My experience about an exchange student

I was born in Seoul, Korea on 1988. I went to schools including elementary, middle, and high from 1995 to 2006. While I was junior, which is year of 2005, I had a chance to become an exchange student to United States. It was my last chance to study in US. Thus, I strongly wanted to come here. On July 2005, I got an acceptance letter from Monticello high school in Minnesota and decided my host family. Couple weeks later, I finally came to US. When I first visited US, many people told me that there would be cultural differences. However, I did not understand what the difference is, until I went to high school.
The very first difference was that students in high school can drive. In Korea, I never saw students in high school have their driver’s license. Second one was that most students worked for their money. Actually it really shocked me since I always got money from my parents. It feels most American students are independent from their parents while many Korean students rely on their parents, including me. The last and the most difference was taking class. In Korea, teachers are asked to go to classroom and students are asked to be in the same classroom from the time they come to school until the time they leave. However, in US, students must go to classroom in order to take the course. Also, in Korea most high schools require to wear school uniform and house shoes in school building. On the other hand, in US, students can wear no matter what they want to and can wear any shoes they like to. In lecture, there are also differences.
Here is another difference with the way of studying between Korean and US students. For Korean students, they are required to focus on memorizing for the tests. On the other hand, for US students, they are more focused on discussing and school activities rather than just memorizing. I used to memorize what I learned from the lectures when I was in Korea, but after I came to US, I had to spend more time on thinking about discussion for classes, and school activities I took than just memorizing. It was much more efficient since I can focus on discussion which leaded me to think about lectures as well. Also, during the lecture, students are welcomed to speak if it is related to lecture. However, in Korea students can speak only when teachers allow them. Although the student has a question, he/she must wait until the teacher let them to ask.
Another difference is lunch. In Korea, students are not allowed to choose what they want to eat; they can only eat what school prepared for them. But in US, I had a chance to choose for lunch. There are foods, drinks, and even desserts. As I wrote earlier, there are also school activities that I can choose to join. There are many activities that students can choose in US. Most of them are not required and just for students’ preference. In Korea, there are some school activities students can join as well. However, most of them are for only athletes, disabled students, or specific major-related.
I really would like to recommend students to get a chance to be an exchange student if they can get the chance. It was very nice experience and it also would be good for students to experience many differences between their country and United States