Foreign Exchange Students

Adrien Marze from France (2005-2006)

The best thing for me is to travel abroad and meet people.  The 2nd best thing is to receive exchange students from abroad.  I have been fortunate to spend time with many students from around the world.  My first exchange student was welcomed in my family's home in high school:  Delphine from France.  While teaching, I've been fortunate to be a point person for many students.  I worked with Sholpan (female) from Uzbekistan, Adrien (male) from France, Wilmarys (female) from Puerto Rico and Che (female) from Korea just to name a few.  Today, I had the great fortune of meeting Ef Fan (male) from China, who has chosen to go by the name Johnny.  Hope the gender tags help!  If it were up to me, I'd be lost being left with the names alone.  

My colleague and friend is hosting Johnny this academic year.  He is a nice young man whose English is already at a communicable level.  I can't wait til the end of the year to hear how much he's progressed.  That is always such a joy to see the language ability grow leaps and bounds.  Often, the exchange students that I've worked with arrive with a working knowledge of English fit for a textbook.  I always see it as my job to take the textbook talk to a conversational level.  Its quite different conversing normally versus what a textbook presents.  You feel me? 

I wish the Carlson family love and luck with their exchange student.  Its always a brave act to invite an exchange student into one's home but the benefits for both parties abound.