Students adapt to new cultures
Junior Gian Sabling plays his favorite sport that he grew to love after moving here. He enjoys playing soccer with his friends and it makes adapting easier. At school having structured sports is exciting for students who move here.
October 27, 2019
Students born and raised in other countries adapt to the culture when they move to the United States. A significant amount of work goes into changing the way a person lives. At school, there are students who have to adapt. They have to learn American ways and traditions differentiating with their home country. A small group of students moved to the United States, they experience the changes and challenges.
“There was a lot of small differences between the countries,” junior and German native Charlotta Lueth said.
Most high schools in the United States, including Stillwater Area High School, have a traditional order with how school is organized. The only breaks high schools have within the school day are passing time. There are larger class sizes here, differentiating from other schools. The way students learn can depend on the atmosphere, such as, the class size. Moving here from another country with different school structures is difficult, the students have to acclimate to a new school structure.
“We have more breaks that are half an hour between classes in Germany, which makes it easier going to class,” Lueth explained.
Changes in food acts is a big divide between cultures. Food can represent which culture certain people belong too and often offer a way to show pride in ones ethnicity. Many carry on their traditional cuisine to retain their culture. However the United States has its own culture of food, in which, affects traditional food values of those from other countries. This could turn to a troublesome adjusting period.
Junior Philippines native Gian Sabling believes food was the most difficult part.
We got it so much better than most people because Gian is essentially living the American dream right now,
— Austin Johnson
Language becomes one of the hardest parts of moving into a country like America. English becomes a challenging factor and a difficult language to learn. Within the English language, there tends to be a large amount of grammatical patterns, to some it feels confusing to someone switching to the language.
“The English language has been the most difficult about moving here,” Sabling said.
Furthermore, the diversity within sports and activities creates positive aspects about moving to the United States’culture. Sports develop passions for people and create more positivity. It helps to adapt by doing something new that one can love. It also develops into a way to create relationships and learn cultural differences. Sports create a long lasting impact on a person and is a loving aspect in some people’s lives.
“Gian definitely loves sports like American football and baseball,” junior Austin Johnson said.
In most countries, people do not have as many rights compared to America. For that reason, many do not have the chance to live the “American Dream”. In America, the fortunate ways of living draws people from other countries. Wanting to adapt to this culture could make people open-minded and have an easier transition.
“We got it so much better than most people because Gian is essentially living the American dream right now,” Johnson explained, through observing being friends with Sabling.
“At first it was kind of easy for me, and I didn’t know a lot coming here,” Lueth said, “but now I am used to America a lot.”
Emma Wagner • Nov 18, 2019 at 9:28 am
It is very interesting to learn the differences and similarities between America and other countries. It surprises me to learn that other people believe English is a hard language. Very good perspectives!
Anthony Toscano • Nov 14, 2019 at 9:39 am
I love this article. it had super good flow and the interviews were very good.
Elizabeth Shepperd • Nov 13, 2019 at 9:47 pm
Your quotes could have provided more depth and information, but the story itself was very interesting. Very good job! Keep it up.
Alexander Corbett • Nov 13, 2019 at 8:43 pm
Very good job at having different perspectives and fact paragraphs were very strong this article leaving into a nice and sometimes short quote.
Julia Bennett • Nov 13, 2019 at 8:37 pm
I found it interesting to hear different viewpoints surrounding adapting to a new culture. I thought you did a great job immediately drawing readers in with your headline. You utilized transitions to create flow throughout the article. Great job!
jack l Taverna • Nov 12, 2019 at 7:55 am
I love the featured image. I know that the person in that picture ,Gian is from another country. I love how the image shows that despite being from a another country, Gian can still adapt to the norms here in the United States. Great work!
William Raymond • Nov 11, 2019 at 8:30 pm
1. Good article would like to hear even more from the students.
2. More variety of sentence types would elevate writing.
3. Very strong flowing article.
Mairin Torgerson • Nov 10, 2019 at 6:32 pm
I found this article really inspiring and the headline was very effective. Hearing from the students who are adapting was interesting and appealing and gave a personal insight to the topic. The only thing that could be improved would be having quotes that gave more detail into the students personal feelings and could possibly be longer. The article had great structure and flowed nicely between paragraphs as well.
Anastasia Bertsch • Nov 8, 2019 at 1:49 pm
I loved how you had strong quotes and fact paragraphs, lots of different views! Super interesting!
Alex Steil • Nov 4, 2019 at 11:18 pm
Coming from a politically minded approach, this was a really interesting article because of the different viewpoints and walks of life the work drew on. The quotes and transitions were seamlessly put into the story to make it flow really well. Good job.
John Franklin • Nov 3, 2019 at 6:07 pm
I think that this story pulled me in because in all of my years of high school, I have had one friend that was a foreign exchange student. The fact paragraphs led to strong quotes, and I really liked the slideshow in the middle of it. Overall, it was a strong article.
Paige Sanders • Nov 3, 2019 at 2:05 pm
I was drawn to this story because I wanted to read about how students at our school from other countries are adapting to a different way of life living in the U.S. The fact paragraphs were strong and provided significant detail on the differing culture between the U.S. and other countries. However, more quotes could have been included in the story. Nice job, Ella!
Fiona Stahl • Nov 3, 2019 at 11:09 am
I found it interesting to read about how others around the world spend their typical day and what challenges they faced upon their arrival here. You did provide few examples of this in your story, but wishing your quotes were more in depth and included more emotion. Overall nice job, Ella!