You should participate in exchange programme

Exchange programmes are very good for people, who want to travel and sightsee and get new knowledge, etc. You should seek to participate in any of them, as it gives you great experience, first of all. This is a great opportunity, and, as I have said somewhere in a blog, as Eminem says in his song, you should capture it, as “this opportunity comes once in a lifetime... "

So, as you search for some exchange programmes, Erasmus is a great way to study in different countries. They have all these opportunities for young people and I know many of them got chosen and had a great life experiences in that period of time while they were abroad studying at some universities and stuff like that.

Exchange programmes are very good for students, who want to go abroad, sightsee other countries, study languages, learn about cultures, etc. There are exchange programmes helping students to go to another country and study there for some time. One of them is American exchange programme. It’s called FLEX. Students go to America for a year and they stay in local residents’ houses.

There are some levels, which a participant should deal with to win and be chosen to go to study in USA. The first step is an English test. It’s pretty easy, if you ask me. There are only some multiple-choice question tests. Then the second step is harder. You have to do some listening and reading tasks and it lasts for three hours: there’s a one and a half an hour listening task and then, after a 5 or 10 minutes break, the other one and a half an hour reading. Then you have a writing task, where you must answer some questions. The final step is an interview. I’ve participated in FLEX several times and have not ever gotten to the final interview. That’s sad. Because studying in USA for the whole school year would be amazing. I love being in a foreign country, however, not as a tourist and for travelling, but for studying. Because while visiting Amsterdam, it got me thinking and I realized, that just travelling for sightseeing gets me bored easily. I like to have a purpose for being there in some other country or place. Of course sightseeing and getting to know other cultures is a reason to visit this particular place, but when you travel somewhere for business -would it be studying or a work-related- it’s different.

Students from Georgia who were selected for the FLEX programme say that the main difference between American and Georgian teenagers is that Americans are independent decision-makers. Americans have freedom, but they have to tell their parents where they are going to be when they are going out, or whatever. Well, I haven’t been there, so I can’t really argue or agree with that. The main thing children gain from the FLEX programme, though, is that they gain language skills, become more independent and confident in themselves.

Well, I don’t know about studying in America, but I do know about the United Kingdom, as I’ve been there studying English language advanced course in Cambridge. I’ve mentioned it in my other blogs, that I was in Studio Cambridge Sir George School and we did there pretty good job in studying and delivering our culture to foreigners -there weren’t just English people, there also were people from other different countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Italy, Argentina, Turkey, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and others.

We were just sixteen years old and this was my first time abroad all alone - I mean without parents or family or someone grown up.

To sum up, the exchange programmes are very good chance to become a better person and speak fluently, in this case, English language. Everyone should take part in exchange programmes, because it gives people so much fun and boosts their self-confidence and it's a great experience for everyone. And remember, "when one door closes, another opens! "

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