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High School Exchange Students in US Share Their Thoughts

December 31st, 2009 at 04:02am Under Education report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Twenty-six thousand foreign exchange students are in American high schools this year. A few days ago, we asked four teenagers who arrived in August to discuss their experience so far. All but one are attending public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside Washington.

Johanna is from Germany.

JOHANNA: “The biggest difference for me is the relationship to the teachers. Because here the teachers are more friends, and in Germany they are more like parents and strict and stuff like that.”

Another difference? In American high schools, the students are usually the ones who change rooms. Johanna and Daniel come from schools where the teachers change classrooms.

DANIEL: “In Austria, it’s more like you have all classes together with the same group of people. And so you are really good friends with like all the people you’re in class with, because you know them since like four years and you have all classes together with them.”

Hande Gulcin

Hande from Turkey is living with a host family in Denver, Colorado. She says students in Turkish schools have less choice.

HANDE: “You cannot choose your own classes. And you don’t have the right to drop out of one of them.”

She says Turkish schools are also more formal.

HANDE: “When a teacher comes into the class you have to stand up and greet the teacher. He or she says good morning or good afternoon or something like that and you all, as a class, you answer. We don’t do this in class here.”

How does the education compare? Hande is in three Advanced Placement classes, which are meant to prepare students for college.

HANDE: “A.P. courses are really hard and they really force you to learn and are really good. But the regular classes, their level is lower than in Turkey.”

Rosa is from a country where high school is five years, not four like in America.

ROSA: “In Italy we go to school only during the morning and just like for lessons. And Italian schools [don't] have like other activities. And whatever we want to do, it’s outside the school or on our own or like private school or association outside.”

On the other hand, she says, having to go elsewhere for activities is not necessarily a bad thing.

ROSA: “We in Italy, or in Europe, I think, we have a more free environment, if I can say this, because we are in touch with a lot of different things that are outside the school. It’s like an American school could be a protective box.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about high school exchange programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Bob Doughty.

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High School Exchanges in U.S.

The State Department recognizes about 100 sponsoring organizations for its Secondary School Student Exchange Visitor Program. These organizations are responsible for supervising the students and placing them with host families.

Safety activists say parents should be careful in choosing a sponsoring organization. Students should never leave their home country without knowing who their host family will be. Something else to know is how the organization investigates families that want to host exchange students.

Students in the exchange program must be 15 to 18 1/2 years old. They must have no more than 11 years of education (12, if the student went to kindergarten) and a good record in school. They must also speak English well. And they must agree to accept the rules of the exchange program and their host family.

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Studying in the US: Foreign Graduates and Jobs

December 25th, 2009 at 03:53am Under Education report

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We answered a question last week about how American college students find jobs after they graduate. Now, we discuss foreign graduates. The process for employing foreign workers in the United States is long. It involves different government agencies. It also involves a hot political issue.

President Obama signing the $787 billion federal stimulus bill into law on February 17

For example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed into law in February dealt with this issue. It included conditions against foreign workers displacing qualified Americans at companies that receive federal stimulus money.

Job cuts have slowed in some industries. But the economic downturn has cost millions of jobs and recovery will take some time.

Foreign graduates need a job offer to get an H-1B visa. This is a non-immigrant visa for work in the person’s area of specialty. The employer is the one who applies for it. The visa is good for three years and may be extended for another three years.

Cheryl Gilman directs visa services at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She noted that H-1B visas were still available for next year. This tells her that the recession is preventing employers from sponsoring as many foreign nationals as they have in the past.

Sixty-five thousand H-1Bs are awarded each year to graduates with a bachelor’s degree. Bill Wright at the Department of Homeland Security says fewer than forty-five thousand applications for these visas had been received as of this week.

There was more demand for twenty thousand other H-1Bs for those with advanced degrees. In addition, thousands of the visas are awarded to other groups, such as university researchers.

Amy Ramirez is an administrator at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. She says foreign students who work for their school or at an internship probably have the best chance for a job after graduation.

She points out that many foreign graduates ask to stay for what is called optional practical training. This lets them accept temporary employment in their area of study for twelve months after graduation.

Many times, the employer will then apply for an H-1B. But Amy Ramirez and Cheryl Gilman both say foreign students should understand that visa rules change often. That can make it difficult to plan ahead for what to do after graduation.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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