Hallo, mein Name ist Carolin Diekmann. I am from Germany, and I have the pleasure of studying at WHS for the 2009-2010 school year. Since I’m an exchange student I think I have a good perspective about traveling and speaking foreign languages. It is important to travel to other places because you can see how other people live. You can be part of their life and feel how they are feeling. If you just hear about their lifestyle without traveling to their country, you cannot become a part of their life. And maybe you might get a wrong opinion about their life.

I came to America for many reasons. First of all I wanted to improve my English. That’s the most important thing for me. I also wanted to learn about the American culture. I had heard about America from friends who had visited the U.S., but I didn’t want just to hear about it. I wanted to experience an American lifestyle. Another reason for coming to America was that I wanted to make new friends in another country.

I’ve done so many exciting and new things. For example, here in the U.S., I went to Boston and to Niagara Falls. These trips were amazing.

I’ve also joined the WHS Cross Country team. This is new for me because we don’t have this kind of sport in Germany.

What we also don’t have in Germany are fluff and peanut butter sandwiches. I think they are delicious!

The spirit wear is a fun thing, too. We only have it after our final exams.

Another fun experience was my first American high school dance. It was alright, but I like the German clubs better.

I started learning English in 5th grade, French in 7th grade and Italian in 8th grade. I have so much fun learning foreign languages. Sure, sometimes they can be confusing, especially French and Italian because they are pretty similar. But that’s all right.

I think people should learn another language because when they travel to another country they can understand the people and they can communicate with them. If you speak more than one language you can make friends in other countries easily. I think that knowing a language is a great thing because so many people all over the world could get to know each other.

The exchange to America is not the only one I have done. I’ve also been to Italy twice. Those exchanges were only a week so I didn’t learn much about the culture; however I did meet many nice people.

As the author Maya Angelou writes in her collection of essays Wouldn’t Take Nothing For my Journey now, “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all people cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try to understand each other, we may even become friends.”

I’m pretty glad that I’ve come to the U.S. because I’ve met so many nice people. I hope that I can become friends with them so we can share our cultures.