As you may have noticed, King’s Way has has accepted many foreign exchange students that have made our school a much better environment in many ways. They have brought us a little piece of their culture to our school by showing us their humor, their hobbies, and more simply their personality. They not only bettered our academic environment, but our athletics as well. As you may have seen, Matthew Suarez is showing us how dominant he is on the JV basketball team. While Matthew is pursuing basketball, Jorge is preparing to take on the spring soccer season. Both of these guys are amazing people and show it by how they have befriended us. Although it may have seemed like it was easy for them to move here, they both have had their struggles that they had to push through. 

Matthew Suarez had explained that the biggest difference between his school down in Brazil and King’s Way is that they do thirteen subjects at the same time. They start school a little bit later than we do, so to make up for that by having to take multiple classes about the same subject at one time. For example: we take biology and environmental science separate years, but they would take them both at the same time. Matthew prefers our way of going through curriculum much more than the Brazilian way, simply because he thinks it is much easier. That totally makes sense, because I don’t know a single person who would want to learn more and have more work, than learning less and having less work.

When I asked Matthew what he wishes we did differently over here compared to what they have over in Brazil he simply said, “There is nothing to complain about.” He is enjoying his time here and doesn’t feel the need to change something about the school or his environment. Matthew sees many positives about his experience here, but his struggles are definitely worth talking about. He says that his biggest struggle at the school is “understanding how we communicate.” Switching to speaking English after having Portuguese as your first language your whole life would probably drive most of us insane trying to understand English slang. Matthew just stayed calm and learned everything more by being with people and interacting with us.

Jorge similarly struggled with the language, but additionally, he struggled with “the lifestyle that Americans do.” In Spain they don’t usually use cars as much, whereas if you want to go anywhere in the U.S. you pretty much have to drive there. Predictably, the culture and the language change was what both Matthew and Jorge struggled with the most. 

Unlike Matthew, Jorge definitely wishes we did some things differently with our sports. While Matthew likes that we prioritize high school sports over club sports down here, Jorge wishes the exact opposite. Jorge wishes we had more club sport opportunities down here, and he feels like the only way to compete in the sports you love is through high school athletics. He also would appreciate if Kings Way had a tennis team. He was disappointed to learn that King’s Way does not have a team, “I like tennis and I can’t play for the school.”

Jorge’s favorite thing about the school is how small it is. He enjoys how we all know each other and that we have built up a community that everyone is a part of. He says he enjoys it because “It makes everything like a family and everyone knows about each other.” Jorge likes our community and how we are down here. 

Many foreign exchange students have come to Kings Way this year and from what I have learned, they are enjoying their experience. They have bettered our community as well as our athletics through their humor, their hobbies, and more simply their personality. Jorge and Matthew are just two of the many foreign exchange students that have joined us, and I am sure there is much more to learn about their different cultures. It is important to ask them questions and see their point of view, and even through having to learn English and having to adapt to our culture they have still shown us a little of what it’s like where they are from.