Interview with a Brazilian exchange student in France

Gustavo Baptista Siqueira, 17 years old, is from Goiânia and last year he decided that he wanted to be an exchange student and participate in the intercultural experience offered by AFS Intercultural Programs. Since the second semester of 2011 he lives in Chauny, France, and, even though there were some difficulties in the beginning, he is happy. The AFS Goiânia Committee Blog talked to Gustavo about his experience of being an exchange student in France.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Why did you decide to participare in an exchange program?

Gustavo: I’m young, I’m still in high school, so I took the chance to do an exchange program while I’m still young, because I don’t know if I’ll have other opportunity. And I also wanted to grow and change my life a little bit.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Why did you choose France?

Gustavo: I chose France because is has such an attractive culture and I also wanted to learn French.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: How’s the experience so far?

Gustavo: The experience now is great. There were some unpleasant moments, but it’s always like that in the beginning.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: What was the greatest difficulty you had to go through?

Gustavo: The greatest difficulty was changing my routine, families… It’s strange to think that now your host family is going to be your family for an year. And it’s always difficult to adapt to some rules.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: What do you think is the most different thing in France compared to Brazil?

Gustavo: Here in France people are really cool, but it’s not the same when compared to Brazilians. 

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Did you change during your exchange year?

Gustaavo: I changed a lot! We change a lot during the experience, the way of treating people and the way of thinking too.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Do you think doing an exchange program will be good for your future?

Gustavo: It’s always good to learn new things, every knowledge is useful. Learning a new language is something we’ll keep for the rest of our lives and it allows us to communicate with more people.

AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Define in one word your exchange year.

Gustavo: Pleasure!