Germany VS America

By: Maleah Johnson

Imagine moving to a foreign country for 10 months; and at the beginning, you’re around people you don’t know and living with complete strangers. Culver students often wonder what this would be like. Being a foreign exchange student can bring many struggles, but it can also be very enjoyable.

This year Culver Community High School has only 1 foreign exchange student: Lisa Krmek. Krmek is from Germany, and she is at Culver as a senior for the 2024-25 year. She has found that school in America is a lot different than school in Germany.

“We don’t have school buses. We have to get to school ourselves,” said Krmek. “Most go by train and have a school card that they buy the ticket with every morning.” 

The school day differs just as much. Here, the school day consists of 7 50-minute classes, 4-minute passing periods, lunch, and a student resource time. The school day ends at 3:12. In Krmek’s German school, her schedule was a lot different.

“We don’t have the same classes every day. We have different teachers but we don’t have different classes,” said Krmek. “And we don’t have lunch, we have to bring food from home. We have 2 30-minute breaks and get done at 1:30 every day.”

Making the move of almost 5,000 miles away from home is a big deal, but it can be even harder to deal with as a young foreign exchange student who has to be away from their family for 10 months. 

“I think being away from family is the hardest part of doing an exchange year because I’m a very family driven person, so I need my family. At the beginning, I did not know it was going to be that hard,” said Krmek. “I’m glad that I have my host family because they really help me.” 

Going to a school like Culver can be a good experience because it gives a student a community to comfort and support them. 

“I like the school more here and everything,” said Krmek. She finds the most different thing to be, “the school spirit, because in Germany the school spirit is much more different. Really, I prefer the school here.”

Besides school, just living in the United States is different for the students in this program. 

“We’re not allowed to drive at 16, so having trains is very helpful,” said Krmek. “I really miss it in Germany because you could go anywhere with just buses and trains, and you have a bus or train for everything.” 

When an American students gets into high school, they look forward to a lot of things. At Culver, most of the students look forward to all the new privileges of being in high school. They look forward to getting their licenses, dances, sports, graduating, and other school activities like Fall Bonanza or Sports Spectacular. In Germany, the things students look forward to are very different.

“I think we don’t really look forward to anything except being 18. When you turn 18, nobody really cares about what you’re doing and can move out and become more independent.”