IEW: Ready for the "Main Event"
Kazakh exchange student holds flag with American teacher during International Education Week

3 FLEX students guide you through their city [video] 

For me, as for many exchange students, International Education Week is one of the main events of the year. I started preparing even before I arrived in the USA. I remember with great trepidation my family and I selected souvenirs, bought chocolates, national clothes, and jewelry. Back in July, some FLEXers and I recorded a video about the sights of our city, prepared specifically for this week. 

November came up imperceptibly, and with it came the time to represent my country. I made over 100 slides, did 13 presentations, taught more than 200 people, and danced the national dance a dozen times. It was not easy to do such a large number of slides and speak in English on such serious topics as the history of Kazakhstan, national holidays, national cuisine, and even the Cold War.

Nevertheless, I managed to do it and achieve a good result, for which I am grateful to my families, teachers, and classmates for their attention, and of course to the FLEX and PAX team for the opportunities provided. During this week, I gave the teachers souvenirs as a thank you for the opportunity to hold presentations in their classes and treated the students with chocolates.

To hear such words as, "I want to go to Kazakhstan!" and, "When can I come?" or, "Your culture is so interesting!” was the best reward. To interest people and leave in their hearts the memory of me and my country was the main goal! Moreover, my host mom came to the first presentation to support me, and she is a person who has a lot of experience in public speaking. Hearing from her, "You killed this. That was very good!" was incredibly nice!

I am very happy to have the honor of being the ambassador of my homeland on the world stage, and I am immensely grateful for these opportunities! This week gave me a lot of experience in speaking English and in public speaking. Being an ambassador means introducing people to your culture at any convenient opportunity!

—Yerkezhan (FLEX, Kazakhstan), hosted by the Lau family (GA)

 

Back in July, some FLEXers and I recorded a video about the sights of our city (Semey), prepared specifically for this week.