Foreign Exchange Student

[meemee]

i did not go to school here so i know nothing about the education system.

i have loads of time but was wondering if you could tell me what the process is. do you have kids as FES? during high school.

do you have to go to a school that has that kind of program?

who pays?

dd even now is pretty serious about going to japan for a year. she has loved everything japanese since she was an infant.

does the process vary from state to state?

[MattBronsil]

I never did it, but we had a foreign exchange student from Brazil. There are many agencies that set these things up. I would look into them and contact them.

[blessedwithboys]

When I was in HS, I knew a FES who went through Nacel. Maybe call or email them?

[Alyantavid]

I never did it, but a coworker is in charge of one of the programs, so I know a few things.

There are lots of different programs out there for the exchanges. Our town uses Rotary Youth Exchange.

The parents pay for everything. I think it probably varies more by which program you use and what country you're going to.

[butterflies]

We host FES who are college-age or post-grad. If you live in a major city, you may be able to find these programs where students come to study English (often only a short time, maybe 1-6 months). Or programs for graduate-level students who first study English and then transition into a grad program (often international relations/business/etc). Most of the students we've hosted have been from Asia/ It might be a great experience for you to host Japanese students and who knows, you might end up with long-term contacts to help your dd plan her trip in the future. We do keep in touch with some former students on facebook.

In our case, the program pairs up host families with students. Students or their families pay the program for room/board and we receive a biweekly check from the program office. We provide a room and 2 meals daily (a private bathroom is not required).

[Dar]

It sounds like she's pretty set on Japan, but if she's willing to consider Korea or China (or a number of other countries) she could apply to NSLI-Y, which would be free if she was selected (funded by the state department). That's how Rain spent last year in Russia.

[meemee]

Originally Posted by Dar

It sounds like she's pretty set on Japan, but if she's willing to consider Korea or China (or a number of other countries) she could apply to NSLI-Y, which would be free if she was selected (funded by the state department). That's how Rain spent last year in Russia.

yes dar. she is pretty set on japan. there is some deep connection she has with japan. she has always had. even as a crawling baby she would always crawl to the manga section in the library. at 8 months she knew exactly where that was in the huuuuge children's section.

but i am excited about india. that is her second place of choice she would like to go. she however wants to learn bengali because of Satyajit Ray that her gma introduced her to.

she actually wants to spend one year in japan and another in india.

but thank you so much for that free link. there is no way i could possibly afford two years. one i might. not two.

is there a limitation as to how many years you can do as a FES. meaning would she be allowed to stay in any country for two years. or could she be technically allowed to spend 4 years in 4 schools.

[Amatullah0]

all of the FES i have met(we had a lot in our huge school) had to repeat the year once they got back home. These were foreign students though, who often had more requirements than we did in the american school. so, during the time that they were doing the foreign exchange, it was like a vacation, they were missing out on a year of school, and would have to repeat that year. I don't know what its like for americans who are FES abroad though.

[Dar]

Of the 5 students in Rain's Russia group, two were taking a gap year, two were doing it as their senior year, and Rain was a junior. None of the current high school students had to repeat a year.

If you could get funded to study abroad all 4 years, why not? I'd homeschool, so then when she started to think about applying to college you could just go ahead and fill in any gaps she might have...

[meemee]

Originally Posted by Dar

If you could get funded to study abroad all 4 years, why not? I'd homeschool, so then when she started to think about applying to college you could just go ahead and fill in any gaps she might have...

hey maybe if she got a handle on the language maybe she will go to school - if she chooses that at a country where she can establish residency and go for FREE!!!!

i had thought about her going all 4 years abroad. in fact i am hoping one of those years will be with me when i head south. but i definitely want her to come with me as she will have a completely different experience than a FES.

this is what makes parenting sooo fascinating for me. all these possibilities. wonder which path she is going to take.

[Dar]

IME study abroad programs for high school students that run during the school years include attending school in the country where they're living... Rain and all of the NSLI-Y kids started the week after they arrived, 6 days a week and something like 8 hours a day. Some of the classes were in Russian, from the very first - they didn't understand much in the beginning, of course, but by the end they did, and in classes like biology a lot of the terms were similar. She took a great class in Soviet cinema her second semester there, I believe.

She also spent around 4 hours a day in Russian language classes, and since many of the students there studied English she was able to sort of work-study as a teacher assistant in a US History and American lit class, taught in English - I think one semester each. She also took Russian history and geography, which were taught specially to the American students in English (there were 5 of them there in the fall and 2 more joined then in the spring). High school classes in Russia (as in most of Europe, I believe) don't generally meet every day...

She did end up with a school transcript - actually two of them, one in Russian from the gymnasium there and one in English from American Councils, who administered her program. We'll submit that with her college applications, of course, but the homeschooling piece allows us to include things she did besides her work at her Russian high school. For example, she worked through most of Algebra 2 last summer with me (in Tunisia ) because she didn't end up taking any math classes in Russia - she started to, but math is her toughest subject anyway and she found it too difficult to do in Russian.

If your daughter comes with you to do fieldwork for a year, you could enroll her in a local school and also register her as a homeschooler through your U.S. state of residence, which I think would give you a lot more flexibility as far as preparing a college transcript.

Planning way ahead, I know... but that's what we're doing right now, so it's on my mind!

[meemee]

sorry dar by school i meant college. i have a friend in germany getting her masters without spending a penny on tuition.

thanks for the heads up. got it all stored away in my brain now.

it will be interesting if her dad refuses to let her. however she is an extremely assertive person.

[meemee]

ooooh they have a really cool way of doing math multiplication russian style.

with your fingers. i cant remember.