Foreign exchange students face challenges to fit in

The first day of school at a new school looms over students. Now imagine starting at a new school in a foreign country, where your native language is not spoken. The FC campus enrolls over 30 foreign exchange students in its 9-12 grade levels.

America provides many opportunities that other countries may not offer. One Vietnam immigrant and her brother escaped their country 34 years ago in hopes for a better life in America.

Escaping Vietnamese communists on a small fishing boat, Tuyet Lu managed to get out of Vietnam and met her brother in a refugee camp in Hong Kong in 1982. Her brother fled Vietnam because he was at risk for being drafted into the Vietnamese army.

Lu’s parents sent her away at the age of 12 in hopes of a better education in America with her older brother.

“When I began my journey to the U.S., I was young and my parents were the ones who decided to send me,” Lu said. “They sent me to the U.S. to have better opportunities. When we came, it was just me and my brother. My brother was 14 and I was 12 when we got to the United States, and we did not have a guardian or parent with us.”

After spending two and a half years in the Hong Kong refugee camp, Lu and her brother were able to be sponsored to come to the U.S. Before they made the trip to the states, they were sent to another refugee camp in the Philippines where they learned basic English and were prepared for life in North America. After spending three months in the Philippines, the two arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lu’s hardships continued even after arriving in America. She was shy and struggled with finding a home to live in. Lu eventually found a home that welcomed her and helped her achieve her academic goals.

“When I first came to the U.S., I was in shock and I was confused,” Lu said. “I didn’t  speak English very shy and I kept to myself because I didn’t know how to interact with other kids. Our main struggles were staying in a stable home, have the ability to go to school, and being able to eat. To overcome these issues, we ended up with social services. Social services were able to provide us with good homes. I went to a good Christian home and my brother went to a group home.”

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After graduating from Hoover High as Valedictorian in 1991, Lu attended the University of the Pacific on an academic scholarship. She was the first generation of her family to attend college. After graduating and becoming a pediatric pharmacist, Lu now works at Valley Children’s Healthcare in Madera. 

Lu sees the challenges foreign exchange students face today differ the challenges she faced during her education in America. When she came to America, Lu felt that some were racist towards here. People would mock Lu because of her accent.

She was hurt by comments made by some, but now as an adult, she doesn’t experience the racism she did growing up. However, Lu believes that the challenges are different today for foreign exchange students. Lu thinks that the challenges of technology was one of the new challenges foreign exchange students face.

Many of the foreign exchange students at FC enjoy studying in America because of the freedom that they experience. Stories similar to Lu’s encourage the students to continue striving for an education in the country.

Interested in filmmaking, Clark Zhu, ‘17, immigrated from mainland China in 2013 to the U.S to study filmmaking.  Due to strong government censorship in China, Zhu would not have been able to produce movies that he wanted to. In America, he is able to express his views more freely.

“The biggest reason is that I want to stay and live in the U.S. is for the future,” Zhu said. “I want to be a filmmaker and the U.S. has the largest film industry in the world. There are more opportunities in the U.S. than China. Plus, I don’t think there’s a career future for me in China because of the strong government censorship. I care and want to talk about the things that they do not allow people to discuss. I really do enjoy studying in America. It offers me opportunities to do stuff other than academic work such as filmmaking and working in the Feather which are most students in China don’t get to do.”

However, despite his willingness to come to the state’s, Zhu encountered issues when he first arrived in America. He did not do well with his first host family and transferred to a different family.

“I feel that I haven’t encountered any real struggle since I got here,” Zhu said. “I did okay in speaking the language and fitting into the culture. Well, my first host family can count as one struggle. I don’t think the host and I matched up very well, so I moved out to a new family and we really get along well. I’m truly enjoying my stay there right now. My second challenge was the language. Speaking and learning in English is okay for me, but the local people have the local expressions that I can’t learn from books.”

Pressured by the Chinese education system, Tiffany Wang, ‘18, came to the U.S. to study abroad. To get involved with the student body at FC, she decided to join The Feather’s photojournalism program.

“I came to study abroad because the education system in China always puts me under a lot of pressure, and here in the United States, I am not usually stressed out,” Wang said. “My first impression when I arrived here was that the air quality was much better than where I come from. The challenges I face studying here is language and religion. Almost every single person here at FCS is Christian and it’s not easy to get involved with Americans. To overcome those challenges, I joined photojournalism in order to step out of my comfort zone and get to know more people around me. I do enjoy studying in the U.S., it’s unforgettable. Honestly, I cannot wait to make more good memories.”

Joining the student body as a freshmen, Nathan Wong, ‘18, enjoys living and studying in America. Accustomed to the packed streets of China, Wong was surprised to see how open America is compared to his home country.

Encouraged by his family to study abroad, Wong struggled with making new friends because of language differences when he began school in the U.S. To overcome the language barrier, he started reading more and listening to English. However despite these challenges, Wong thinks studying in America is a great experience.

“To me, America has always been a great country,” Wong said. “I was motivated by my family to come study in U.S. My biggest struggle immigrating to America is making new friends. A lot of times I am too shy to talk to someone because of the language, unlike in China because that’s where I grew up. My first impression of the states was thinking  how big it is. In China, it is crowded, and seeing a place this big with so much unused space is not something we get to do every day in China.”