My first article

A lot of people asked me to publish on my blog the first article that I wrote for the school newspaper so I decided to do it. I wrote this article on September so my english used to suck a little bit but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway! I want to say THANKS to all the exchange students that answered to my questions and I am sorry because I couldn't write all your answers on the article because I had to do a summary. Hope you'll enjoy what I wrote have a god day/afternoon/night everyone !

Exchange Students are invading the world!

Angelica Petrini-Staff writer

Has it ever happened to you to find a boy or a girl at school who speaks a different language? Dress differently from you? That seems to come from another planet? If the answer is yes don’t worry! It isn’t the aliens invasion it’s just the exchange students invasion!

In this moment a thousand of teenagers are spread all around the world for living their year as exchange students.

They are immersed in a different culture,different family and different school to learn a new language but also ,the most important thing, to learn a new lifestyle different from their own.

Everything started one year ago in September when the association AFS opened the call and the people signed in to start the contest and "win" the opportunity to be exchange students. It's a contest because they have so many requests but not enough places available, in fact is pretty hard to find the host families in many countries.

In the last few years the number of students that decided to go on exchange is greatly increased and an example are surely the 1000 students from Italy that now are spread all around the world living a year o a six months program.

"Be an exchange students give you the possibility to learn things that staying at home you could never learn” said Annamaria that now is in Belgium and she is not the only one that think something like this, in fact Sara that now is in China for a year program said that “Being on exchange give you the possibility to make things that you could never do staying at home, I mean look at me ! Now I’m in China at my host grandmother’s house sitting in a very little chair cutting some strange vegetables and most of the people that I know they will never do a thing like this”.

Live this kind of experience is amazing because “You can learn a new language and make new friends” said Denis that now is in Slovenia in fact after this kind of travel you will come back to your home country that you can actually speak a new language so you'll be bilingual.

But .. it’s not always easy to live this kind of experience in fact often foreign exchange students find many difficulties and the most frequently is the language “It’s hard to not understand most of the time what other people are saying to you” said Timothy that now is on exchange in Finland and he is not the only one that met a difficult like this in fact several guys that now are in China said that it’s not easy to learn all the signs in mandarin “With the time it always gets better” said Valerio.

The language it’s not the only challenge that the students meet during their program in fact we have to remind that they are young .. boys and girls with an age between 14 and 18 years that have to stay away from their house and stay so far with the family and it’s not easy sometimes.

“Sometimes it’s hard, especially at evening when you are alone laying in your bed and you start to think to your family and to your home .. and you realize that you are alone and you really miss them” said Giulia ,year program in Ireland, and she is not the only one because all the exchange students miss home especially at the beginning of the program when they have to start to live in a new family, go to a new school and start to have a new lifestyle..

Be an exchange student is not just learn new stuff and learn a new language, it’s is a personal growth "When you are on exchange you learn how to discover your limit and your defects and it’s a good thing to know better yourself and who you really are” said Isabel that now is on exchange in Portugal.

Gain knowledge of themselves is a very important thing for the students because they start to learn how to be independent. “Being an exchange student it’s like born another time ,you have to learn again how to speak ,how to behave and how to walk but this time there are not your parents that are there to help and support you. You can count just on your forces” said Emma ,year program in Argentina.

The exchange students aren’t just a sponge that are absorbing a new lifestyle; they are a very important source of culture for all: for the host families that learn something new and for the schools because the students can teach different things about their own countries and they can compare many things like the school system ,the teenagers lifestyle and all this kind of things. Being an exchange student give the possibility to learn something new about a new country and also give the possibility to meet people that you would never meet staying at home but at the same time give the possibility to all the people around them to learn something new and especially to learn a new lifestyles about another country.