A few weeks ago in chapel, we heard from the exchange students, Valeria and Ellen, from Paraguay. Ellen is 17 years old and Valeria is 16 years old. We interviewed them to find out more. During our interview, we talked about school, food, family, language, and music. We thought the best way for the Bethany community to get to know them a little better was a Q and A, so here are 10 questions with Valeria and Ellen!
What has surprised you the most about coming here?
Ellen: “I was surprised to see that there was no big buildings; we live in a city, it’s not a big city, it’s nothing compared to cities here. When you drive around there you see like apartment buildings but here is just houses”
Valeria: “I expected the sun to come up. In Paraguay when it was winter, the sun would still come up; it’s like a regular summer day just colder. Now it’s always just gloomy… it’s kind of depressing”
What is your family like?
Ellen: “I’m in a family of 5 and I’m the oldest. My brother, Tiago, is turning 15 in a few weeks. My sister is 13 and her name is Anne. I also have a dog and his name is rocky.”
Valeria: “I’m in a family of 6; there is my mom, my dad, my older sister, Victoria; she’s 24, my brother Marco is 21, and my other brother he is 18 and his name is Patrick. And I also have a cat named Gina.”
How is school here different from school in Paraguay?
Ellen: “Well, school wise it’s basically the same. I mean this school is pretty small and you don’t see that in movies. The lockers for example or that the school is closed, like it’s inside, we don’t have that; our school is outside like all the halls and all that is outside. Also seeing all the different classrooms. We have in Paraguay every class has its own classroom and the teachers change.
Valeria: “Yeah also like, I went past the Goshen high school and I saw a football field, and like that’s exactly like how it is in the movies. Yeah and I think schools are just the same as in the movies.”
When did you first start learning English?
Ellen: “So we learn English as a subject in 7th grade, but if you would just have English in school you would not speak fluently English even at the end.”
Valeria: “No cause our school is a German school and its more focused on German and Spanish, and we only have 4 hours of English every week [hours meaning like a class period] and like German we have 6 so it’s a lot more. Like people actually in our school learn to speak German and there they get pretty good at it but like with English it’s not that much. Yeah I think we both learned English by watching movies.”
Ellen: “Yeah I read a lot of books and social media like with tik tok with instagram I set my whole phone with English so I could learn it. Especially with social media we both learned a lot of English.”
What is your first language? What languages do you speak?
Ellen: “Our first language is German; we grew up speaking German both of us in our families. Then we had to learn Spanish, obviously, because we live in a Spanish speaking country and then English”
Valeria: “I kinda started learning German and Spanish at the same time, well because I had like a nanny who only spoke Spanish, so I had to speak Spanish with her. I can’t remember when I really had to learn Spanish, so yeah German is really my first language but I started learning Spanish from very early and then later like maybe 4th grade I started learning English.”
Are you Mennonite? Are there a lot of Mennonites in Paraguay?
Ellen: “Yes but we didn’t grow up in the colony like we are from the city.”
Valeria: “Yeah but there are different colonies. My mom she was born in Germany, but my dad was born in a colony, and my mom grew up in a colony. Right in front of our school is the Mennonite church and so in the community we grew up in it’s all Mennonite and we’re Mennonites too.”
Do you have a favorite song, artist, or genre?
Valeria: “I don’t know, I have a lot of favorite songs. I listen to a lot of reggaeton so my favorite artist of all time is Bad Bunny, but also like I don’t know…Quevedo for example. He also makes very good music. So yeah favorite song I couldn’t tell you right now but favorite artist yeah Bad Bunny and Quevedo.”
Ellen: “I don’t listen to reggaeton basically, but I like it but I wouldn’t personally wouldn’t just like listen to it. I listen to more like English music but I don’t have a favorite artist or song, just whatever song I listen to somewhere or my friends tell me. Mary (host sister) has a lot of good songs she likes and tells me to listen to, and I like it so I put it on my playlist so it’s just a lot of mix of everything.”
Valeria: “Now that I’m thinking about it, I do have a favorite song, it’s called ‘Feliz Compleaños Ferxxo,’ and I’ve just been listening to it a lot.”
Do you listen to music more in English or Spanish?
Ellen: “I would say English for me.”
Valeria: “For me it depends. I listen to a lot of different types of music. So for a couple months I listen to a lot of reggaeton, so Spanish music. Sometimes I listen to a lot of rap in english and sometimes I even listen to portuguese music which I also really like. Now I’ve been listening to a lot of Spanish music because it reminds me of home.
Do you play sports? Are they different in Paraguay?
Valeria: “I play volleyball.”
Ellen: “Me too. And we have three options for sports the entire year. You guys have seasons for sports, we don’t have that. Volleyball for example: you have volleyball all year, you have soccer all year, or handball but yeah it’s three options.”
Valeria: “and then there is also like track and field”
Are there any foods that you tried here for the first time?
Valeria: “I’ve never had Starbucks before, and I had that.”
Ellen: “Yes! Me too, it was exciting!”
Valeria: “Oh, so they sell bagels in Paraguay, but there not as good as the ones they have here. Ellen can’t have them because she can’t have gluten.
Ellen: “But the good thing is that for me I have so much more options for food here. Like I have an obsession with pretzels; I always have them like if you see me, everyday I bring them to school because here they make them gluten free.