success of American music in not traditionally English speaking countries. Learning about differences in culture, interactions, schooling, transportation, and food between Europe and the United States was certainly interesting and brought me to a conclusion: if I visit Europe, I’m certainly going to try a lot of food.
