In August 2007,
Guilherme Pereira Gabler, from Goiânia, traveled to Denmark for an cultural
exchange program. During one year he lived with a Danish family, studied at a
Danish school and made friends with people from all around the world. But
before he became an exchange student, he and his family hosted a student from
New Zealand for four months. It was knowing this girl from another country (and
also knowing other exchange students that studied at his school) that made
Guilherme interested in becoming an exchange student. He talked to the AFS Goiânia Committee Blog about his experience in Denmark.
Guilherme
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: How did you know AFS Intercultural
Programs?
Guilherme: The school were I studied (Integrado Jaó) received
exchange students.
AFS Goiânia Committee
Blog: Why did you choose Denmark as your exchange country?
Guilherme: I choose Denmark
because it’s an “unusual” and
unknown place. As an exchange experience, I wanted to see and live
something new, learn a new and unknown language and live a cultura that is
really different from the one I was used to. I think I couldn’t have chosen
better, because the Danish language and culture fascinate me till today.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: How was your exchange experience?
Guilherme: I wanted to
say “great” and nothing more. But it was a year full of emotions and
experiences of all kinds that made me grow as a person. For some moments it
was, without a doubt, very hard, and why not say “bad”? But it surely was the
best experience I could’ve had.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: What was the greatest difficulty you
had to go through during your exchange year?
Guilherme: Without a
doubt it was the beginning of my exchange year, learning the language and the
initial contact with people, mainly because there was no “way of
communication”. But with time everything worked out and I discovered that the
famous “coldness” of Danish people (or Europeans in general) was nothing more
that a bad impression caused by tourists that didn’t know what they were
talking about.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: What do you think is the greatest difference between Brazil and Denmark?
Guilherme: Good
manners! Caring about people,
being kind, knowing your community, and these kinds of things. Unfortunately
that was the biggest difference, because I don’t see the Brazilian people being
very gentle. At least not like the Danish.
Guilherme and other exchange students
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Did you change during your exchange
experience?
Guilherme: A lot. When
I remember the boy that left Goiânia to go to the unknown and cold Denmark, and
then I look at me today, I feel as if they were two different people. The
exchange experience made me change the way I interact and, especially,
understand people and their differences. And of course, I’ve learnt to know me
better and know my own culture better, mainly because I took up the role as a
“foreigner”.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Do you think that living abroad
influenced your personal and professional choices?
Guilherme: I think so.
The exchange experience made me understand a lot about the world around me a
about myself. This self-knowledge surely helped me a lot in my choices.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: How was coming back to Brazil and the
readaptation?
Guilherme: It was a
shock. I was happy to see my friends and family again, but I really missed my
“second family” and every thing I lived in Denmark. For a while I didn’t accept
the fact that I was back very well and I had a feeling I didn’t belong here. But
today I understand that this is the proof that I took part in a “cultural exchange
experience”. I lived so intensely with the Danish culture and people, that
sometimes, even without noticing, I felt part of them. But today I understand that
all these “shocks” I went through were enriching.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Do you miss Denmark? Do you keep n
touch with your host family and friends? Do you think of going back?
Guilherme: Even today,
a part of me is, without a doubt, still in Denmark, and always will be. I still
keep in touch with some friends I met there, the Danish and other exchange
students. I also maintain contact with my host family, which I truly think of
as a second family to me. Some of my friends already visited me here in Brazil,
including my host sister, and last year I had the opportunity to go back to
Denmark and see my host family and some of my friends I studied with. And the
best thing is that, even though I went back three years later, I felt at home,
like I had never left.
AFS Goiânia Committee Blog: Define in one word your exchange year.
Guilherme: Exceptional.
Exchange students in Denmark
