Foreign Exchange Visits

[Sparklingbrook]

Are they important? Do you have to have one if your child is studying the language and it is offered?
If DS doesn't do it will he be the only one?

Do a lot of parents go OTT with trips to here there and everywhere?

I think a week of polite smiling is probably a big fear word.

Not too many sparkling as with any luck the school will have organised quite a bit.

Ours went like this:

Day 1: student arrived mid afternoon.
Day 2 : students taken on a trip.
Day 3 : students went into school with our DC (a special timetable had been arranged).
Day 4: weekend. We waffled in the morning (walked the dog, played PS3, ate brunch). Then in the afternoon I took them out to a climbing wall.
Day 4: weekend. We went to a football match. Then back home for a raost dinner and a marathon Monopoly session.
Day 5: school arranged a trip for French students and our DC.
Day 6: free day. We took our student to The London Eye, The London Dungeons and shopping.
Day 7 : he went home.

I'm very jealous of all these schools still offering exchanges. I teach MFL and our Head is too risk-averse to allow them.

I did two when I was at school and had an amazing experience both times.

Our school does not do exchanges, but they do a language trip where the kids stay in a hostel and go out and about, visiting sites, shopping in groups of 3 or 4, a day in a local school etc... DD(12) loved it...

Risk averse? Your head sounds a tad twatty. There is far less risk now than in the past. It's much easier for kids to contact teachers or family in case of issues. And they're teenagers, not tiny children. And it's France/Germany, not a war zone.

That's really sad but i guess explains why so many children over here go on trips to the uk but exchanges are uncommon.

I did 4 between the ages of 13 and 17 (France and Germany, 2 weeks at a time) and had some up and down experiences but it was a huge help in learning the languages. Now I'm trying to arrange them for my 13 and 12 year olds, their school might do them higher up the school but not in years 9 and 8, and I'm keen to get them started so I'm arranging them independently.

My dc are quite keen, but I'd send them anyway as I think learning a language is important enough to merit a bit of social awkwardness.

His twattishness is a whole other thread Petite.

I think there is such a reluctance to take risks due to changes in parental expectations and the possibility of legal action is something goes awry.

It's a huge shame but not an isolated viewpoint, sadly.

That is so sad. Is he like that for all school trips or just trips to furrin parts?

I know what you mean sparklingbrook as we have managed to put exchanges off because DS is so shy and we really do not have space to put up someone else without DS sleeping on our sofa or our bedroom floor. I have heard from people whose DC really enjoyed it and others whose DC hated it or got nothing at all from it. Difficult decision.

We had a French girl stay with us last year from and agency. It's the first time we've done it and we all felt it went really well. She fitted in totally with what we planned. I gave her a choice each time, ie chicken or salmon, macaroni cheese or spag bol, cheese or ham sandwich etc, and every time she said, I like both and eat the lot. She was ready for bed by 9pm school nights which fitted in roughly with our daughter who went to bed at 9.30pm.

I only know the French I can remember from secondary school, so there were times it was hard to explain. My daughter was at the end of Year 7 and she was brilliant, explaining in her own basic French what we had said and the girl then came back to us with an answer in English, so clearly understood what my daughter had tried to say. They spent a lot of time asking eachother how to say words in the other language, so I think both sides got a lot out of it. My daughter has been more interested in French since, I think she can see if could be useful after all. They now write to eachother, my daughter will put what she knows in French, but sometimes there are English sentences and the other girl always uses English.

I think the thing is not to worry about it too much and just go with the flow.

There are 7 years between my two, and for a while in between the school stopped them because of child protection concerns. DD1 did two organised ones, one to France (which went OK) and one to Germany which went brilliantly. She's still in regular contact with the German girl, and they organised their own personal exchanges afterwards. DD1 was so enthused she went on to study languages at uni and is now living and working in Germany and has a lovely German boyfriend.

With DD2 they have just restarted them and we recently welcomed a German 15 year old. They were good friends by the end of the week and she's looking forward to the German leg next June (sadly just after GCSEs).

I think the going to bed early thing has a lot to do with being exhausted after concentrating all day to understand and speak in a foreign language. I'd try to offer a separate room for that reason and explain to your DD/DS. Our experience with all of the girls we've had is that they were keen to try anything foodwise (marmite, English mustard, Yorkshire puds, tea with milk). We've never had any problem feeding them.

It's one week - it will pass. I think it is worth the "risk". I wouldn't worry about the lack of space. We often have out of town friends crash on the sofa/aero mattress.

We were told not to worry about the students having their own room, and advisedf that our DC may have to share in France.

As it happened we have the space and DC both had their own rooms in France, but it was made clear this shouldn't be a problem.

All other trips are fine, it's just exchanges. I'm taking fifty students to France next year and, as a school, we offer a wide range of visits all over the world.

How strange. I'd have thought staying with a family would be pretty much as safe as it gets.

DD has done this twice, first time age 14 and then this year age 17. The school only offer it to these age groups. It gave her so much confidence in her spoken German. Fortunately she isn't a fussy eater and neither was her exchange so food wasn't a problem. Her school insist that the exchange person sleeps in a proper bed, so when exchange was here she had dds bed and dd slept on a futon in the same room. They wanted it that way because by then they were quite good friends. When dd went to Germany on both occasions she was offered her own room but declined it and was happy to go in same room as partner.

DD really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others

I did this twice as a teenager. The first time I didn't get a lot out of it and didn't get on very well with my exchange partner, but the second time it was excellent. I am still friends with my exchange partner and we visited her last year as part of our summer holiday. We have now known each other for nearly 20years!
It is one of those things that you just have to do and hope for the best. I am really glad I did both of mine.

Thanks for all the replies, It's so helpful to hear of others experiences, and I didn't realise some schools didn't even do them. Hurrah for DS1's untwatty Head.

We have been chatting about it, but not yet decided.

I went on one of these exchanges when I was 14. A german one. First time abroad. Very shy. Couldnt really afford it. No spare room. Tiny house. It was the only tripI went on Iin school. Really couldnt recommend it highly enough.
It was fab!

We kicked my brother out of his room for the week. Did some research on the kind of food the exchange student would like. Did very cheap day out at the weekend and generally carried on with normal life although on best behaviour! :)

Going over tjere was a brilliant experience for me. Came back and totally aced my german gcse!

I think if you can do it, then it will be a brilliant experience. Really worth doing.

DSS2 had his exchange partner in his room, and he stayed in his exchange partner's room, on both occasions. DSS2 is not particularly fussed about comfort, however. I agree that exchange partners ought to be given the bed if there is a bed/futon issue and making an effort with food and generally trying to make the other child as comfortable as possible ought to be the norm, though Parisian parents are notoriously neglectful!

DD1 is currently doing a language exchange to France - for three months! She's 15, so a bit older than your DS Sparkling,, but she's also pretty shy, and we also don't have a spare room.

We also don't live in the UK (so it was a French-German exchange rather than French-British), and it's noticable that UK exchanges are both less common and not as long. A week is better than nothing, but it's a taster rather than a way of achieving real fluency.

The key components to success are:

• Your DC really wants to do it (it's not your idea and they're reluctantly going along with it)
• Both families make a real effort to make the guest child feel at home and understand that what may come across as 'sulkiness' might actually be teenage hormones combined with total shyness and difficulties with the language.

In our case, it was DD1's idea all along, and she's had to make a real effort to overcome her shyness, but (maybe as a consequence) we're immensely proud of what she's achieved. She's even in a different school year to her exchange partner (seconde rather than terminale) so she's had to go into a completely strange school group and do all her lessons in French. It's taught her a lot, not just in terms of language skills, but also self-confidence and independence.

Neither family (us and the exchange partner's family) have a spare room. In both cases the host children moved into a bedroom together and enabled the guest child to have a room to herself, which I do think is important. If you're in a 'strange' environment, it's nice to have a zone where you can have some privacy.

Both the girls also made a real effort to get to know each other beforehand, via Facebook. We also mailed with the other mother quite a bit to clear up issues like favourite foods, allergies, extra lessons, who pays for what. We achieved a real parity with what we 'offered' the other child - we took the French girl for two weeks to the Austrian Alps and southern Germany, and DD1 has just spent a week in Paris and a week on the Cote d'Azur (staying with friends rather than luxury hotels etc). I think there would have been a bit of bad feeling if one family had taken their guest on a brill holiday but the other family had done nothing nice or special - and that's about making an effort rather than spending oodles of money.

My DD did one to Spain in Year 10. Spanish girls came to school in England for one week, then English girls went back with them for a week. During the week in England, English girls went to lessons as normal and the Spanish girls went on coach trips to London, Bluewater (?) etc. So the girls were entertained during the day. We really only had to look after her for one weekend. In the evening, they seemed to play on the wii, or watch English films with Spanish subtitles!

Both my daughters did an exchange with a South African school for a whole term! - and they travelled there and back without any parents. There were two girls selected from each year so they travelled together with the BA unaccompanied minors programme. I cannot believe the angst here about going to France and having someone back! Other girls travelled to Australia and New Zealand. My DD1 was 13 years 5 months when she went. It was a cultural exchange and we had a SA girl here for a whole term. Yes it takes some organisation but both my DDs thought it was a highlight of their young lives. Even the 'hard labour' punishment meted out to DD1 when her knicker drawer was found to be untidy in the boarding house has gone into folk lore here! Hard labour was getting up at 5 am in the morning to clean the toilets before school started. I am proud to say my DD took did it and earned respect as a result! A week in France is a walk in the park.

Well it may not be a walk in the park for my family Sue. Sorry for the angst but I have had some really helpful replies, and I am trying to decide what to do.

I am glad your DDs both had good experiences.