Foreign Exchange

I am quite certain that many people around the world wish to be exchange students for various reasons, but are their reasons the right reasons? Why do foreign exchange programs exist? According to the U.S. government foreign exchange programs exist to provide certain international cultural exchange programs designed to provide practical training and employment, and sharing of the history, culture, and traditions of participants home country� citing the Q series international cultural exchange visa's specifications as provided by the U.S. department of state. The reasons that stand out in my mind differ slightly from the ones offered to me by my government, and I will attempt to relay my motivation without simply reiterating the U.S. Department of States motivation for allowing exchange programs.

The primary reason that I would like to be a foreign exchange student is a rather selfish one. I think that my experience overseas would impregnate my mind with a vast wealth of knowledge. During my school year overseas I would not only learn the deep intricacies of a new language, but also the cultures and ways of a diverse world community. I would come back with a first hand understanding of why Europe has its current political leanings, an understanding that many modern politicians seem to lack. I would also learn many traditions, rites, and rituals inherit in the new way of life; allowing my current lifestyle with a basis for comparison, which would seem to me to be the start of the pathway to becoming an enlightened individual (something that many of my fellow American's seem to be lacking these days with their introverted views on world politics and the notion that any way American is most defiantly the right way). Introverted ideals and in the so called "Melting Pot"� of cultural ambiguity can only carry a nation so far, and this is one of the many reasons I wish to become enlightened through a foreign exchange program.

The secondary reason is less selfish of a reason, but still ties in greatly with the first reason. If I were to become enlightened by intricate knowledge of a diverse world culture then I would have the ability to share what I have learned with the peers of my home country. Using first hand facts, statistics, and experiences I strongly hope that I would be able to break some of the stereotypical views that are innately shared by the unenlightened individual. As my first hand views would soon become second hand, (then third hand and so on) views shared with friends of peers of mine this wealth of knowledge provided to me by the foreign exchange program would trickle down the great social network that is mainstream America. I believe that upon my return from a foreign exchange program the average wisdom in America pertaining to another country would rise. It may not rise by a lot, but with other traveled individuals sharing the knowledge that they have gained abroad it will rise a significant amount, and in fact lead to the general American populace's views on other nations.

My tertiary reason seems to tie in greatly with the chain of knowledge and knowledge shared that would be my foreign exchange experience. It is the wish to share what I know about America with a diverse world culture, I wish to bring with me the various traditions, rites, and rituals that allow such a culturally diverse nation to exist in this world. I wish to bring a small taste of America with me to the foreign country in which I would stay. Nothing more than a small taste, not enough to overpower them with the pungent downsides to American society, just enough to leave them wanting more, or to eat least taste a few more bites. I have an aspiration to spread knowledge of my ideas as well as their ideas (see my secondary reason), the foreign exchange program would allow me to serve as a conduit between vastly differing principles, standards, morals, and ethics. This would be a borderless conduit one that brought with it culture, and brought back even more culture, if I were chosen to be a foreign exchange student, no one would lose.

This, is why foreign exchange programs exist, they exist because people like me are willing to sacrifice a comfortably monotonous lifestyle in order to share the knowledge that makes people who they really are. Sadly, these three primary reasons that I have stated to you are not my own. They are simply the description of why the U.S. Department of State wants to host foreign exchange within its borders, reworded in a most eloquent manor. These three reasons however are the best reasons to be a foreign exchange student and ones that I wish to make my own; when borrowing ideals from the leader of the unilateral world in which we live one can never go wrong.