Many students might be unaware of the exchange student community at our school. However, Coronado has a very big population of exchange students from all over the world; we have peers from such countries as Norway, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, France, and Uzbekistan. Exchange students are spending an entire year here in Colorado Springs, experiencing American culture and perspective on the world as well as life at an American high school.
Of course, there are different aspects of being an exchange student in the US; some may be fulfilling and favorable, while other aspects might be challenging to handle as a young person in a foreign country. Many exchange students find language to be the most challenging part of attending Coronado, because most countries do not have English-speaking science, humanities, and math classes. As Mukhlisa Kodirova, Class of 2024, said, “I think the biggest difficulty … is the language. I have been studying the British version of the language for 10 years and coming to school where students use slang was a huge obstacle.” Mukhlisa is an Uzbekistani student, who started her exchange journey in August 2023. Since then, she has joined many different clubs and other activities that helped her get some practice with English outside of the classroom setting. However, there are many other aspects of high school life at Coronado that Mukhlisa loves, such as the school system. “We were all wearing [school] uniforms. But now I can see both advantages and disadvantages of having uniforms. Also, in Uzbekistan we could not choose classes,” stated Mukhlisa, indicating that it was surprising to have the opportunity the opportunity to choose her own classes instead of learning mandatory classes.
A lot of other exchange students would agree with Mukhlisa, since Mina Mjelde, Class of 2024, also found some school rules interesting and different from her home country, Norway. As Mina mentioned, “[The] school system is really different here because we have a lot of homework,” which is very different from Norway, where high school students have absolutely no homework. Even the way students have to act and do things differently was interesting to Mina, since “all the doors are closed, and you need this hall pass to go anywhere.”
Cougar Daily wishes all of our exchange students to learn even more about American culture while having fun with their families and friends during their exchange year.
