Richland School District Foreign Exchange Program

you

Coming up next week, an International Education Week event at Richland Center High School, a night celebrating global diversity.

Coming up next Tuesday, International Exchange Night.

Joining us from the YFU program is Kathy Fry and Dennis Fry is here as well, who is the coordinator at Richland Center High School of the Exchange Program.

Kathy, you are here in the summer and you are pleading for people to maybe open up their homes and things like that.

And you've got a great group this year and it looks like it's been a success.

It has.

We have eight students right now.

Two from Germany, one from Switzerland, one from the Netherlands, one from Chile, one from South Korea, and one from Finland.

Who am I missing?

Spain.

One from Spain.

OK.

So we have two Germans and one German speaker.

Rishi from Switzerland speaks German as well.

But it's a pretty good diverse group.

Always looking for host families.

So if anyone is interested in hosting, you know, they can contact me, but we can talk more about that later.

So right now we have four of them in the studio and the other four are waiting in the wings for the next half hour.

You know, it's a great thing for our community to welcome and kind of learn about this.

For those of us that can't travel there, we've talked about this before.

It's just a rewarding thing for us here in Richland Center.

It really is.

The students bring their culture here to

us and you'll get to get a little bit of a sample of that next Tuesday evening at the high school with our international night as you mentioned but also the families that host them get to get to get to know the culture of the students a little bit better and our community the kids are out in the community they're involved in sports and and the play and you know all different kinds of things dance.

just community events as well as school events and that's a good way for our community to experience culture that they normally wouldn't have had a chance to do.

It's always interesting how quickly they are absorbed by clubs and groups, you know, to join.

Yes, and I think that's kind of by design because they

don't have those opportunities at home in their home countries.

Most of the kids don't have a school that has school sports.

So they're involved in sports, but they're club sports.

They're not connected to the school at all.

And clubs during school, there aren't that many options for them to choose from in their home country.

So when they get here and there's all these different opportunities, they just want to do everything.

And sometimes,

Sometimes you have to say okay, you got to make some choices, but but they do they get involved right away They make you know they get make friends they they get involved with school activities And and that's a really good for both them and for us

being a coordinator with the yfu program You have students not just at richland center high school.

Is that correct?

That is correct this year.

I have two other students.

I have one at reedsburg and one at

No,

not pretty sheen.

Yeah, it'll come to me.

I'm putting it on the spot.

So somewhere over in that area.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I do have two others.

I, as a coordinator, I can work within a hundred mile radius.

So last year I had kids spread out a little farther.

This is preferable for me because I'm able to be able to get in touch with the kids easier and go see them and visit their schools.

And yeah, so it's a little easier for me having them closer.

It's great having so many right at Richland Center though.

So, our school has always been very good about accepting students and very supportive of the exchange programs.

Over the years, as you've been coordinating for a long time, have you kept tabs on which country is in the lead as far as the number of exchange

students?

It's probably Germany.

We've had a lot of German students here.

YFU was originally started to promote

peace between Germany and the US after World War II.

So a lot of German students, there's a big connection with YFU.

We do get a lot of students from Germany.

In fact, this year I believe about half of the students who came through YFU were from Germany.

So definitely Germany is in the lead.

But we've had a fair number of kids from Spain.

We've got a couple this year that are

that are new to us, I believe.

We've had some Chileans before, but only a couple.

I don't believe we've ever had anybody from South Korea.

I'm not sure about Netherlands, maybe once or twice.

Switzerland, we have had a fair number of students from Switzerland, so.

Have you learned much as far as foreign language over the years or?

You know, we've hosted a lot of German kids, but I really don't know much German at all except for Duma Loita.

That's a long story.

But anyway, one of our students has little kids and she was very frustrated with something and he said Duma Loita.

And her little boy was like three and he kept saying Duma Loita.

It means stupid people.

Of course, that's what kids pick up on first.

Oh, sure, sure.

I'm probably not pronouncing it correctly.

Right.

I have learned Spanish, so I'm pretty decent at Spanish.

Speaking and writing, reading, not so much understanding yet, but...

But yeah, it's always interesting to at least learn a few words from those cultures, from those languages.

It's a great skill to have, that is for sure.

Dennis, welcome to the morning show.

How's it going at Richland Center as far as your coordinating work this

year?

This year has been great.

This is my first year as the coordinator at Richland Center High School.

And when you have a great group of kids, it makes your job very easy.

Kathy has got a good, diverse group in this year.

which we always like to have.

Like she said, there's been a lot of German students through the Ritzland Center High School, and it's always nice to have a diverse group.

It's been going great so far.

Your family has benefited from the program over the years in making some lifelong friends, haven't

you?

Oh, it has.

We've hosted, I don't know, 26 students ourselves.

We've been mentor families for several others.

And they have been lifelong relationships.

You know, we've been to Europe a few times.

We've been over for a couple of weddings of some of our students.

Families have come here and visited us.

It's been great.

That's one of the things that Kathy always pushes when she's looking for families is this isn't a one-year hosting experience.

It's a lifelong experience.

Yeah, that's very true.

Isn't it amazing how close you can get in that less than a year span when they're at the school?

It is.

It's great.

It really is great.

And what's unique about this year's group of students at Richland Center High School?

Anything that comes to mind?

Nothing right off the top.

They're fitting in well.

Like Kathy said, they get opportunities here that they don't get at school.

And it's good to see them grow into those opportunities and try some different things that they don't have a chance to at home.

Indeed.

Well, I'll introduce you to them.

They're all here in the studio.

This is at least half of them are in here as well.

So if you'd pull that microphone over there and in your name, sir.

My name is Rishi.

I'm 18 years old and I'm from Switzerland.

Well, welcome to the Morning Show Studios.

What are the first four months of school been like?

Has it been enjoyable for you?

Yes, I would say the first quarter was a little bit less enjoyable because I really didn't figure out like which classes I liked, which ones I want to take.

But now the second quarter has been going very well.

I've been taking sociology class, cooking class, and also other different classes, which I really enjoy.

I also am able to go to the lifting class before lunch, which is very, very nice.

And I'm hoping to starting powerlifting as soon as it starts.

So yeah, it's going good.

What part of Switzerland are you from?

Zurich.

Zurich.

Okay.

I've been there.

Beautiful area.

I can see why people live there, to be honest.

Beautiful area.

So let's talk about your school.

You don't have the opportunity to be in as many clubs at your school back home, do you?

Actually, we don't have the opportunity to get into any school sports like there is no such thing.

We have like PE class every day, but that's just everybody playing dodgeball or soccer.

But outside of school I'm involved in a boxing club and a Thai boxing club, but that's privately financed and has nothing to do with the school.

So don't mess with you then, right?

Are you involved in some clubs and any sports at Richland Center High School?

I've signed up for the wrestling team and powerlifting, but I just have to wait till it starts.

That'll be Monday.

I hope so.

So yeah, wrestling.

Have you experienced any Greco Roman or anything like that before?

No,

not

really.

Okay.

So it'll be a little different than the boxing club that you're in.

So that's awesome.

And what was your, your big motivation for, for coming to Wisconsin or to the USA and to being a part of this exchange program?

Um, mainly it was to see, like, to get a different perspective on life.

Um, how, for example, how Americans live, because if you go to other country, let's say for,

two or three weeks.

You just see it as a tourist.

You don't see it as a, I couldn't say I'm a local, but like you see it from a completely different perspective.

And in my future career, I want to go into hospitality.

And there it's very important to see the life, like life out of different angles, like how the customer sees it or how different cultures see it.

It's a lot different when you watch it on film or in TV shows or anything like that, right?

Yes.

Yeah, so it's been a fun ride here so far, and I'm guessing a lot of times people come here to improve their English, but for you, you sound like you're pretty proficient in English.

Yes, I've been talking English since I'm small.

It was, I think, my second language.

In general, I'm a big fan of languages, so I just try to, how do you say, get better in English?

My grammar is still not very good.

Sometimes I forget words, but that's slowly improving.

What language does your family speak then?

So my dad is from Switzerland.

He speaks German like with me and my mom is from India So she used to speak Hindi with me Punjabi and Urdu and Sometimes my dad speaks a little Italian to me just to teach me a little bit because he grew up with a lot of Italians and I think languages are a valuable skill to learn

I understand too, there's Swiss German, right?

So can you communicate well with the German speaking students then?

Yes, I speak good high German.

But it's pretty weird.

Germans don't understand Swiss German, but Swiss German speakers understand German.

Yeah, I've heard that before.

Well, welcome.

Thanks for coming into the studios.

Next up, slide the microphone over there.

And who do we have next?

I'm Lois and I'm from the Netherlands.

Nice to meet you Lois.

Nice meeting you too.

So how have the first few months of school gone?

It's really exciting for me because while school in the Netherlands is more really subject-based about like math and Dutch and English is really important and not so much like

art classes and music classes.

It's not a big part of the school system.

And I really enjoy that I'm able to do that here.

Are you involved in any sports at Richland Center High

School?

Yeah, I'm doing basketball now for the first time in my life, which is really exciting.

I've never played before, so it's quite difficult to learn, but I'm really enjoying it.

They'll be glad to have you, I'm sure.

You were aware of basketball, I'm sure you get the NBA.

In your country from time to time like pro basketball or not?

We do have that then I would say it's not as common to play sports like basketball soccer is a big thing in the Netherlands So yeah, it's different

And tell us about your school and and how it works.

So what grade would you be in back home right

now?

Oh back home and

Well, we have a pretty different school system which is actually like three different kinds of high school where when you're 12 you will take a big test and then they will pick you in one of the three schools depending on if you're better at working with your hands or better with learning in school and every like school has different years of schooling so I would do like six years of school and when I go back I still have to do two more years so

Yeah, it's a long high school.

That is.

Does your year in America count toward your education back home?

No, it doesn't count.

I'm really here for the experience and for personal growth, to be honest.

Indeed.

And your English is very good as well.

Did you come here to try and improve a little bit then?

Yeah, I also came here to improve my English.

English is a really important skill to learn in the Netherlands as well, because we're such a small country and a lot of people from other countries come to the Netherlands.

So, especially in the big cities, you kind of have to speak English to be able to communicate with others.

What food do you miss from back home?

The bread.

Bread is so different here.

Dutch people are big on eating bread.

We eat bread mostly for breakfast and for lunch.

And we have bakeries who will bake their bread and then you come there to pick up fresh bread and eat that for lunch.

And here, it's completely different when bread is stored for weeks and it's still good.

We have a few more preservatives and ours over here, I believe.

Definitely, yes.

Have you thought about a career or what you'd like to be doing someday?

I've been thinking about being a psychiatrist, but I'm not really sure yet to be honest what I want to be.

And I think that's also one of the reasons why I did an exchange here to kind of figure out who I want to become and what I want to do later in life.

What about your host family?

Can you say good things about them?

Yeah, definitely.

They're really kind.

And I think it's really amazing to be in exchange because you can have an extra family on the other side of the world.

And I think that's a really valuable thing to have.

What food are you preparing for next week on Tuesday night?

So the Netherlands, we have a big history on spices because we're traveling with the ships and we use those spices a lot in cookies.

So I'm planning on, we call it gefuldespeculas and it's like spice, like gingerbread cookie and with marsupine inside.

That sounds pretty dynamic there.

What's that Kathy?

People decide to come

now.

Attendance might have to be cut off now or something after that.

I forgot to ask you what you're bringing on Tuesday night of next week.

You see if you've got an answer.

I'm still kind of in between.

My first idea was a butter chicken risotto combining my Indian heritage with my Swiss heritage.

or something like a more traditional Swiss dish, but I still have to check my options, what ingredients I get, and yeah.

Sure, that's probably part of the issue was trying to find the ingredients there.

Well, that's awesome.

Again, that's coming up on Tuesday night.

We'll slide the microphone or maybe switch over to this other microphone if we can, and introduce you to our next exchange student.

And you are?

Hi, my name is Yoon, and I'm from South Korea.

Nice to meet

you.

Nice to meet you.

How did you first hear about the YFU program?

How did you first hear about the exchange program and

the

opportunity to come here?

Well, I, it's been going great.

And then I've been here since January.

I was in Michigan and then I moved in August and then I stayed with Kathy for like two weeks, I guess.

Yeah.

It's been going awesome.

And then I,

Yeah Yeah, I would like to say I like I'm proving my English I guess

working on it.

So

so

you've been here.

It'll be almost a year then at the end Are you homesick?

Not really

Not so far Tell me about your school and and typically, you know indeed in terms of how many years you have to go for high school

Well, we I have to go

the high school like for three years but I'm in 12th grade in Korea but I'm not going back to school when I go back to Korea.

I just have to take a like big exam that I can graduate in Korea.

What are some things you're involved in at Richland Center High School then as far as some other clubs and things like that and activities?

I was

doing cheerleader.

I was in cheerleading and I'm managing wrestling for girls.

Wonderful.

So you

stay very active there.

Yeah.

Indeed.

What are some of your other like hobbies and things that you like to do when you're not at school?

I, I go to dance duty here with the West.

I'm in jazz class and I love to dance and like singing.

But I'm not good at singing, but I love singing and dancing.

Like I love all kind of like sports and activity.

So I go to gym almost like every day.

Yeah, that's it.

You like to sing.

A lot of Americans are aware of some of the Korean artists and musicians and so we see, we see a lot of that over here.

Are they as popular in your country?

Yeah.

It's really popular and I don't know.

Also in here, K-pop is really popular, right?

So, yeah.

Have you thought about a career?

What you'd like to do in your schooling zone?

No, I haven't think about it yet.

That's why I came here.

That's the biggest goal, like to speak English, that I can get a job while I speak English.

Have you made a lot of friends so far?

Yes.

And you probably did when you were in Michigan as well.

Well, I didn't get a lot of opportunities to go out with my family and my friends in Michigan.

So in here I hang out with a lot of my friends and like I spent a lot of time with Kathy and my host family.

It's been going awesome.

Wonderful.

Nice to meet you.

Thanks for coming into the show today.

Thank you.

And last but not least, over here, and you are?

Hi,

my name is Cicillera.

I'm from Chile.

Nice

to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

So what attracted you to the exchange program and the chance to come to America?

So it was like, well, I have a lot of siblings, so all of them have had their exchange year, so my dad was offering me the opportunity to come.

and it was like mostly for like the personal growth and like a little bit of like independence maybe to like be away from my family and like everything like like I don't know like going out of my comfort zone a little bit.

Right I think we all need to do that.

But being that some of your other siblings had done that before maybe your parents weren't as apprehensive to to let you go on this were they?

Yeah yeah they were a little bit like

sad because I'm the youngest so yeah they were a little sad to like let me go but like it was like the best I guess so yeah

what's been fun here at Richland Center High School so far

uh so it changed a lot the first day of school I like I was lost the whole day like all the classes it was so hard to find all of that and I don't know like everything like the school is so different like like I don't find like anything like similar

like all the classes and stuff.

And the clubs.

Yeah.

In Chile, we don't have like any like art clubs and stuff.

Like if you want to take art, it's like really hard and you can have it like one day a week.

And now here I have it like all days.

And also like the cooking class, it was like really like impressive for me because we don't have anything like that.

So I'm in that class and it's like so fun and everything.

What's your favorite American food that you've been introduced to?

Oh, I don't know.

My host family has really like Make me try like a lot of new stuff and I cool and choose like a favorite.

I love everything like really

Have you thought about a food or a dish that you're going to be preparing for Tuesday nights?

So I'm not bringing a food because I'm like really bad at cooking I Will not know like how to make it them so I will be like I will bring like a traditional game we have like

Yeah.

And what will that be?

Um, so we call it and bokeh that it's like.

You have like a stick and then like you have to like play it.

I don't know.

It's really fun.

We have, we really enjoy that on like our independence day.

Like we have, we played it like a lot.

Like

sure.

I know what you're talking about.

So that's, that's pretty cool.

And then what about a career?

Um, so I want to be a lawyer.

Um, I've been always like interested in that like side of like

I like family lawyer.

I like social worker, but I don't know.

I'm just, I don't know.

Interesting.

So would you go back home to be a lawyer or would you

maybe?

Yeah, I will go back home because like since, well, I think like it will be like very different.

Like if I like start learning here, maybe I could not go like back to Chile because it would be like pretty different.

Like all day laws and stuff.

Why do you think nights like this one coming up on Tuesday night original center international night?

Why do you feel that they're important for all of us?

Well, I think it's like a really nice experience like for all of the people that go watch it because They could like learn a little bit of like all culture and like everything.

I think it's gonna be like really fun I

think it will be as well.

Kathy you've listened to these four anything you want to add about anything they said

I just

I think it's important to mention that the musical just got finished and a couple of the students were involved with that and I think they had a really good time.

Lois was in it and any from Finland who'll be in here the second half of the show was also in it.

I think they really enjoyed it.

The kids have gotten involved in things like we talked about before and it's just really great to see them mixing with our students here and making friends and I think a few of them have kind of

within the group become friends as well.

So it's amazing because when they go back home, the kids who are fairly close to each other in Europe will probably see each other down.

So it's just amazing the connections that are made.

Yeah, most definitely.

So Law, I'd say you're still hearing Abba songs in your head as you go about your way this week?

Yes, definitely.

The songs keep being stuck in my head and I've been singing them all the time.

In fact, Annie and Lois did a TikTok video of Honey Honey and it kind of, it went a little like locally viral, I think.

On the school district's website and the social media that it was showing up on there quite often.

So it was pretty cute.

I love to look for that.

They really did a good job.

Yeah.

You're a viral sensation now or something.

I wouldn't say that.

Well nice to meet all of you and we'll take a break and meet four more here as we talk about the upcoming diversity night coming up an inspiring evening international night next week at Richland Center High School starting at 6 30 on Tuesday night.

More of the morning shows coming up.

Welcome back to the Morning Show Studios here at WRCO.

Great opportunities.

We learned about the International Night coming up at Richland Center High School and the exchange program.

Kathy, again, well represented around the world this year.

Is that my design or is this just how it works out?

I try to curate it as much as I can.

I mean, families, when they decide to host, they choose their student, but I do try to

make it as diverse as possible, show people that there are more, you know, lots of different countries to choose from.

We always have a lot of Germans, so this year we have two, and you're gonna hear from them just shortly here, but one year I think we had like four or five Germans, and that can,

be good for them, but maybe not so good for integrating with our own students because they tend to stay together and speak German and then no one really knows what they're saying.

So I've kind of scolded Ben and Rishi a few times, speak English, speak English.

But yeah, I try to do, I try to encourage as much diversity as possible when we're placing students.

That used to be a rule, wasn't it, that you couldn't have two of the same

people speaking?

That's living together.

If a family double hosts, like they host two students, the students cannot speak the same language.

So if there's a Spanish speaker from

Chile and a Spanish speaker from Spain, they cannot live together and they cannot be from the same country.

Same with the German.

If there's a German Swiss and a German German, they cannot live together.

That's a State Department

rule.

Okay.

Yeah, we need to know what they're saying, Dennis, so we know they're talking about us or not, right?

Well, yeah, you never know

what they're

going to say.

But every year is different.

It sounds like this has been a pretty rewarding year with this group of students.

Every year is different.

We get students like Kathy said, I don't think we've had anyone from Netherlands before.

So we get some new countries once in a while and learn some new things.

And it's great for the community because this international night we've been doing for years now.

And we get a good turnout.

People really enjoy it.

They enjoy meeting the kids and experiencing the foods.

So that's what we're looking forward to next week.

Do you do some things as a group like field trips and things like that where you take them all out together?

We try to a couple of times we've gone out, a couple of years we've gone out like cross country skiing or snowshoeing in the winter.

A trip usually sometime in the winter when the Argentina group is here over to the water park in the Dells and stuff like that.

We did kayaking at the beginning of the year with the whole

group.

Oh, sure.

Kayaking.

You probably had a connection there, didn't

you?

A little

bit.

Sounds good, but let's meet the next group.

Mayel from Germany is here.

Thanks for joining us today.

Hey, thank you.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, if you

would.

So my name is Mayel.

I'm from Ingolstadt, which is a town near Munich in the south of Germany.

And I like playing soccer.

I live with the Statlers.

And yeah, I've been making some great experiences here, and I'm really happy to be here.

Yeah, we were joking for you on the air that you had to be a soccer player to live with the Stablers, right?

Yeah, basically.

So you'll be on Richland Center's soccer team in the spring then?

Yes.

Looking forward to that, I'm sure.

Tell us about some other hobbies and activities that you have back home.

Back home, I play ping pong in a team.

And I was kind of disappointed that the school didn't have a ping pong team.

I'm still looking forward to trying out soccer again because I used to play soccer, but then I stopped.

So it will definitely be a cool experience.

And I also used to dance ballet back in Germany.

Wow.

I love ping pong.

So, but I'm not going to play.

I think there are some tables at Richland Center High School.

So maybe they can break those out in fied class and you can show them.

Yeah, maybe.

So what was the big motivation for coming to America for you?

In general,

I've always heard so many things about America and I just kind of wanted to discover it because America is kind of like the main character amongst all the countries in the world, especially for us Germans.

And I also just wanted to make some new experiences, discover new cultures and grow more independent on myself.

Yeah, so that has been...

Great experience for me.

Have you been here long enough that you dream in English now or have you noticed that yet?

Yeah, definitely like when I just had a civic education week in Washington where I met a lot of the other German exchange students and Just speaking German again was so weird and odd because I just speak been speaking English the entire time so

Is there like a switch that you turn on back and forth?

I mean, I'm not

sure.

Yeah, basically, especially when I speak to like my family sometimes I will speak like so many English words and be like, oh no, that's actually not the German word I was looking for but I forgot the word.

Have you thought about a career?

What you'd like to be doing when your high school days are done?

Honestly, not really because I have to go back to Germany and do two years of school, but maybe I would like to work in IT.

That's pretty cool.

because my parents also work in IT and just seems to be like a great job.

They thought this was a good idea or were they apprehensive when you

came to them and said... My mom thought it was a great idea.

She was the one who actually kind of like pushed me, hey, this will be really good for you because I had the option to skip 11th grade or do an exchange year during 11th grade and I was kind of like scared and nervous about the exchange year but

My mom kind of like motivated me to do it.

Like, hey, this will be a great opportunity for you.

So, yeah.

And your English is very good.

Have you been studying English all your life?

I mean, yeah, I've been studying English since third grade.

So English class is definitely the main foreign language we have in Germany.

We have some other ones too, like French or Latin or Chinese, Italian or whatever.

But English is the main one.

How many languages do you speak then?

I speak German, French and English.

Okay.

Which is the hardest to learn?

Probably French or German.

Yeah,

true.

But obviously German for me was not hard to learn.

What

will you be bringing to the event on Tuesday night?

Are you doing some food?

Yeah, some food.

I'll be bringing a South German dessert, which is called Kaiser Schmand.

It's a bit similar to pancakes.

So yeah, I think you guys will like it.

All right, sounds good.

Do you put anything on that or does it come with

you can put like powdered sugar?

Yes, syrup or whatever.

Well, good.

It's

up to you.

Look forward to that for the dessert on Tuesday night.

Thanks for joining us today.

Next up, let's see.

Do we have Benjamin, right?

Oh, Benjamin.

We have Marco next.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Marco, if you'd pull that microphone over there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, my name is Marco.

I'm 16 years old and I'm from Spain, like specifically from Madrid, the capital.

I like to play soccer, but my main sport is tennis.

I play a lot of tennis in Spain.

And that's it.

Were you disappointed when you found out Russell Center did not have a tennis team?

Yeah.

But well, I can't like try any sports like basketball, for example, that is sport I'm going to try right now.

And well, yeah, I like it.

So have you played basketball before?

No, in my life.

In my life is the first time I'm going to try basketball.

But like, I saw a lot of highlights about basketball.

And I think I'm going to like it.

Yeah.

Great.

Big motivation for coming in the exchange program.

Do you know why you initially wanted to come to

America?

Yeah, I came because I want to learn about like the culture of America and like improve my English principally because for my network it's going to be too important English and that's because I came here.

16

years old, were you scared or anything about coming?

I certainly would have been at 16, I think.

No, I'm not scared because I was in Ireland.

I was like with another Spanish people, but like I was with a host family and I learned more English and about like the Ireland culture.

And yeah, it's not my first time like in another country alone.

They have

a favorite class favorite subject at Richland Center high school so far

Probably Algebra, I like algebra like a I like maths a But probably the part of maths algebra is my favorite one And yeah, like for example, I like a chemistry But like that kind of chemistry I did here.

I don't like like

too much because it's like a lot of difference because in Spain we do more like a theoretical part like we we did here like more labs practice and that kind of things.

So those are all things you can use later in life in your chosen career I'm sure as well right?

Yeah.

Is there a food that you're going to be bringing next week?

Yeah

I'm going to bring a paella

It's like a dish with rice, pepper, seafood, a lot of seafood and that kind of things.

A lot of Spanish people like that, not all, because it's like weird food.

They are only eating in a part of Spain, like more the north part of Spain.

But yeah, I think you're going to like it.

Yeah.

Good.

Good.

Are you a cook?

Generally?

I mean, do you make

food?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I like to cook.

Good for you.

Yeah.

Is it spicy?

No, but you can put it if you want.

It's like a little bit of, I don't know how to say, like it's a kind of meat.

It's like a little bit spicy.

Like you can put seafood or meat or like, I don't know, like a

B-stack or

that kind of things.

People can try it next Tuesday night indeed.

What about a career?

Have you thought about that?

Yeah, when I will come back to Spain I want to finish the high school first like it's one year left and then I'm going to study about like in the university about commercial pilot.

I want to be a pilot and then first I'm going to do like the college in

in Badajoz, like a city of Spain.

And then I'm going to do the license of like to can drive the planes.

And that's it.

Wonderful.

Well, good luck with

that.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

All right.

Joining us next year, we have Benjamin right from Germany.

Good morning.

Good to have you in here.

Tell us a little bit about yourself if you would.

So I'm Benjamin.

I'm 16 from Germany, small town in the west part of Germany.

And I'm glad to be here.

Great.

What first drew you to the exchange program?

Why did you want to come here?

I wanted to improve my English.

I wanted to learn about the culture and kind of step out of my comfort zone to like meet new people and get new connections.

What are some fun things you've been doing here like maybe when you're not at school?

New activities or hobbies or anything like

that?

I've been very much into cross-country so thought of running basketball in

the upcoming season.

Tell me about the cross-country season because you were on the team.

Was that

a fun

experience?

Yeah, definitely.

We sadly didn't make it quite to the state, but still it was a great season and all the people were very great and it was very fun.

Do they have a sport such as cross country in, in Germany, like teams like that or

not?

Um, not quite.

There are like some, um, cross country, like, um, meets or, um, runs, but there isn't like a specific, uh, sport cross country.

So more like running and then sometimes you run off road.

You'd be, you, you like running then, in other words.

Yeah.

So when basketball rolls around on Monday, you'll be in good shape.

You'll be able to get up and down the court really fast then.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think so.

So what are some things that you're looking forward to at Richland Center the rest of the year?

Are you involved in any other clubs or anything like that?

I'm looking forward

to baseball, trying baseball, which I never did.

Also then the track and field.

And yeah, just all the other classes that are coming up.

I think that will be great.

Great.

How many languages do you speak?

I speak German and English and I can write Latin.

Brian, good for you.

That's impressive.

What about a career?

I'm thinking about doing my own business after school, but I still have to finish high school in Germany, which is another two years.

Are you bringing a food or doing a presentation next Tuesday night?

I'm probably bringing a food, but I'm not sure yet what I will be bringing.

Do

you send back home for the recipe to try and make it here or not?

Yeah, probably either ask my grandma or my mother for some dishes they know.

How much do you communicate back home with your family?

weekly basis?

It's bi-weekly, so I try to keep it on the lower end, but I still try to stay in contact with my grandparents and my parents and friends.

So that maybe takes away if there is any possibility of homesickness.

You can talk to him quite often then.

I haven't been feeling any kind of homesickness.

hope it stays that way.

Yeah, I'm sure it

will.

And your host family?

Yeah, my host family is also great.

I live with the cost growths.

So there's always a lot of stuff going on at home with two little brothers.

So

yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Well, nice to meet you.

Thanks for coming in.

And we have Annie from Finland.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you

too.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I'm Annie.

I'm from Finland.

I'm 17 years old.

And I don't know, I'm senior here in Riesland Center High School and just exited to be here.

Do you have a favorite subject ever since center high

school?

Yeah, home economics.

Home economics.

I love baking.

What are some things that you've learned in terms of baking or some things that you've made?

I don't

know.

Here it's like everything has so much butter.

But I'm used to baking like I've baked since I remember and it's like it's my comfort zone but at school it's like it's very different because you have to do it with like people not just by yourself.

Okay yeah I laugh because we hosted an exchange student once and they could not believe we put butter on our popcorn.

Yeah, there's butter in everything.

So you don't butter your popcorn back home.

No,

I don't

eat that much popcorn, but butter in popcorn.

No.

So you've enjoyed your stay so far.

What are some things you're involved in original center high school?

Well, now I'm in basketball, which I've been done for six years at home.

But in the fall, I was in the musical as an ensemble in the Mamma Mia.

Yes.

Was that fun?

It was really fun.

I like dancing and singing and everything like that.

So it was just like good experience for me.

What was your favorite song in the ensemble that you sang?

I think Waterloo because the dance was like easy and it was really fun.

Great.

So you say you've played basketball

before?

Yeah, for six years.

So you're a ringer?

I

wouldn't say that.

It's like I've been playing for a long time, but I wouldn't say I'm like any better than people here.

I'm

at the

same level.

Are the rules similar from what you know?

Yeah.

But in Finland, I would say more aggressive in basketball than here.

Okay.

Here's like, I don't know, soft.

So fouls are called differently than I presume.

Okay.

Here it's like you get false very easily, but in Finland or in other like Northern countries, you don't get that easy.

You can be more aggressive.

What about the music?

Do you like the music of America?

Music I like more like Finnish music, which I listen to like 80s or 90s music from Finland Like from very famous artists, but American music.

It's like I don't listen too much of it

Okay.

Yeah, I know 80s and 90s music pretty well I'm trying to think of some groups that might have made it over here that from Finland

I don't know from Finland.

Do you maybe know like Darude or something like sandstorm or something like

that?

Yeah, but

I don't, I can't think of any other thing that would be like very known

from

outside.

Interesting.

Have you thought about a career that you'd like to get into someday?

I want to do something with people.

I don't want to sit by the computer all day.

So I've been thinking like maybe middle school teacher because I want to be there when it's like hard for teenagers.

I want to be the safe adult.

But I also want baking.

So I've been thinking about home economics teacher or art teacher or something like that.

Oh yeah, so you can put all your hobbies to work there.

Yeah, that's awesome.

You bring up a good point too.

You know, a lot of us, because we always blame it on the young people that they're always on their phones and things like that.

I think us adults are as well.

But is it the same in your country or people kind of devoted to their personal devices?

Yeah.

I mean, in my school, you can use phones during the day, like you can't hear.

But in my home country, you can.

And it's kind of like you don't chat as much with

your friends.

I mean, I do.

I wouldn't say I'm a phone addict, but many people in my friends group are.

And it's like, it's very different because they can be on their phone and you try to talk to them.

And it's like, they don't hear you, but I don't know.

So you had to get used to it when you came to Richland Center High School and there's a rule of no, no cell phones during the

day.

but it's like it was easy because I don't use my phone in school day like too much maybe on the passings because we have longer passings not five minutes but and on the classes I don't use it so it was kind of normal to me.

What food are you thinking about bringing next week?

I'm bringing finished dessert like mocha palla which is like

chocolate and coffee kind of cake with icing.

It's like, well, it's good.

And then I maybe bring like spinach crabs.

They're like, I made them for lunch day.

They're really good.

And they're like, they're green.

So I don't think many people would like to like try them.

Maybe I don't mind spinning.

They look weird.

Is butter in any of those dishes or not?

in the mock-up alley, yes.

There's some butter, okay.

Nice to meet you.

Thanks for coming to the morning show.

Kathy, anything else you'd like to add?

Well, you mentioned the phones in Finland.

Finland is the home of Nokia, which was one of the very first companies to develop a cell phone from what I understand.

So

we have them to blame.

Yes, it's her fault.

She lives with us, so she's really

drawn the short straw this year.

I feel really sorry for Annie because she's just got a rough

time.

I bet she

does.

I do want to mention that we are going to have a group from Argentina coming in January.

We have six students and a chaperone and we have placed three so far.

So I still am looking for four host families for that program.

They will arrive January 6th and leave February 6th.

and they'll be here going to school just like these guys do, learning about our culture and also learning about theirs.

There is a stipend for that program because it is not a J1 visa program.

The J1 visa programs, there is no...

It's not allowed to pay for host families for hosting, but for this program, since it isn't through J1, they're here like more on a visitor visa.

There is a stipend for the families to help with the expenses of hosting.

So if anyone is interested in hosting one of these students, they can get in touch with me.

I'm still monitoring the RC exchange director at gmail.com email account.

and that's probably the best way to get in touch.

So it's always a fun time with that group.

We try to do some things with the whole group when the Argentina group is here because it's just a really great bunch of kids to get together.

We'll probably do a water park in the Dulles during that time.

If anybody is interested, I'll probably be talking about that a little bit more Tuesday night.

Tuesday night is our international night that we've had for now the past, I don't know, seven or eight years we've done this.

I started it because some of the students were on scholarship programs and Mayo is required to do some sort of a presentation during her time here.

She's our only CBYX student this year, but that's why I started it.

And when those kids had to do something,

always told the whole group that they needed to participate.

So we've kind of kept that tradition going.

So everyone will be there on Tuesday night with something, either food or a presentation or something.

It's a wonderful opportunity.

This group, and I'm not just saying this, I think this is one of your better communicating groups that you've brought in a long time, Kathy.

Yes, their English is all top notch.

They're all very good at getting in English, and I think they're all understanding.

I've seen, even though they were good when they got here, I've seen improvement in some of the students as far as their English goes.

Um, it's amazing how quickly they pick

up.

Yeah, no doubt about it.

And it's very, uh, some of them mentioned, you know, like their host families, it's amazing how they fit in.

Like if they're the oldest, uh, they're the big brother or the big sister and then the, you know, the middle child, it's amazing how they kind of just fit right into the family.

Like they've always been there.

Well, when people are choosing students, when they decide they want to host and they are choosing students, I do try to look at the profiles of the kids and try to steer them toward certain particular kids just because I think they'll be a good match.

It's sort of like being a matchmaker.