FRIDAYEXTRA !
The Daily Astorian
Friday, April 1, 2016
Weekend Edition
An exchange of culture
Denmark
Germany
France
Astoria,
Oregon
Japan
S. Korea
Hong Kong
Eva Ip
Minji Song
Kyoka Tanahashi
Amandine Malnou
Jan Kreibich
Students from Asia, Europe
spend time in Astoria
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
hey didn’t really have a choice
beyond coming to the United
States , and some did not know
where Astoria or Oregon was even
located.
But the six foreign exchange students
assigned to Astoria High School — three
each from Asia and Europe — have been
enjoying their time on the North Coast, in
their own ways.
The students, all 16 or 17 and clas-
si¿ ed as juniors for the year at Astoria,
are Kyoka Tanahashi from Japan, Minji
Song from South Korea, Ka Ching “Eva”
Ip from China, Laura Axelsen from Den-
mark, Jan Kreibich from Germany and
Amandine Malnou from France.
‘I thought the
town was kind of
weird because of
all the hills. But I
think it was cool
because of the
river and all the
bridges.’
Laura Axelsen
foreign exchange student
hailing from Denmark
Coming west
Coming east
Most of the foreign exchange class
had to Google “Oregon” and “Astoria”
when they found out where they would
be going to school . T he Asian students
each come from cities more populous
than the Beaver state.
“I knew where Oregon was, but I
didn’t know anything about Astoria,”
said Tanahashi, who comes from Yoko-
hama, a city of more than 3.5 million
people just south of Tokyo.
Since coming to Oregon, Tanahashi
said she has taken pleasure in the simple
things of small town life on the Oregon
C oast, from seeing stars at night to even
enjoying the prodigious amount of rain.
“And downtown during Christmas was
so cute,” she said.
Song, who comes from the Gyeong-
gi-Do, a province of 12 million surround-
ing South Korea’s capital Seoul, had to
Google “Oregon.” “Most Korean peo-
ple know Washington, or California,” she
said.
“I’d never heard of the city of Asto-
ria before,” said Ip, who comes from
Hong Kong, a Chinese city of more than
7 million.
Ip, like the other students, surfed the
net to ¿ nd out more about her new home .
“I’ve never stayed alone by myself in
other countries,” she said. “This is the
¿ rst time I’ve been to America.”
For Malnou, Astoria is the big city
compared to her hometown of Ville-
toureix, a small village in the countryside
of southwestern France.
“There’s a lot of ¿ elds,” she said of
her pastoral home. “I just got like one
neighbor next to my house. In front of
me is a ¿ eld, to the side is a ¿ eld. We’ve
got a big garden; behind my house is all
of that.”
Coming from the most similar envi-
ronment to Astoria is Axelsen, from
Odder, a city of 11,000 in the east of Den-
mark about 10 minutes from the Katte-
gat, a small sea dividing Denmark from
Sweden.
“I thought the town was kind of weird
because of all the hills,” said Axelsen,
whose home country is À at and on aver-
age 100 feet above sea level. “But I
think it was cool because of the river
and all the bridges.”
Kreibich comes from Ludwigshafen,
an industrial city in southwest Germany
home to BASF, the largest chemical pro-
ducer in the world.
“It’s nice to take a break from the
city,” he said. “I would consider (Asto-
ria) a village. People over here tend to
start conversations easier. They’re more
into small talk, which is not common at
home. Germans are friendly, too. Amer-
icans are just more willing to start small
talk.”
Freedom in school
The exchange students, while facing a
learning curve in their English skills, uni-
versally said they enjoy the relative free-
dom of study in America, even if they are
a bit behind in math and science where
they would be at home.
“At my school, many students sleep
during class, because the teacher is so
boring,” said Tanahashi. “The classes are
all decided by an education organization.”
The dynamic is similar in Korea,
where Song said teachers teach and stu-
dents listen quietly. “When we called our
teacher’s name, it could be seen as rude
to the teacher,” she said.
Every one of the students said they
stay in the same class all day, all year,
in their home countries. Kreibich said
he enjoyed teachers having their own
rooms, and not having to be with the
same 30 students all day like in Germany.
“We also do not have whiteboards and
projectors,” he said. “We use blackboards.”
After exchange
Astoria’s exchange students arrived in
August and leave in June, albeit in differ-
ent directions.
Tanahashi will return to school in Japan,
but is interested in returning to America
to study medicine. Malnou said she will
return to France and graduate one year late
before going to college to be an architect.
Kreibich, a self-described plane
addict, said he would like to attend
Lufthansa Flight Training in Germany
after he ¿ nishes a couple more years of
secondary school.
Song said she will visit Korea, return
to ¿ nish her senior year at a high school
in Michigan, attend college in Oregon
and hopefully live in Portland. Ip said
she will return to Hong Kong for a month
before moving on her own to Seattle to
attend Pierce Community College.
Axelsen, returning to Denmark to
¿ nish secondary school, is a bit disap-
pointed about having to leave Astoria
just before the Scandinavian Midsummer
Festival. Her host family’s student last
year, Kristina Kjellberg, was named Miss
Sweden, and Axelsen said she was inter-
ested in following up this year as Miss
Denmark.
Laura Axelsen