Exhibit: Foreign Exchange Students

Benchmark: Teamwork/Communication

Skills: TC101

            TC102

            During my junior year in my Psychology class we had three foreign exchange students. One was from Brazil, another from Germany, and one from Poland. All three of them were extremely close friends and were always fun to be around. During the course of Psychology we got to talk a lot about the different cultures and we all had many good conversations together.

            Throughout my time in psychology I learned that one of the main things that was different in America versus their countries was the food! Not only were the portions considerably larger here but our names for food were completely different. For example, what we call bread they call toast. My friend Darlene from Germany was extremely irritated by the fact that our “bread” was not actually bread in her mind. They would all argue amongst themselves about the different types and names of food but most importantly they couldn’t believe how much we ate here. Also considering these three students were all girls they were very concerned with how much weight they were gaining due to the portion sizes and how fattening our food was. I learned a lot about the differences in culture through these simplistic conversations and was also reminded of how fortunate I am and how spoiled we are in American society.

            My experiences with the foreign exchange students, who grew to be my friends, taught me about how different are cultures are in everyday simple things but I also learned that no matter how different we all are we can always come together. We would constantly help each other learn throughout our psychology course whether it was studying together through games in class or by simply explaining common phrases or words used in the English language. They were great friends to me and they always had great stories to tell about fun times they had in their home countries. They were very opinionated on the disciplinary system in schools and also the rules and guidelines set in place for them while they were here. Misia, the girl from Poland, was extremely agitated by how lax the punishments were in school. For example, if you are tardy to the same class three times in a row you get a lunch detention. She firmly believed that this was just a slap on the wrist and that it was not a harsh enough punishment to discourage kids from doing it again. Personally part of me agreed with her because some students don’t care if they get sent to ISS (In School Suspension) and would need more to punish them; however, on the other hand if I got a lunch detention or ISS then I would be mortified to miss class or lunch because of that. Another difference in culture that was  with some of the stories told by the foreign exchange student from Germany was that the legal drinking age there is sixteen whereas here it is 21. This was different for her because it was so normal in Germany and she was surprised at the rigid discipline of that here.

            I learned about the many differences in culture and opinions throughout the course of the year in Psychology and I came to be very accepting of their different views and opinions. I am grateful for this experience because I know it will be applicable to both my future career and adult life. I will have to be accepting of opinions and new ideas all the time in my career whether it is from parents, doctors, or even clients themselves. Also, there will always be people in my life who have different views and opinions than me and I will have to learn to be accepting of them. My experience in Psychology and with my foreign friends taught me a lot and I am grateful for the new skills I developed throughout the course of the year.