How do Australian students react to foreign students?

How Will People React To an Aussie in An American Highskl + Why Do Exchange Students Get Sent To Rural Areas.?

• Hi, I am thinking of going on an exchange program to the US, I am from Australia and 15. However i noticed alot of exchange students get sent to rural areas/small towns....I Cannot stand rural areas. AT ALL. I have Grown up in an urban/suburban area all of my life and cannot small town communities in the middle of nowhere...So why do exchange students get sent there?. I was wondering if there are any organisations that you can Put down a preferance/Choose your general Location in the country. Also how will people react to me at an american highschool, with me having an australian accent and all...will people think I'm weird for it or Like it?.

• Answer:

  Exchange programs are set up in towns that want them. Since the vast majority of the US is (despite what tv and film shows) rural and suburban, most placements will be in rural and suburban areas. In addition, it's likely that more rural areas participate in such programs because they feel their own students would benefit by exposure to foreign students - I mean, in NYC, most students there are already foreign-born, so having someone else foreign come in? No big deal. But in South Dakota, where most people there are native-born? Big deal. People will love your accent. However, they may think you're British rather than Australian, only because most Americans have had extremely limited exposure to Australian accents. Maybe they've seen the guy on the House TV show, but that's probably the limit of their exposure. Some people thus can't hear the difference. Don't be bothered by that. People in Ireland used to think I was Australian because of my accent... which is Boston. But they'd never heard a Boston accent, and they knew I wasn't British, so they guessed Australian - it's funny. No big deal.