For a girl like Chilli Mollerup it meant that she properly lost any other chance of other than a McJob career when the exchange student travel agency turned her down just before she was supposed to have spent a year in France as exchange student.
She had paid the fee and was set to leave Denmark august when she in June received a single poor grade which made the travel agency turn her down.
She then had to look at options in Denmark. Instead of a gap year she did choose to focus on her education. It was then that she discovered that her backup plan was not a valid option.
The town of Odense did only have one option of schooling left. A school for students who have grown tired of education where she would receive education 2 days per week and has to work for free 3 years at firms who are special benefitted by their close ties to the local authorities.
It wasn’t really an offer she could use for anything. She has a paid job which she got when she learned of the rejection.
Can you blame the school administration? Hardly! The local school administration is under enormous pressure from the department of Education in Copenhagen. The population in Denmark suffers more than people in any other country because they have to pay for dissolute lifestyle the Greek people had maintained since 1967 when she kicked their king out.
What could she have done in order to prevent her from ending up in this dead end? First there is the question if it is smart to apply for status as an exchange student at all when it is all or nothing. Second she could have chosen a more mainstream language instead on a minor lesser and lesser used dialect.
It is a lesson hard learned for Miss Mollerup but we all need to learn from her ordeal. Do not apply for an exchange student where speaking in a non-english language is needed. Avoid states in the United States where people need to speak servant too.
Double book a Danish school and the exchange papers so you have something to fall back on if the exchange project doesn’t turn out good.
We must hope that this case will be the last case of its kind.
Reference:
For sent til 10. klasse (Fyens Stiftstidende)