Teens lives filled with adventures.
Teen Talk with Braiden Eilers
Parlez -vous francais? Well, Inglemoor senior Josh Taylor certainly does. He spent a year in an exchange program in Meise, Belgium, north of Brussels.
“Taking chances and seeing new things, “is why Josh wanted to do the exchange program.
Also, it was a different opportunity where he got to experience a new culture and speak a new language.
Josh had three years of French before going on his adventure. He said the language was very, very hard to understand, and that made his classes very difficult as well.
He stayed in Belgium from August to July. It wasn’t until Christmas that he became good at the French language.
What was his best memory from Belgium? “The first night I dreamt in French, that was really cool, he said.
He just woke up one day and everything clicked. And that day he went to school and could actually communicate and understand everything.
He didn’t get very homesick because he prepared himself for what he was going into—11 – 12 months without seeing family or friends.
He did miss his family, especially on holidays and on his birthday, but he kept a great attitude and wasn’t negative about it.
“The people there were very willing to talk to someone else,” Josh said.
‘You say hello and good-bye to everyone with a kiss on the cheek. So, it gave you personal contact with them. It made it easier to be open with them after getting to know them.”
I think Josh puts his whole trip into perspective for us when he says “I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for this experience.”
If you want to learn more about doing an exchange program, you can contact AFS, American Field Service, the organization that Josh went through, or just talk to your language teacher. I’m sure they have all the information that you need!
Note: Teen Talk was my daughter Braiden.
She was in High School, and I had a column, Overdone and Undercooked.
Today Braiden is an Emergency Doctor.