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Exchange Students from overseas
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Anyone done this? We just submitted our "application" to host a German boy for the 2018-19 school year. The schools starting early in Savannah, GA. this means he'd get here in July. We're figuring on getting a 10th grader, the same age as our oldest boy. We also have twin boys 2 grades younger.

I'm driving this show. Mrs RG, who rules the house except for meals, has acquiesced. The impetus for this is my desire that our boys have more contact with foreigners to help combat the "America is the center of the universe" idea that all us Walmart shoppers have. Imo a foreign country, a foreign culture, isn't "real" until you've been there.

I picked Germany because 3 of my 4 grandparents were German, and I lived there for 4yrs in the early 90's. If it goes well, Mrs RG can pick the next country of origin. She'll prob pick Spain.

Has to be a boy tho. I wouldn't want to inflict our 3 knuckleheads upon some innocent lass. That would be just cruel.

Last year I spent a couple months teaching the boys German via audio lessons. 20yrs ago my German was "useful", but certainly not fluent. I'll restart that effort this Spring. The kid will speak English tho. Probably better than our kids.

Our local HS, arguably the best public HS in GA(*), is hot for exchange students so getting the kid into the school will be easy.

(*) I think that GA is usually 48-50th in the nation for HS test scores, depending on how SC and MO do one year to the next. So, school is best of the worst.

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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We had japanese students a couple times. It was fun. Our kids loved it.

sometimes
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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I exchanged to the foreign country of Quebec ;) My niece spent a month in Tokyo on an exchange 2 years ago. It's interesting and certainly gives a different perspective on other ways of living.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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My parents hosted international students from the time I was 10 until I graduated. We are on the west coast so we had students from Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc. Only real issue was with mainland Chinese, as there were some pretty stark cultural hurdles to overcome. You won't get those with euros.

It was an awesome experience. You might consider older students, too. We had a few grad students come through, and they ended up being more older brother figures to me then room mates and we're all exceptionally mature (compared to Canadian 20 somethings) and great additions to the house hold. That, and they are far less work for the parents as they are generally independent.

Long Chile was a silly place.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Wonderful idea. My daughter did her grade 10 as a foreign exchange in Belgium and returned home fully fluent in French. She's kept in touch with her host family and even went back over to visit them a few years ago.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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I want to do this at some point.

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Exchange programs are excellent, especially for American children who see the world by watching shows like Amazing Race and Survivor. I was an exchange student in Japan and worked as an au-pair in Switzerland many years ago. Both gave great experiences and thought me to appreciate different cultures and way of life.


_____________________________________
DISH is how we do it.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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I was an exchange student from Hungary just after the fall of communism, and then the American students spent a month with Hungarian families.
It was great.

It was wintertime. I will never forget the look on the faces of those Ivy league students when we took them to a village for a traditional pig slaughter.

Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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 Currently have 16 year old girl from France. Last year had girl from Austria for the year and girl from Australia for march to July because of conflict with her first host family. If you want your kids to learn German Austrians are an alternative. All the kids from Europe we met had English that was pretty good when they arrived

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [len] [ In reply to ]
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len wrote:
Currently have 16 year old girl from France. Last year had girl from Austria for the year and girl from Australia for march to July because of conflict with her first host family. If you want your kids to learn German Austrians are an alternative. All the kids from Europe we met had English that was pretty good when they arrived
Good thought. With an Austrian kid what the kids would learn about Europeans would be pretty much the same. Germans and Austrians might not agree, but I'd call it close enough.

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Austrians are 150% German.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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We did that years ago when the Army had me going to grad school at Texas A&M. Wife and i discussed it and thought it would be fun. I voted for a teenage female from Sweden but that dog didn't hunt very well :-( So we ended up sponsoring a young German lad who lived with us for a year and went to US highschool. It was very interesting and we got lucky in getting such a squared away kid to practice parenting teenagers. He ended up coming back to the US after finished German HS and he graduated from a US college in TX and started up his own company in Austin, TX. We've staid in close touch for years; had big role in his wedding and visit them often. We basically refer to him as our "german son" and our kids look to him as a older brother. It was a real blessing in our life. I wish you all a equally lucky experience.

/r

Steve
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Make sure you pay the paperboy his $2 or you'll never get any peace.






Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [ In reply to ]
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Applications from students are starting to come in for review. We were told, in no uncertain terms, "don't pick the first kid. It's very tempting, but don't do it. Other great applicants will show up in your email too. Just be patient."

First kid looks like a perfect fit. Mrs. RG says he's "adorable".

It was not 24hrs ago we were told not to pick the first kid. So I'm sitting my hands. Judging from his activities and interests, the German kid looks to be a clone of our # 1 son. Except the German kid has a much better hair cut.

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
Last edited by: RangerGress: Jan 8, 18 18:04
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Do it. My wife's ex did it for years and her daughter still has several close friends as a result. You will hit some cultural differences. Drinking age in Germany is 16, and the American restrictions can be restrictive. Kids have a bit more freedom and latitude there. Regardless, it is good for your kids worldview.

Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [Tri-Banter] [ In reply to ]
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I want my two dollars.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [windschatten] [ In reply to ]
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windschatten wrote:

You might end up with someone looking like Jerome Boateng, Leroy Sane or Dennis Schröder. These are Ze Germans nowadays, and proud of it.

So given your presentation on this forum here, I'd want to caution that the "Germans" you remember and that get fed to you by media and TV don't exist anymore....you might be disappointed about the lack of "eins..zwei...drei".

They won't be star struck and may bring an understanding of what the world really looks like.
So I applaud your choice.

When I was in Germany 90-94, I was late 20's/early 30's. My genuinely fabulous German GF was 10yrs younger. I hung around with her, older brother, and their whole crowd a lot. It was a lot of fun. The difference in patriotism and, well, jingoism, between them and me often made me chuckle. The post WW2 Germans apparently had enough of that sort of thing.

Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Most people we know who have done it have had good experiences. One couple did not, ended up with an Italian kid who wouldn't stop banging his girlfriend (loudly) in the house even when asked. So he got kicked out. I think some other family took him, so he didn't have to go back to Italy.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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RangerGress wrote:
Anyone done this? We just submitted our "application" to host a German boy for the 2018-19 school year. The schools starting early in Savannah, GA. this means he'd get here in July. We're figuring on getting a 10th grader, the same age as our oldest boy. We also have twin boys 2 grades younger.

I'm driving this show. Mrs RG, who rules the house except for meals, has acquiesced. The impetus for this is my desire that our boys have more contact with foreigners to help combat the "America is the center of the universe" idea that all us Walmart shoppers have. Imo a foreign country, a foreign culture, isn't "real" until you've been there.

I picked Germany because 3 of my 4 grandparents were German, and I lived there for 4yrs in the early 90's. If it goes well, Mrs RG can pick the next country of origin. She'll prob pick Spain.

Has to be a boy tho. I wouldn't want to inflict our 3 knuckleheads upon some innocent lass. That would be just cruel.

Last year I spent a couple months teaching the boys German via audio lessons. 20yrs ago my German was "useful", but certainly not fluent. I'll restart that effort this Spring. The kid will speak English tho. Probably better than our kids.

Our local HS, arguably the best public HS in GA(*), is hot for exchange students so getting the kid into the school will be easy.

(*) I think that GA is usually 48-50th in the nation for HS test scores, depending on how SC and MO do one year to the next. So, school is best of the worst.

We hosted German exchange student for about 2 weeks. 2 weeks because that is how this program works. My son will go for 2 weeks this summer. 2 stories about his visit.

1. The student had the option of going to all classes with my son or going the cafeteria or library. He chose to go to all the classes. The exchange student got kicked out of Global Studies for "flipping my son the bird" I got a nice long nasty gram from the teacher over that one. When they got home from school, I asked them what went on. The basically said just what the teacher described. I explained to the student that that means a very bad word here in the US and is inappropriate. He said he wouldn't do it again. Then both boys said they thought the teacher was completely over reacting, I suspected this as well... Its some thing 14 year old boys would do... Anyway, the student told me they use that gesture in Germany as if to say "your being stupid" or something like that. Later on that evening, The exchange students teacher did in fact that they use that gesture all the time in Germany and its not that big of a deal. Cultural differences learned..

2. One of the female students that was here apparently wanted the whole "American Boyfriend" treatment. I guess she had to be told that going to a drive in movie with boy and jumping in back seat would be inappropriate for the host family to let her do. She then described how back in Germany her parents let she would go on Holiday over a weekend or 2 with her 23 year old boyfriend. She was 15...

Anywho.. go for it. I was hesitant at first but it was a really rewarding experience for my family and my son.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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ThisIsIt wrote:
Most people we know who have done it have had good experiences. One couple did not, ended up with an Italian kid who wouldn't stop banging his girlfriend (loudly) in the house even when asked. So he got kicked out. I think some other family took him, so he didn't have to go back to Italy.
Shit.


_____________________________________
DISH is how we do it.
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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I imagine it totally depends on the kid(s) and their culture:


Some close friends of ours recently hosted two 10-year old Chinese girls for about six weeks. (I was surprised by their youth but was told that in their culture it's not unheard of to ship young kids off to boarding schools so 10-year olds on an international trip is not uncommon). The husband, who's almost never home, loved it because in his short interactions with them (mainly driving them to school in the mornings) he got to practice his Mandarin. The wife, who was the one carrying 95% of the burden, hated it and will never do it again. The girls ignored her, never tried to engage anyone but the husband, never tried to engage in English, and were basically "all cost, no benefit" to her. They were even brusque with the couple's six-year old son.

War is god
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [windschatten] [ In reply to ]
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windschatten wrote:
slink wrote:
Austrians are 150% German.


Hahaha, I take it you mean 150% Bavarian?

Deep Love between Schluchtenkackern und Knoedelfressern.... LOL


Ja, tiefe Liebe! Ich selber bin stolzer Schluchtenkacker, die Marmeladingern koennen mir den Buckel runterrutschen. ;^>
Last edited by: eb: Jan 9, 18 22:26
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Re: Exchange Students from overseas [RangerGress] [ In reply to ]
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Screw 'em damn foreigners! 'Murika!

Get a kid from Cheeseeantingsurrendermonkeyland. From Paris. That way you'll learn that Paris is the center of the universe.
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