Exchange Student Information

For Danes the dinner time is equal reflection of the day for the entire family unit. When friends are visiting it is also the time where social ties are strengthen when they open up.

Of course this is difficult abroad when the exchange student is robbed of the tool to socialize with strangers. And a host family can never be a real family. There will be a barrier, which will be hard to overcome.

However, confronted with a story which tends to belong to the horror category, I believe that most Danish exchange students will do better.  It is a question about what country you choose to study in and of course they will also set a limit for how cultural challenge they will met.

A poor US exchange student did get poor guidance from both the exchange student agency and his parents. They did a poor job by allowing young man to live out a dream, most adults with life experience would never even plan to outlive.

Quite a number of people who have chosen not worship Christianity like most of us choose to fast. Fasting is for some a part of a native religious ritual, which you as visitor has to respect when you choose to visit their rural area. Nobody is forcing you so you can choose not to go there.

A huge responsibility is lying on both adults and the agency in such case testing very carefully whether the teenager is ready for the difficult challenge to adapt to a foreign culture. Even the slightest doubt expressed in the months before the departure must be addressed. Unfortunately some agencies are not up to take on this level of responsibility; they tend to focus on profit instead. That’s leaves the parents as the sole responsible for the safety of their child.

The question is whether the parents of future exchange students realize that they are much on their own.

References:
Exchange student says he was denied adequate food (The Boston Globe, February 28, 2008)