Every year, CHS welcomes a number of new students from abroad. These international students can often be found studying in the English Language Program (ELP) classroom, where they improve their language skills and learn about the American culture. With their unique backgrounds and perspectives, international students incorporate cultures from all over the world into our student body, granting us a truly diverse campus.

Karen Hales-Mecham, the teacher of the EL program, has been working with 25 international students this year.

“It is especially interesting to take a look at the rich number of languages spoken by CHS students,” Hales-Mecham said. “Over the last few years, these languages have included: Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese, Urdu, Hindi, Albanian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Portuguese, Latvian, Thai, and Farsi.”

Among many of the differences that exist between these students’ native countries and the United States, the style of schooling is one of the biggest.

Junior YouRan Kim is from Seoul, South Korea. She moved to St. Louis two years ago.

“In South Korea, students don’t move from room to room between classes, the teachers move,” Kim said. “The classes are longer, and everyday we have different schedules.”

Like Kim, sophomore Sung-Hyun Kwon, who goes by John Kwon in English, is also from Seoul.

“In math [in Korea], no calculators are allowed. You must use your brain,” Kwon said. “Every calculation must be done with paper and pencil.”

Montazer AlQazzaz and Gabby Tang finish practicing writing skills in their EL class. The EL course has 25 international students enrolled. (Meng Wang)

Both Kim and Kwon agree that students in Korea generally have more pressure.

“In Korea, students have tutors after school and there are many English, sciences, math academies that students attend after school,” Kim said. “So students go to schools during the day then they go to an academy and study until 10 o’clock at night.”

In Korea, the materials that Kim and Kwon learn in their classes are also different.

“Especially in science, we learn some from each field of science each year, like physics, chemistry, biology, and so on,” Kwon said. “Here, CHS students learn a specific area each year.”

Kwon said he likes the more talkative, active classes in U.S. schools.

“Usually in Korea, students stay in their seats and take notes while the teacher just lectures,” Kwon said.

Similarly, Kim appreciates the fact that the mood in the class is freer and the relationship between students and teachers are closer.

Junior Xi Yu is from Shanghai, China and has been living in the United Sates for six months. He also sees many differences between his school in China and CHS.

“In my school we had a lot of work to do but the work has more to do with memorizing and practicing,” Yu said. “For example, every night we have maybe two hours of math homework.”

In China, every student has to take the high school entrance examination. The score on the test determines which high school one will attend. Similarly, the college entrance examination determines which college the student will attend. As a result, schools focus a lot of their attention on helping students to excel on these tests.

“The teachers in China teach you how to do the questions for the test,” said sophomore Gabby Tang, who moved to the U.S. three years ago.

The fact that such entrance examinations can only be taken once gives students more pressure.

“If you fail the test you will go to a polytechnic school,” Yu said. “The test is all that counts.”

Classes in many foreign countries are also much larger.

“In science classes in China, we don’t do labs very much,” Tang said. “There were about 60 students in my class in China.”

Tang also said that she likes the greater degree of freedom in U.S. schools. 
In China and South Korea, schools have their own requirements and courtesies.

“In Korea, we wear uniforms to school,” Kim said. “Girls cannot grow their hair long; it has to be above the shoulders.”

“If you go to school, it just looks like you are living in the ‘60s or ‘70s,” Kwon said. “I believe the style of the uniform never changed.”

“In my school in China, when the teacher comes into the room, all the students stand up and bow to the teacher,” Yu said.

Halfway around the world from China and Korea is the native country of sophomore Joe Belec: Montreal, Canada.

“Classes were 75 minutes long and there was not as much homework in Canada,” said Belec, who moved to the U.S. one and a half years ago. “With longer class periods, we had time to do homework in class.”

Sophomore Jeremy Beaudette attended school in Montreal before moving to the U.S. three years ago. Hockey was a big part of Beaudette’s school, which has an ice rink located right on the campus.

“With longer class periods, we only had four periods per day,” Beaudette said. “Instead of A/B days, we had days one through nine, each day with classes in different orders.”

Both Belec and Beaudette think that the classes in CHS are harder than those in their old schools.

“The class periods are shorter so you have more classes, and you have to do everything every day,” Belec said.

Beaudette misses some aspects of his old school.

“The 75 minutes long lunch and the 20-minute breaks between classes were pretty fun,” Beaudette said.

The newest international student at CHS is Montazer AlQazzaz, who moved here from Baghdad, Iraq, one month ago.

“The biggest difference between school here and in Baghdad is that my English class in Baghdad focused only on grammar,” AlQazzaz said. “In Clayton, I am learning to speak English as well as learning about grammar.”

AlQazzaz also enjoys many activities that CHS sponsors, such as the Poetry Slam on April 28, where he read an Arabic poem about the beauty of the Tigris River.

In addition to the numerous differences that international students observe, they also see many similarities between schools in the U.S. and those in their native countries.

“Being sensitive about grades is the same,” Kwon said. “Students enjoy jokes and like to play, but they also take the time to study.”

Belec said that students in his old school also have open campus and can go out for lunch.

“The rules are pretty much the same,” Beaudette said. “If you don’t have really good grades, then you cannot play sports.”

Despite these similarities, international students face many challenges as they move into a totally new environment. Many of the students have had limited exposure to the English language before they moved to the United States.

“At first, it was hard to understand what the teacher was saying in class, and speaking English in class was hard,” Kim said. “I was always worrying if I ask something and others don’t understand me, then I’m wasting other students’ time.”

Kwon shares similar concerns regarding speaking English and says that it is harder to understand his friends when they are talking to each other.

“I didn’t look very intelligent at first because the teachers asked me hard questions, and I couldn’t answer them in English,” Belec said.

To ease the frustration of these non-native speakers, sometimes all it takes is a little bit of patience to repeat certain phrases, or a smile that makes them feel welcome.

Hopefully, this will help international students to be better accustomed to the school and to open up.

“It is hard to learn to be open,” Tang said. “It is hard to think about what we can say or cannot say.”

Luckily, the EL program assists the international students tremendously by providing both English language instructions and advices on how to engage academically and socially.

“A major focus of my work with all students is the development of oral language skills – we know this is the foundation of English language literacy and necessary for both academic and social engagement,” Hales-Mecham said.

To the international students, the EL program has been very beneficial.

“At first, since I was in a class with other students who also didn’t know English, I was not as shy as I was with other people,” Beudette said.

Indeed, the EL classroom provides a safe space for students to practice speaking English.

“This class has helped me because I don’t have much chance to speak English in other classes,” Yu said.

In addition, Hales-Mecham pointed out that the program also focuses on “the English reading and writing skills that are necessary for academic success in a rigorous college-prep high school like CHS.”

“We had conferences, and it helped me learn how to write good essays,” Kim said.

The EL program helps students academically in a variety of ways.

“The EL class gives us background on the book we read, so once we get to the book we can understand it better,” Beaudette said.

This year, the EL program worked with the World Languages and Cultures Department to plan the first annual CHS World Languages and Cultures Day, which provided all Clayton students an opportunity to share their international experiences with one another.

“It was a great success, and we look forward to this event again next September,” Hales-Mecham said.

The EL program also helps the international students in many other aspects, sponsoring evening seminars on college application process for international students, family picnics, and new international student orientation in the fall.

Hales-Mecham said that it is a privilege to get to know students and families from around the world and to support them as they join the CHS community.

“I am so impressed with the dedication and perseverance of these remarkable young people as they accept the challenges of living in a new country and adjust to the ‘way we do’ high school in Clayton,” Hales-Mecham said. “They are the most courageous people I know. They inspire me.”