Question 1.

Exchange programs are a wonderful opportunity for young and not only young people who have plenty of energy and desire but little money. Also, exchange programs are most often carried out between universities; by the way, thanks to one of such programs, I flew to Europe last year for one semester.

Question 2.

Speaking of my experience, I noticed that I had a lot of embarrassments related to European trains and you will read about one of them.

It happened last year, I was an exchange student in Poland, in the far west of the country. My acquaintance and I set off for the eastern town of Auschwitz to go on a tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp — yes, our interests were rather specific. The trip there itself, which took 9 long hours on a train with seated places, took a toll on the health of my backside. The tour went fine, if one can properly phrase such a thing about a concentration camp... The problems began on the way back: we arrived at the Auschwitz station 40 minutes before the train's arrival;

by the way, their station looked like it was from a horror movie. The needed time had long come, but our train still hadn't arrived; after 15 minutes of waiting, I began looking for station staff. After 10 minutes of searching, we ran into one controller;

he explained to us that there was an error in the system and that in fact we had bought tickets for a bus (although the ticket said train). He said that in an hour there would be a second train and we could go for free, if we wanted of course — we had no choice... At that moment I hated Polish trains and their whole transport system, but there was nowhere to go, and I definitely did not want to spend the night in that town. For an hour we, two Kazakhs in a town that looked like Silent Hill at night, sat and tried to entertain ourselves; we also met a very strange Pole who looked like a cartoon character. I still remember that cold platform, where each minute felt like an hour. But nothing is forever and our train finally arrived. Now we hoped that we would not miss the second train from Kraków to Bydgoszcz (our town). As you might have guessed, we were late.

We had to buy new tickets for two separate trains to get to our town. And so after two transfers and 14 hours on the road, again in seated places, we finally reached our dormitory. I have never missed my dorm so much.

It's a pity I couldn't sleep properly, because the next day I had a flight to Barcelona, but that's another story.

Question 3.

After I returned to Kazakhstan, or rather, when my foot touched the ground of my native city, Uralsk, the first thought that came to my mind was: "I want to go to the USA." The logic was like this: "I was in Europe, now I need to conquer America." If we speak of the real reasons, I understood that my city is too small for me, and besides, while I'm still young in some ways,

I want to see, visit, touch, try and feel. My choice fell on "Work and Travel", because it's one thing to travel for 2–3 weeks as a tourist, but quite another when you, even for 3 months, become a part of that country, absorb its culture, make new acquaintances, go through culture shock and get used to it. I am a person who grew up on American TV shows on “Disney” and “Nickelodeon” (shout-out to fans of "Big Time Rush") and this program will fulfill my dream of living in the USA, seeing those American suburbs (where, in TV shows, murders most often happen), playing rugby wearing those huge "pads", visiting the best city in the world, New York.

Question 4.

During Work and Travel I primarily hope to see and feel all the beauty of the United States of America, as you read above, this is the dream of the teenager inside me. Also, as an English teacher

I want to improve my language, make good friends. And of course, earn a sufficient amount of money and bring my family gifts from America (classically, new model iPhones). Also, I have one small goal: to show the merits of my people by my own example, to be, so to speak, a representative of Kazakhstan. I'm sure that people with a Western mindset will be interested to listen to or even learn about my country. I will definitely buy lots of "Kazakhstan" chocolates and hand them out there.

Question 5.

If I describe how the program will help my future career, as you could read above, I am an English teacher and here everything is obvious.

Trust in me will increase, and I will practice and become even more confident in my English language skills.

Question 6.

If I were in charge of exchanges, I would spend a lot of funds on marketing, SMM, advertising, etc. Because I noticed that many young people don't even know about most programs, and yet perhaps this could fundamentally change their lives. After all, exchange programs most often give people the opportunity to understand what they really want, break old patterns, help and even force them out of their comfort zone. Also, I would include as many professional exchanges as possible. Of course there are such programs now, but most often they send students of higher educational institutions, teachers, IT specialists, doctors, etc. I would add more professions and make it more accessible for college students. For example, so that future mechanics could go to Germany, where they could get practical experience with the best car manufacturers, or designers who would practice in Italy. And also, I would organize more such competitions in order to support talented young people, because it's so cool to give people opportunities.

Question 7.

In my opinion, in 20 years exchange programs will become more accessible, both in terms of price and destinations. That is, more and more people will discover this world and broaden their horizons, thereby we, as a nation, will become more tolerant and cultured.

I believe that in 50 years there will be many more sponsors of exchange programs; in other words they will become widespread and accessible to average people. Thanks to this every university, college and even school will have its own exchange programs domestically and abroad. This means that people returning to their homeland will implement good, modern innovations and many things will change for the better.

In conclusion I would like to say that exchange programs are an excellent opportunity for personal growth; you just need to choose a good company. By the way, I chose one;)