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Tips From Other FS Teens
- Join clubs and extracurricular
activities, it's the best way to make friends!
- Don't be shy to introduce yourself and ask for help, that's
how you meet people!
- Be yourself and don't be afraid to talk about your
experiences overseas - it's a great icebreaker.
- Remember that adjusting takes time!
--Anne Ramussen
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Tips From Other FS Teens
Take a deep breath, think of it as another
posting (because the idea of going home means nearly nothing to
you) read some articles about what's going on in America
(culture, politics, trends..) so that you have common ground to
trend upon when speaking to the locals. Relax and think about
the positives of the move...
--Victoria Pretzman
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Sometimes it's easier if people don't know
that you're a FS kid. I started college this fall, and I just
tell people I'm from Virginia. That way, they get to know YOU
instead of going "wow, you must be different because you've
lived all these places." I know you feel completely
out-of-place (or at least I did!) but normally people won't
notice anything until you write your lab notes in Swedish, or
something. (Yeah, I did that. The look on my lab partner's
face was priceless.)
--Alyssa Warner
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- Be
friendly, obviously, and don’t hesitate to ask questions or
answer them. Doing this is very difficult for some people
but I found that it was worth it. It may seem stupid to ask
someone passing where your class is if you don’t know them,
but it’ll make you even more embarrassed to turn up late.
- Make
sure right away that you’re not taking classes that aren’t
what you wanted. You need to be assertive and make sure
you’re making the right choices so don’t let being new bully
you into the ‘suck it up’ or ‘oh, no. it’s fine’ attitudes.
This is high school and it’s going to affect you a lot!
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Don’t worry about not understanding new
terms or languages, you’ll learn soon enough. I had the same
problem when I came to Botswana where South African terms
are used and the word ‘binder’ is incomprehensible to
everyone and no one says lend, it’s ‘borrow’ (e.g. Borrow me
a pencil, will you?). I also had trouble at first because
some people would speak
Afrikaans or Setswana to each other and leave me standing
there, not knowing what to do. I eventually learned to stop
them and ask them to speak English and it was a drawback
that I didn’t have the guts to do it earlier.
- People
love to hear about your experiences so do not hesitate to
share; it’s a great conversation starter. The only thing to
worry about it going on too much! Though you may enjoy
reminiscing in front of your friends, after the first
months- can it. What I suggest is you write them down and
put them together in a book with photos or send them into
AWAL.
- Don’t
worry if you have trouble re-adapting because you’ll
remember old tricks again. Friendly faces do show up and the
greatest way to find them is by joining groups and sports
that interest you so that you can meet people with similar
likes and dislikes.
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Become active in the community but
never forget your experiences, another great reason
for a diary or such, and don’t worry about people laughing
at weird terms or accents you might still have. These are
just from personal experience, mind, so I don’t know if
they’ll work for everyone or if most people even need them.
I just hope newcomers have some help available to them!
-- Fiona Hogan
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