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An Opportunity to Learn About America Eugenio García from Mexico Photo from Eugenio García Eugenio at Wenona Park near Lake Huron in Bay City, Michigan. Photo from Eugenio García Eugenio at a basketball game in Michigan. Eugenio spent a year as an exchange student in the home of Alan and Darlene Little in Bay City, Michigan. I used to come to the United States very often for shopping or vacations but being an exchange student and living with an American family for a year was a great opportunity for me to know about the American culture. My name is Eugenio Garcia-Falcon, and I am from Mexico. I was an exchange student from 1992 to 1993 and lived in a very exciting city near one of the Great Lakes. Bay City is about two and a half hours north of Detroit, the “Capital of Automobiles.” I lived with a very nice American family, the Little’s. They are a wonderful family; they used to give me advice all the time and tried their best to make me feel comfortable and happy. I had an American brother whose name is Troy. We used to go to school together and play sports such as basketball and football. I went to Bay City Central High School, and I liked it a lot. I made a lots of friends; most of the students in school were very nice and tried to help me with to improve my English. When someone is an exchange student, he learns about other cultures, and this makes this person bicultural. Bicultural is different than bilingual. Some one could be bilingual but not know about the culture and I think that being bicultural is more exciting because it makes you an open-minded person. Photo from Eugenio García Eugenio at a museum in Michigan with an American friend. Of course, I also think it is very important to learn formal English by studying the grammar, knowing all the rules, and combining the grammar with the listening and speaking.Before I went to Michigan, I learned some grammar and important rules of English, and I think that helped me a lot because it was easier for me to get by. I was a sophomore in high school at Bay City, and I took regular classes with native speakers. At first, it was hard for me to understand, but after three months my English was very fluent. I remember one day I had to give an oral presentation for a Human Physiology class. My English was so bad that I was afraid that my class mates were going to laugh at me, but one very important thing I learned is that is you want to improve you English, you need to get rid of the fear and try your best. The oral presentation came out pretty good and my class mates liked it very much. Return to: Foreign Exchange Students | Experiences Learning English | Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine ©1997-2008 - Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics.mag@gmail.com