Exchange Student as a HS Senior

JHS
Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:03:29 +0000

I am an SYA alum, and can vouch that it’s a superb program and that it regularly accomodates seniors (although when I did it most of the seniors only spent one semester rather than two).

Running its own separate school is a tremendous advantage if you actually want to continue your education and go to college, but a disadvantage in terms of cultural immersion. I don’t think SYA is a good idea if you don’t have a pretty strong background in the language going in. In my year (many, many years ago), the kids who were decent in the language coming into the program got fluent quickly and got a ton out of it; the kids who had not taken more than a year or two of the language had a lot more trouble and learned a lot less.

Actually going to school in another language is very, very challenging. My family hosted AFS exchange students for years, one of whom wound up living with us for 7 years and finishing high school here. Hanging out at a school in a foreign language is pretty easy, but it takes people the better part of a year, or more, to get to the point where they’re learning close to what they would in their own language.