1/24/2006 - AFS New Zealand makes prime time with culture shock

Not only did Jordan Luke-Close, now 19, from small Taranaki town Mania, spend a year going to school in the USA, but she was awarded a scholarship to attend one of the USA’s oldest and most prestigious schools.

Most young people find being a teenager tough, but for Jenni Taylor, now 18, an independent teenage from NZ’s capital, Wellington, the experience was intensified by the fact that she had to overcome learning how to be a Spanish teenager. Which included being grounded for months!

Josh Andrews, now 18, left the small town of Omokoroa, near Tauranga, where his mum made his lunch every day, to live for a year in French-speaking St Jerome, a small town near Montreal, Canada, where, prior to getting a social life, he played hockey on the footpath with his host brother.

Courtney Browne, now 19, applied for an AFS exchange to a South American country but her AFS exchange took her to Austria. She wanted to escape her small town of Papakura, in South Auckland, but ended up in just as small a town, and couldn’t stand it.

These four students, specially selected by film company Gogglebox had their experiences filmed for a documentary called Culture Shock, which traced their steps into the unknown. A new country, a new culture, a new family, new friends, a new school and for some, a new language were all challenges the four students overcame. Culture Shock also documents their lives pre-departure and arrival back in New Zealand and captures the families of the four as they prepare for their children to leave, and then the farewells and welcome homes.

Culture Shock
TV2 7:30pm
Tuesday 24 January 2006