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Exchange students sharing culture with community

SNAPSHOT

News Photo by Jason Ogden Left to right, Artem Manets from Ukraine, Yuka Yamano from Japan, and Laura Williams from Australia pose for a photo during a Thursday tour of The Alpena News. The exchange students are part of the American Scandinavian Student Exchange program and are experiencing the United States and sharing their culture with the community.

ALPENA — Six foreign exchange students from the American-Scandinavian Student Exchange program, one of several programs in the area, are learning about northern Michigan and sharing their culture with the community.

The students are from Japan, Ukraine, Moldova, Australia and German, according to area representative Steve Lutes.

Every year more and more students participate in the program and are hosted by area families, Lutes said. Originally the program only hosted youths from Scandinavia but over the years students from around the globe have converged on Alpena through the program.

The students get a taste of American culture of American culture and most stay for nearly a year with host families. Lutes said the program also helps Alpena residents learn about areas around the world.

“A lot of people in Alpena are kind of sheltered,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of reason to leave Michigan or even the United States. A lot of these students come in and they bring international exposure and people bring them here.”

He said that experience may prompt someone local to want to travel abroad.

Thursday three students in the program, Australian Laura Williams, Ukrainian Artem Manets and Japanese student Yuka Yamano all sat down to talk about their experience in Alpena and about the program.

As part of the program students spend extended periods away from their family.

For Williams it was a once in a lifetime experience she could not pass up.

“It’s a good experience and it’s getting stuff done while you are young,” she said.

Manets said he was thankful for the experience although it is challenging.

“It changes your life and you become more self-confident, more independent,” he said.

Yamano said the experience of the United States compared to Japan is like night and day.

She said her experience in high school is much different. There is no transportation to school like buses and she either has to ride her bike through the snow or travel by train to her school.

Students have a much different experience in Japan. She said students are not allowed to eat, drink or use cell phones in class. They must wear uniforms and cleaning the school building is conducted by students.

Manets said there are other differences between Ukraine and Michigan. For one there are many more automobiles than in his home country.

“Here if families have six kids, they have six cars,” he said. “In the Ukraine we don’t buy more than one or two cars and most of the people just walk.”

Williams said although she comes from an English speaking country, many of the pronunciations of words are different in the U.S. There often are misconceptions about her home country of Australia.

“One really common one is people ask whether the toilet flushes in the other direction,” she said.

Manets was surprised, however, about what people did know about his home country. He said one person knew common Ukrainian customs and explained the history of his country’s flag

Yamano was surprised when someone asked whether Japanese people ate cats and dogs. She said they do not, nor do they eat sushi every day.

“We eat it about one time a month,” she said. “We eat both American and Japanese food, not only sushi.”

As far as impressions of Alpena, Artem said he enjoys the community and Lake Huron.

“Alpena is quite a nice town,” he said. “It’s very cool and you can just walk five minutes and you’ll be by the lake, in the summer time its very cool. When you look at it’s like a sea and you can’t believe it’s a lake.”

Although many Michiganders do not enjoy winter, Williams was enjoying seeing snow up close for the first time and the cold weather.

“Where I live it’s about 120 degrees right now,” she said. “This is the first place I’ve seen snow as well.”

Williams said students at AHS should appreciate their school and the friendly people in the community.

“This is a pretty big school, but when I walk down the hallways someone will always say ‘hi,'” she said. “Everyone is really welcoming and friendly.”

Lutes said more information about the exchange program can be found by visiting www.assehosts.com.

Jason Ogden can be reached via email at jogden@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693. Follow Jason on Twitter @jo_alpenanews.

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