living abroad sparks cultural sensitivity and unforgettable experiences
Unfamiliar clothes, buildings, foods, and languages dominate the landscape as a jumble of sights, sounds, and tastes overwhelm the senses, leaving one exhilarated and apprehensive at the same time. Transformative and invaluable, the experiences and skills gained from living abroad inspire students at Saint Paul Academy and Summit School both academically and personally.
“[I learned] how people communicate in different cultures on different topics … I became more cultured, more sensitive to issues in other countries, because I’d experienced them,” junior Claire Ristau said. Ristau moved to Tervuren, Belgium in 2007, and lived there for three years, from the beginning of third grade to the end of fifth grade. because of her dad’s job at the international company, 3M.
Although Ristau had trouble adjusting to the change in language and culture at the beginning, the exposure eventually benefited her. “I learned how to speak French pretty well. In World History II, [living abroad] helped me because I knew all the cities and countries. [It also helped] me in English, because I had to help other kids write properly [when I was in Belgium],” she said.
Nonetheless, Ristau obtained more than academic benefits from her time in Belgium. “I picked up a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “At restaurants the proportions are very small so I sort of adapted to small portions at meals rather than oversized American portions. I walked places a lot more and biked rather than drove just because everything was so close.” Ristau remembers adopting smaller, more nutritious portion sizes that mirrored European habits of proper eating during her time in Belgium, a practice she has retained since.
However, living abroad has its own share of drawbacks. Ristau’s athletic career suffered, making it harder for her to once she moved back to America. “[Living abroad] did set me back in sports, since women don’t really play sports in Europe,” she said. Ristau also had a difficult time adapting to the foreign environment. “[It was hard] adjusting to a completely different culture, you’re super homesick. I wanted to be normal and live in America,” she said.
Freshman Henry Zietlow also lived overseas, his stay lasting about five years in two separate countries. Zietlow was born in Singapore and lived there until he was five, when he moved to Japan, spending a fair amount of his early elementary school years abroad due to his dad’s job as a tax lawyer. Like Ristau, Zietlow also gained some language skills: “[I] learned a bit of Malaysian,” he said, although he doesn’t remember most of it now.
Zietlow didn’t face the same language barriers in Singapore as Ristau did during her time in Belgium. He remembers the environment in Singapore as being quite similar to that of the United States. “Most people speak English, so its not that different from the U.S. A lot of the same brands [for clothing and food] were there,” he said.
Japan, however, was a completely different story. “The language barrier was a bit of an issue. Nobody in my family spoke much Japanese at all, so doing stuff like going to restaurants was sometimes difficult. But nonetheless, there was still a lot of English-speaking people surrounding us, so it wasn't a terrible issue,” Zietlow said.
Zietlow enjoyed living in a part of the world outside the US and appreciated the starkly different environment and culture. “Singapore was a lot more busy [compared to America], and a lot bigger, it also seemed more diverse … [Japan] was definitely busier, and more chaotic in the cities. The small towns often seemed more rustic, and less commercialized than American towns,” he said.
He remembers his first impressions of Minnesota with fondness, and a bit of nostalgia: “the cold was shocking. [I missed] the people, the atmosphere, and the markets [from my childhood]; they all seemed more energetic and bustling in Japan and Singapore,” he said.
Although many students spend well over a year overseas when their families make the decision to move abroad, much shorter stays are also routine. This is especially true for junior Emma Taussig, who spent six months in Amsterdam when she was in the third grade for her mother’s university exchange. “I lived in an apartment. We would look out of the kitchen window and see a swan floating down the canal … we could bike everywhere, our everyday transportation was just biking,” Taussig said. “It was an in interesting experience for me as a young child, trying to speak with people that didn’t always know what I was saying,” she said, referring to Dutch speakers in Amsterdam.
As a result of her time there, Taussig’s French skills improved and she learned an important lesson: “a lot of americans don’t realize [that non-americans] shouldn’t be obligated to learn your language. If they don’t speak English you should put in an effort to try to communicate,” she said.
Unlike Ristau and Zietlow, Taussig had no problem getting used to life in Amsterdam. “A lot of people think living in a country takes a lot of time to settle down in, but it was pretty fast for me,” she said. Taussig attributes her ability to adapt to new living situations to the numerous school changes she’s endured in the past, and her love of Amsterdam. “I’ve been to a number of schools so its pretty easy for me to get integrated,” she said.
Sophomore Soph Lundberg shares Taussig’s ability to adapt; a quality that served her well as a child in living abroad “[Living in China] was the majority of my childhood, it was not necessarily the greatest, but it was definitely exciting,” she said. Lundberg first moved to China in 2006, staying until 2011. In addition to those five years, Lundberg spent her freshman year in China and returned to SPA for sophomore year due to her mom’s erratic job.
Life in China was, to say the least, drastically different from life in America. “I couldn’t use Facebook, or YouTube, or Snapchat without getting a virtual private network,” Lundberg said. “You can’t watch certain channels, unless you get pirated satellite from the Philippines … I hadn’t watched Disney channel as a child because I could only get it [legally] from iTunes or when I came back for the summer,” she added.
Besides learning her way around media restriction laws abroad, Lundberg acquired Chinese language skills and a rare ability to handle other people.“I definitely learned how to deal with people better, they come and go a lot so you kind of learn to adapt to new situations. [I learned] a lot of social skills, like how to interact with people [I didn’t] know,” she said. “It was a humbling experience.”
Born and raised in Switzerland, Jordan Moradian lived in Zurich for eleven years before coming to SPA in sixth grade after his family moved to Minnesota due to his dad’s drug research company, MDbiosciences. Despite his roots in Switzerland, Moradian didn’t find his move to Minnesota difficult. “My grandparents lived here, so I would come here every summer … I had a few friends because I went to camp here so moving here, coming to school here wasn’t very difficult. It was a good experience, I wanted a change,” he said.
More than anything else, Moradian gained an immense wealth of language experience and skill. “English was what I spoke at home, but I learned Swiss-German too,” he said. “I find it easier to learn Romanic languages because I grew up in Switzerland [and] I was exposed to multiple languages [including] French and Italian.” Currently, Moradian has taken Spanish up to level 5 at SPA, and is now in French 3. “When I go back to Switzerland, [Swiss-German] all comes back within a day or two,” he said.
However, there were drawbacks to living in Switzerland. “It’s not nearly as diverse there, I was one of the only jewish kids at school...they don’t have extra curricular activities tied in with the school either,” he said. Moradian believes the exposure has helped him during discussions at SPA. “When I'm talking about different ideas and beliefs I feel like I’m more open-minded about it,” he said.
Each student struggled with their own personal challenges during their time living abroad, experiencing both joy and heartache along the way. Students developed emotional connections with the countries they had lived in, as became an intrinsic part of their past. As Taussig said: “I cried because I had to go there, and then I cried because I had to go back.”
Photo Credit: Soph Lundberg
“[I learned] how people communicate in different cultures on different topics … I became more cultured, more sensitive to issues in other countries, because I’d experienced them,” junior Claire Ristau said. Ristau moved to Tervuren, Belgium in 2007, and lived there for three years, from the beginning of third grade to the end of fifth grade. because of her dad’s job at the international company, 3M.
Although Ristau had trouble adjusting to the change in language and culture at the beginning, the exposure eventually benefited her. “I learned how to speak French pretty well. In World History II, [living abroad] helped me because I knew all the cities and countries. [It also helped] me in English, because I had to help other kids write properly [when I was in Belgium],” she said.
Nonetheless, Ristau obtained more than academic benefits from her time in Belgium. “I picked up a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “At restaurants the proportions are very small so I sort of adapted to small portions at meals rather than oversized American portions. I walked places a lot more and biked rather than drove just because everything was so close.” Ristau remembers adopting smaller, more nutritious portion sizes that mirrored European habits of proper eating during her time in Belgium, a practice she has retained since.
However, living abroad has its own share of drawbacks. Ristau’s athletic career suffered, making it harder for her to once she moved back to America. “[Living abroad] did set me back in sports, since women don’t really play sports in Europe,” she said. Ristau also had a difficult time adapting to the foreign environment. “[It was hard] adjusting to a completely different culture, you’re super homesick. I wanted to be normal and live in America,” she said.
Freshman Henry Zietlow also lived overseas, his stay lasting about five years in two separate countries. Zietlow was born in Singapore and lived there until he was five, when he moved to Japan, spending a fair amount of his early elementary school years abroad due to his dad’s job as a tax lawyer. Like Ristau, Zietlow also gained some language skills: “[I] learned a bit of Malaysian,” he said, although he doesn’t remember most of it now.
Zietlow didn’t face the same language barriers in Singapore as Ristau did during her time in Belgium. He remembers the environment in Singapore as being quite similar to that of the United States. “Most people speak English, so its not that different from the U.S. A lot of the same brands [for clothing and food] were there,” he said.
Japan, however, was a completely different story. “The language barrier was a bit of an issue. Nobody in my family spoke much Japanese at all, so doing stuff like going to restaurants was sometimes difficult. But nonetheless, there was still a lot of English-speaking people surrounding us, so it wasn't a terrible issue,” Zietlow said.
Zietlow enjoyed living in a part of the world outside the US and appreciated the starkly different environment and culture. “Singapore was a lot more busy [compared to America], and a lot bigger, it also seemed more diverse … [Japan] was definitely busier, and more chaotic in the cities. The small towns often seemed more rustic, and less commercialized than American towns,” he said.
He remembers his first impressions of Minnesota with fondness, and a bit of nostalgia: “the cold was shocking. [I missed] the people, the atmosphere, and the markets [from my childhood]; they all seemed more energetic and bustling in Japan and Singapore,” he said.
Although many students spend well over a year overseas when their families make the decision to move abroad, much shorter stays are also routine. This is especially true for junior Emma Taussig, who spent six months in Amsterdam when she was in the third grade for her mother’s university exchange. “I lived in an apartment. We would look out of the kitchen window and see a swan floating down the canal … we could bike everywhere, our everyday transportation was just biking,” Taussig said. “It was an in interesting experience for me as a young child, trying to speak with people that didn’t always know what I was saying,” she said, referring to Dutch speakers in Amsterdam.
As a result of her time there, Taussig’s French skills improved and she learned an important lesson: “a lot of americans don’t realize [that non-americans] shouldn’t be obligated to learn your language. If they don’t speak English you should put in an effort to try to communicate,” she said.
Unlike Ristau and Zietlow, Taussig had no problem getting used to life in Amsterdam. “A lot of people think living in a country takes a lot of time to settle down in, but it was pretty fast for me,” she said. Taussig attributes her ability to adapt to new living situations to the numerous school changes she’s endured in the past, and her love of Amsterdam. “I’ve been to a number of schools so its pretty easy for me to get integrated,” she said.
Sophomore Soph Lundberg shares Taussig’s ability to adapt; a quality that served her well as a child in living abroad “[Living in China] was the majority of my childhood, it was not necessarily the greatest, but it was definitely exciting,” she said. Lundberg first moved to China in 2006, staying until 2011. In addition to those five years, Lundberg spent her freshman year in China and returned to SPA for sophomore year due to her mom’s erratic job.
Life in China was, to say the least, drastically different from life in America. “I couldn’t use Facebook, or YouTube, or Snapchat without getting a virtual private network,” Lundberg said. “You can’t watch certain channels, unless you get pirated satellite from the Philippines … I hadn’t watched Disney channel as a child because I could only get it [legally] from iTunes or when I came back for the summer,” she added.
Besides learning her way around media restriction laws abroad, Lundberg acquired Chinese language skills and a rare ability to handle other people.“I definitely learned how to deal with people better, they come and go a lot so you kind of learn to adapt to new situations. [I learned] a lot of social skills, like how to interact with people [I didn’t] know,” she said. “It was a humbling experience.”
Born and raised in Switzerland, Jordan Moradian lived in Zurich for eleven years before coming to SPA in sixth grade after his family moved to Minnesota due to his dad’s drug research company, MDbiosciences. Despite his roots in Switzerland, Moradian didn’t find his move to Minnesota difficult. “My grandparents lived here, so I would come here every summer … I had a few friends because I went to camp here so moving here, coming to school here wasn’t very difficult. It was a good experience, I wanted a change,” he said.
More than anything else, Moradian gained an immense wealth of language experience and skill. “English was what I spoke at home, but I learned Swiss-German too,” he said. “I find it easier to learn Romanic languages because I grew up in Switzerland [and] I was exposed to multiple languages [including] French and Italian.” Currently, Moradian has taken Spanish up to level 5 at SPA, and is now in French 3. “When I go back to Switzerland, [Swiss-German] all comes back within a day or two,” he said.
However, there were drawbacks to living in Switzerland. “It’s not nearly as diverse there, I was one of the only jewish kids at school...they don’t have extra curricular activities tied in with the school either,” he said. Moradian believes the exposure has helped him during discussions at SPA. “When I'm talking about different ideas and beliefs I feel like I’m more open-minded about it,” he said.
Each student struggled with their own personal challenges during their time living abroad, experiencing both joy and heartache along the way. Students developed emotional connections with the countries they had lived in, as became an intrinsic part of their past. As Taussig said: “I cried because I had to go there, and then I cried because I had to go back.”
Photo Credit: Soph Lundberg