Lessons Learned from our South Korean Exchange Student

This past week, my family and I had the honor of hosting a teenager from South Korea. She spent the week with us here in Maryland learning about our culture and in exchange we learned a lot about the Korean culture. Subin is a wonderful young lady with a beautiful smile and great sense of humor. She demonstrated really good English skills and was a joy to have here in our home.

During the week, we took her to see the Maryland beaches, the monuments and the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., the sites and sounds of our small town and the various malls here in our area. She had the opportunity to eat Maryland-style crabs, pizza, hamburgers from Five Guys, ice cream, hot dogs, and Americanized Korean and Chinese foods. However, she truly enjoyed eating chocolate and ordering Starbucks' coffee drinks.

During our time together, we learned a lot. Below are some of the lessons we learned about having an exchange student stay with us:

1. Middle schoolers are pretty much the same all around the world. With the exception of the language and some food differences, Subin and Cassie were really similar. Both enjoyed laughing, shopping, eating sweets, and avoiding the camera.

2. Keep it simple. Subin seemed to enjoy the time we were together as a family the best. While we planned many exciting (from an adult perspective) events, she seemed to like listening to the music on the radio, laughing with my daughter, watching movies and soaking in the sites and sounds of a "so-called" normal American family.

3. Don't worry about the possible language barriers. While Subin had the ability to understand a lot of the English we spoke, whatever she didn't understand in words, she picked-up by observing our routines and customs. She was eager to participate as a member of the family and wanted to experience everyday routines.

4. Open-ended questions are hard to answer. During the first part of the week, we asked Subin what she wanted to experience here in the Maryland area during her short stay. We thought our questions would be helpful. What we found is that Subin didn't know how to answer open-ended types of questions because she was not aware of all of the options that were available for her. We learned to provide choices for Subin and have her select from two or three possibilities.

5. Remember fun is universal. As a former history teacher, I do get great joy in sharing my knowledge about the area in which we live and taking visitors to historic places to see. So, naturally, I wanted to share some of my favorite places with Subin and my two children. Quickly, I learned that seeing Washington, D.C. was interesting, but only for a short time. My daughter shared with me that. "Fun is more important than knowledge." While I don't subscribe to this completely, as the week progressed, my wife and I found ways to mix fun, learning and exploration into each day's itinerary.

5. Take lots of pictures. Enough said...

I feel very blessed that Subin could visit our home and be apart of our family for the week.  I know this experience will be remembered by my family and Subin for the rest of our lives.