Kia ora koutou and Bonjour à tous ! My name is Tui, and I have just recently returned from a year-long exchange in France! Long story short, it was the best decision I have ever made, and I will forever be grateful for the people that made it happen. Over the course of a year, I can barely even BEGIN to describe how much I have changed as a person. From my arrival to my departure, I was constantly learning new things about both the world around me and myself. I travelled (a lot), I made new friends, I learnt a whole new language, and discovered who I am as an individual. The person who arrived in France is not the same person who left it, that’s for sure. People were not lying when they said that travelling is AWESOME.
In regards to the language, I’ll admit that it was rather difficult to begin with. I understood next to nothing, and communication was a struggle. My host family spoke no English, so I was forced to improvise. After about three months, I began to understand when people spoke to me, but even then my comprehension was still limited. After seven months, I started to be able to speak my thoughts in more than just three word sentences. It was only after ten months, as I was just about to leave, that I really felt like I had a grip on the French language. At the end, my comprehension was crazy, to the point where I was thinking in half-French half-English, and I was able to chat and joke around with my French classmates; something I was not able to do for the majority of the year.
In my opinion, the hardest part of my exchange was definitely the school. French school in particular is quite difficult, especially in comparison to New Zealand. For starters, the hours are from 8am – 5pm, and if you include the commute and the extraordinary amount of homework most students are given, it wasn’t easy! Luckily the homework was not compulsory for me; learning a new language was challenging enough! But regardless of the workload, everyone at my school was very kind to me, and while most of my friends tended to be other exchange students, I still made a few French friends that I cherish dearly. In all honesty, apart from school and the language, there was little else that I had difficulty with— I didn’t even get homesick!
Moving on to the topic of host families, in my case I was very lucky. Unlike the stereotypical ‘host family’ that consists of a mum, a dad, and siblings, my situation was slightly different. I spent a year with an old couple— around 80 years old— who were absolutely lovely. I was their thirteenth exchange student, believe it or not, and they had been hosting students since before I was born (literally!). Therefore they were very understanding, patient, generous, and kind to me. When I first arrived, the phrase ‘language barrier’ had never felt more literal; having to communicate in one-word sentences or via a translator. But everyday it got easier and easier, and by the end, me and my host family had become great friends. Since my departure, I’ve already been back to visit them, and we now facetime every week! 
To conclude, this exchange has gifted me with the desire to learn, to travel, and to be alive, and I will never, ever forget it. In fact, I loved the language-learning process so much that I am now going to university to study Linguistics! If anyone reading this is thinking of doing an exchange, I would tell them that life is short! Take the risk! Live life while you’re young!! Passing up on an opportunity like this would be one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’ of your life, I assure you. My exchange forever will be the best decision I have ever made 🙂