TO Winnipeg, in the heart of Canada, the temperature varies from -48° to +35°. When Eleonora, 17, left Milan for the year abroad, she was prepared. She didn’t know, however, that her host family – a widow with a free house – was an hour and a half away from school, and waiting for the bus in the cold wasn’t healthy. After a push and pull with the local contact person of the Italian agency, he changed his family, and ended up with a childless couple so busy with work that they had no time for her. Never a date, not even the farewell dinner. Good morning, good evening and little else.
But Eleonora didn’t give up, not even when she broke her leg and underwent an operation. She didn’t ask to go back to Italy and her parents, by choice, didn’t offer it to her. Mother Ida is proud: «She put her foot down when things didn’t go well, she managed. She is now strong, she has more self-esteem ».
The year abroad: Canada wins
After the pandemic, the year of study abroad (but also the semester, or quarter) has recovered: according to Wep, one of the leading organizations, students who have chosen to attend the fourth year of high school elsewhere have been in 2022 +35 per cent compared to 2019, and for 2023 the estimates are of a further +10.
In the top ten destinations, iCanada is in first place, followed by the United States, Ireland and Australia while New Zealand, in high demand until a few years ago, has slipped to ninth. For a smaller agency, Gobeyond, Canada, the United States and Australia top the list. The historic EF, which has sent over 100,000 students around the world since 1979, has chosen to focus on the United States, Great Britain and Ireland, with direct management, without relying on intermediaries. It’s the only one to do it and they ensure that, in America, their managers are half an hour away from the students.
The dialogue is not easy with the Italian school
Canada therefore wins, and according to families it is also the destination – if not preferred – least opposed by Italian schools. Our kids all go to Vancouver (apart from Eleonora) and come back, as mum Federica says, «more responsible, independent, open to the world and without fear of facing something different».
A life experience, where the acquisition of a foreign language is an essential component, but it’s not the only one. Those who do it say it’s worth it, even if it costs: for a year in Canada or New Zealand, you spend between 19,000 and 25,000 euros, while the United States is more expensive. And if, instead of accommodation in a family, you choose the boarding school (a boarding school), the prices skyrocket.
Enrollments for the year 2024/2025 are already open or will open in September. For those who are thinking about it, now is the right time to get organized. Gobeyond provides two psychologists to help find the best solution, and then in itinere if needed. Generally, most of the enrollments take place after the first report card of the third year of high school. From there begins the dialogue, often not easy, with the school to which they belong.
«The professors are against the idea of going away for a whole year. According to them, the lesser evil is losing the first trimester/quarter, so then we’ll catch up on the return» says Andrea, a student at a Milanese high school. «But I advise against it: as soon as I got back, they massacred me with checks and interrogations. Now I think it would have been better to leave in January, come back in June and have the summer available to recover. Or stay away for a year. The first few months are tough, and if you only stay for one season you end up coming back when you’ve just settled in». Parents criticize the management of the Italian school: “They don’t understand that they make a great effort to integrate into a different system,” says Federica, who has sent three children abroad: “When they return, they find a wall. Prejudice wins: you’ve been doing nothing, here we work. But is not so. Certainly Federica read Hemingway lying on the grass, and she followed a course in photography. But she had chosen an advanced course for mathematics and physics ».
The importance of the host family
An Italian girl (left) and her host “sister” in the mountains.
The boys regularly attend a local school, choosing the subjects to follow, more or less freely depending on the country. In Canada, there are four; in the United States, five to seven. Better to prefer the more serious disciplines, is everyone’s advice, and avoid “temptations”: cutting and sewing or gardening. Oscar, a technical college student, enrolled in math, chemistry, law, English, in addition to the gym during his winter in Kansas. Sometimes you can find courses at the university level, which are also useful as an orientation. In general, accustomed to the demands of Italian high schools, our students refuse: «I understood that we really are ugly Milanese, crushed by commitments, without a moment for ourselves» says Beatrice, returning from Oregon. «It’s different abroad: there’s more balance, there’s time for everything».
If school is only part of an overall experience, the host family plays a fundamental role. Here, some precautions may be useful. “There are families who welcome for money and others who do it voluntarily,” says Federica. «Generally the volunteers are more welcoming. For the others it’s an extra income, they put a plate in front of you and that’s it». Adds Natalia Anguas, managing director of EF Italia: «Volunteer families are interested in having an exchange student in their home. Often they are teachers, sometimes they have teenage children to whom they want to introduce peers from overseas. You have to try to integrate, and if they only offer you peanut butter it is right to ask for more, but in a kind way and without offending». Advice? Looking for a family where there is another guest: it can be a support.
Thus we become citizens of the world
Caterina (right) returned to Turkey for a year with Intercultura.
Everyone sees it in their own way: «My daughter ended up in Vancouver with an Asian family who lived in a basement facing the wall, and only fed her rice and chicken» remembers Giulia. “They were non-existent. On the other hand, she was much freer than her companions, she chose to stay and returned enthusiastic». Oscar adds: «The first thing to do is build a good relationship with the host family, forget our habits, open up to new things». Through this cultural exchange «we become citizens of the world, you have something extra” says Anguas. While Lorenzo Agati, founder of Wep Italia (every year he sends 1800 students abroad), thinks that this is «an opportunity for personal and, in the long term, professional growth».
A different proposition is that of Interculturea voluntary association that has been dealing with for 70 years student mobility: students leave for an often distant or “inconvenient” elsewhere, from Argentina to China, from India to Tunisia. The experience is all-round, the aim is to stimulate dialogue and understanding between peoples. Between now and September, 1,800 will pack their bags (two out of three with scholarships). You enter by competition, you make a ranking and you don’t always end up in the first required country.
Catherine lived in Istanbul, which was not at the top of her list. “At first I was shocked,” she says. «But I had a nice host family, with a daughter my age, and there was also a Spanish girl in the house. They all spoke English well, it took me time to learn Turkish. The school has modern didactics, we work a lot in the classroom and little at home. The teachers are called “you”. I was sad to come back but next year many of my new friends will be coming to Milan to study. And we will meet again».
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