It isn’t everyday you get a glimpse into cultures from another country. Thanks to Magnet’s Exchange Student Program, three lucky students were able to travel from their homes to stay in our beautiful state of South Carolina, and discover what life is like in America. While they explore and experience our way of life, it is interesting for us as well to see how our familiar world contrasts to life in their hometown. As our new friends enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity, we can take time to appreciate their cultures and learn more about them!

First up, junior Sienna Monning is from a small town in Germany called Bad Honnef, near the city of Cologne. She says her school at home was very similar in size to Magnet, only the grades range from 5th-13th rather than the typical U.S. high school grade range from 9th-12th. In Germany, the school day is a little shorter than ours here in South Carolina, starting at 8 and ending at 13:15 military time, or 1:15 Eastern time. Since school ends earlier, Sienna says she would eat lunch at home after school, as opposed to during school, before heading to her sports practices. In her free time on the weekends, she would meet up with her friends at “the island,” a common hangout spot with courts and a pool.
While Sienna has enjoyed her time spent in the U.S., she admits experiencing many cultural shocks– defined as feelings of uncertainty, confusion, or surprise when exposed to an alien culture. One of the main differences she noticed is the cuisine and eating habits of people here in America. In Germany people value eating healthy, fresh foods, a stark contrast from the typical American diet surrounding the love of fast food and big meals. Sienna noticed how the typical U.S. dinners are much larger compared to those in Germany, consisting sometimes of just a single slice of homemade bread. To make up for their smaller dinners; however, she says it is common to eat a larger lunch instead. Additionally, in Germany they don’t eat desserts after dinner like we do in America. Sienna says occasionally people will drink coffee or eat some sweet foods around 4pm for a treat, but typically do not eat sweets at night after dinner. Back home, her favorite food is called Reibekuchen, which are essentially pancakes made from smashed potatoes. Sounds yum! While Sienna certainly misses her life back in Germany, she appreciates the kindness from waiters and strangers she has encountered in America, and loves that everyone wears their flag proudly!

Another junior, Giorgia Pingitore, traveled here from Naples, Italy. She started school only one week after arriving in the States and, along with Sienna, noticed many cultural differences. Thankfully most of these were positive, including her great first impression at school. She says everyone was very nice to her, students and teachers alike, which helped a lot during her time adjusting to a new school. She loves that the teachers at Magnet seem to truly care about their students and even try to make the learning fun, like when “Mrs. Yackey tells jokes while teaching math!” While this was a positive contrast from Italy, Giorgia was overwhelmed by how widespread everything feels compared to her quaint town of Naples, where she felt all important locations were pretty close together. Back home fewer people had cars, and she and her friends preferred to get around on scooters. She was surprised by how many people have cars that they use on an everyday basis, emphasizing that everything seems bigger here– from the vehicles themselves, to houses, and even the food. According to Giorgia, Italy is beautiful, and they have a lot of what we have here in Charleston, but in Naples, “everything is kid sized.” Additionally, she points out that in Italy food is super important culturally, so she almost feels guilty saying that she did in fact enjoy her meal at Olive Garden. Giorgia had a blast trying American fast food with Sienna, (see Elizabeth Hample’s article from the last edition!!) and says her friends are begging her to bring back our American junk food for them to try! While America is known as a sort of cultural melting pot, Giorgia mentioned something interesting: in her month spent here in Charleston, she noticed how little cultural significance there is. Having learned about different languages and various cultures since the ripe age of 6, Giorgia says she misses the rich culture in Italy, and that it is almost sad how little Americans know about the rest of the world. Too focused on our own country, we seem to forget about how many other places there are. Granted America is very large and we have many things to do within our nation, it couldn’t hurt to have an open mind and learn something new!

Finally, unlike our foreign exchange students Giorgia and Sienna, freshman Topi Wilson is a cultural exchange student from Melbourne, Australia. While Giorgia and Sienna will stay an entire school year at Magnet and are able to earn high school credits, Topi is only staying for three to six weeks while still enrolled in classes from Australia. He physically attends classes at Magnet but is not required to pay attention or take any assessments. He is more here for the experience while he still completes work for his classes back home. Despite this, Topi says that he has noticed Magnet provides more opportunities and teacher help than his school back in Melbourne. Although he isn’t taking the classes here, he still can appreciate the range of subjects Magnet has to offer for their students. In terms of everyday norms, Topi feels one of the biggest differences between Australia and America is public transportation. In Melbourne, trams and buses frequent the streets– cheap and accessible transport that is very commonly used. Here in Charleston people mostly take cars with the exception of school buses and an occasional bike ride.

Thanks for reading my article! Make sure to say hi to Giorgia, Sienna, or Topi if you see them around school!