PAX - Program of Academic Exchange is a program of PAX Laurasian Exchange and is designated by the U.S. Department of State as a J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program sponsor.

Turkish and Indonesian slang

 

Exchange is the act of giving something to someone and them giving you something else. For me, exchange is about sharing my culture and happiness with others. One big part of student exchange is language.

Language is like a compass that can show you where we’ve been and where we’re going. Learning a foreign language helps us adapt and survive. Language has a huge impact on human life and helps us imagine why people might have created certain expressions. Cultural evolution and change start from language and extend to lifestyle.

As an exchange student, I feel that learning a new language makes my exchange year more wonderful, especially slang words and idioms. I need to know slang and idioms so I can participate in my friends' conversations. One day, a friend asked if I have slang words or idioms in my native language, and I said of course we do!

Sometimes, friends ask me to tell them about my slang words or idioms. I really enjoy this; sharing my culture through language feels simple but also important.

My double placement sister Gizem (YES, Turkey) and I decided to make a video to share our slang words and idioms. We shared five Indonesian slang words and five Turkish idioms. We put it on YouTube, so anyone can watch it and learn a little bit about the Indonesian and Turkish languages. We chose this method because we believe that language is a simple thing that we can share with people. And believe it or not, when people learn about a language, they learn a lot about the country. We love to share our culture, because we know that sharing is caring.

—Erisa (YES, Indonesia), hosted by the Schwartz family (IN)