I am from America, going to be a foreign exchange student?

1) The general assumption is positive but of course, like anyway, may vary person to person. Bella B is quite right, generally Americans as a group may be looked upon negatively not individually. Personally I like Americans except I have never met one in a group. Although, sometimes I find it hard to listen to very thick American accents, I can understand them but sometimes it just gets tiring. And also it may depend which part you travel to, the eastern states are sometimes more american than that of SA, TAS, NT and WA and may even use lots of american spelling/slang. However, I'm sure wherever you end up everyone will treat you kindly because there are often many exchange students, tourist and immigrants. Currently at my school we have 9 exchange students. 2) My high school, I live in SA goes from year 8 to year 12. There's no middle school in Australia straight from Primary school (elementary school) to high school. At our school we call grades 'years' but sometimes one might say grade. Summer holidays goes from early December to start of February but this changes state to state. There are four terms a year, each about 10 weeks and in between each term we get a 2 week holiday (vacation). Holidays are usually spent relaxing in town, hanging with friends or taking day trips to the beach, rarely do we travel far. There are two semesters in a school year also, each semester with two terms. At the end of semester we change subjects and classes. Every exchange student always comments that our school is a lot less formal and we come to know some classmates and teacher only by nicknames. AT my school we have recess which is a snack or morning tea for half an hour and then lunch goes for an hour. We eat outside, on the grass or tables, wherever you like and then either spend the rest of the time talking while the boys play either rugby or aussie rules football on the ovals. There are no cheerleaders and no 'school teams'. People play sport on teams outside of school and just in PE occasionally, although in our school the sport which we play in PE we wouldn't be able to play in town like squash or handball. Most girls play netball :) I guess one thing is that there is not 'stereotypes' like shown in american movies. There are distinct friendship groups of course because everyone aren't friends with each other, but everyone is quite friendly with each other. There is sometimes quite an obvious cool/uncool group, however this usually disappears in the older grades. 3) Pop culture is very influenced by America and Europe. Food is similar to both those places, you will be able to find both Italian and American style pizzas in every city and almost every town. American jelly = jam, peanut butter is sometimes called peanut paste (in SA), ketchup is tomato sauce. Some yummy Australian foods are lamingtons and pavlova. You may like vegemite but my experience shows most foreigners don't. Even some Australians can't stand it but I was raised on it so I have some on toast ever day. The trick is that it's not even remotely close to nutella. Whoever said that was mad. Music is largely the same although some popular Australian artists include Guy Sebstian, Gotye, Reese Mastin, Sia, Jessica Mauboy, Justice Crew, 360 and my favourite Timomatic! 4) The talk won't be that different however, I've noticed we have a habit of shortening words ie chocolate = choccy, biscuit = bikkie, breakfast = breaky, vegetables = veggies. Also I know hardly anyone who says dunny, although I do say loo. G'day is not used very often, in my experience it is usually just the older men or farmers. We also keep the 'u' in lots of words like humour, neighbour, favourite, colour and mom is mum. And they're not shrimp. They're prawns.

Don't worry . Same music,,, same most things ,, same food etc . Plenty of people from US and Canada come here

Depends what part of America. Guatemala? Canada? Are you an Eskimo?

1) Americans are fine. There is some negativity - generally Americans as a group not individuals. I know they aren't but there are rumours that 75% can't find Canada on a map. (I've never found it anywhere so it's probably a crock of s---). But it also comes down to the difference between Australian and American psyche. Americans tend to be quite brash and very much "Look at me, look at me" whereas Australians are a bit more private and more collective I suppose. Americans tend to beat their chests and say "Woohoo. I. AM. AMERICAN" and we do get you love your country. We do too, but we don't tend to be so in your face. Sorry waffling here, just when you come here, don't go on and on and on and on about America is so great and the be all and end all. Don't critisise. We love our country and you coming going "we're the best, we're so great" is taken as "We're so great and you're cr-p". Come here, open your mind, be prepared to learn about the world outside the US. 2) I'm not a high schooler. We wear uniforms for the most part. Cheerleaders don't exist. Sport is different here than the US. 3) You'd recognise a lot of "pop culture" stuff here. We get a lot of US music, movies etc. But we have our own and other overseas (eg UK) as well... We eat Vegemite which is different (if you try it, try it on toast and DO NOT overdo it. Basically spread it about as thin as a piece of paper... We don't have peanut butter and jelly. Jelly is what you guys called jello. We don't really have a replacement for your jelly. Tomato sauce ("ketchup") is different here. We have different meal choices (entree / soup, main and dessert). I have heard of appetiser but it's the same as entree or soup. Main meals here are apparently the same size as your entree courses. The salad or vegetables etc are served with the main meal, usually with although some pricey places do have "side dishes".

Hi! I live in Australia but I'am soon moving to North America. To answer your questions:: 1) We Australians love Americans, well most of us. It really depends on the person to, but don't worry because Americans are like Australians, multi-cultural etc. 2) My high school and pretty much every other high school in Australia require uniforms, including public/government schools. We have Juniors 7-8, Middle School 9-10 and Seniors 11-12. There are usually strict rules for example, no chewing gum and no make up but this is in Catholic and Private schools, I' ve never been to a Public school so I'm not 100% sure about them. 3) Well we usually listen to all the American singers like Pitbull, Drake, Justin Bieber etc. Food is like the food in America, Pasta, Burgers, Chicken, Sandwiches, Chips also known as FRIES. ETC 4) You should either go to Brisbane or Sydney, they have beautiful beaches and large malls.

Australians vastly prefer Canadians who have much more in common. Americans are just unwanted pests.

I'm going to tell you the truth that most people will leave out. Most Australians do not like Americans. In fact they consider American selfish, and stupid. I've been living here for a few years and I can say they really hate America.