By Madison Tran, staff writer
Foreign exchange students are often peppered with questions such as: What is school like there? What are relationships like? Is the food different? Do you like it in America more?
There is now a new way for students to learn the answers to all of their questions: a class called World Cultures.
World Cultures consists of learning about foods and restaurants, dating, clothing, language, sports, music, movies and TV, plus many more interesting facts about the countries from which the foreign exchange students come.
PHS is hosting 17 exchange students this year. The new class is also a way for the exchange students to interact with American students. Students will become more culturally diverse than ever before because the exchange students who come to PHS teach the class directly about their countries.
“I was an exchange student three times and know how some kids can struggle trying to adjust to a new environment or country. Also, over the years I’ve had several exchange students in class; they’ve often had valuable input about life in other countries,” said teacher Sarah Boven.
Boven, who created the class, thought it would be great to put our students and exchange students in an environment where they can learn from each other.
“I love watching the exchange students and American students get to know each other and learn about each other,” said teacher Stephanie Larson who is co-teaching the class.
World Cultures isn’t just interesting; it can help new students adapt to the American way.
“It has already reduced the anxiety of several of the students because they have new friends to help them around the school and help them out,” said Boven.
“I like the class because it is more interesting than in Brazil. It helps me make new friends and helps with many things in school” said Beatriz Andrade Silva from Brazil.
“The class has helped me make many friends and it has taught me a lot about different countries that I didn’t know before,” said Friederika Koerte from Germany.
World Cultures is a diverse class with many things to learn. The class is set up so that it’s not just the teachers that teach, it’s the students as well.
The class is one trimester per year and this year it is first trimester fifth hour. There are 45 students in the class; it is so big that they meet in the band room every day.
“We do a lot of hands on projects like making posters about each country. We also do fun activities like speed dating,” said Jennifer Hutchinson ‘17.
“We are starting to learn basic vocabulary in each language, it is really interesting to see the differences between all of our languages,” said Jacob Gernaat ‘17.
“World Cultures helps clear the stereotypes of other countries and it is a lot more in depth than a regular foreign language class,” said Helena O’Hare ‘17.