DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / October 7, 2000

PAULINA – Anders Bernson is like any other junior at Lutcher High School.

He’s good in his classes. He’s a kicker on the football team and runs cross-country. When he graduates from school he’d like to study dentistry at LSU.To look at him, one would say Bernson is about as American as a 17 year-old can get, except that’s he’s from Hinds, Sweden.

As part of a foreign exchange program Bernson traveled half-way around the world from home and his parents to attend school in Louisiana. Out of Texas,Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, and other north-eastern states, Bernson choose to stay a year in Louisiana. “I wanted to experience a Christmaswithout snow,” said Bernson.

Traveling abroad seems to be in his blood. About 25 years ago his mother,Birgitta, spent a year studying in America. His two older sisters, Jenny andFrida, both took a year of high school in Texas. His father, Jorgen, nevertraveled for school but does for his work as a psychologist. Bernson is noamateur at traveling either.

“I’ve been to Italy about 10 times,” said Bernson. This is his fourth trip tothe U.S., which helped him from being to nervous about spending a year here.”My sisters also told me a lot, but I thought I would have trouble with understanding English,” said Bernson. It took less time to adjust then hethought, and within two weeks he was an old pro. Tina Lear, Bernson’s hostmother, has had many students from all over the world stay with her family.

“I find that Scandinavians talk better then the other students kids,” said Lear.

It’s logical that Bernson would be good at English. In the Swedish schoolsystem, English is mandatory from fourth grade on up. For seven yearsBernson has been studying English, as well as four years of French and one of Italian. With Swedish being such a strict language, in terms of grammar,other languages are usually easier to pick up, said Bernson.

In fact almost 80 percent of Swedish citizens speak English. All movies are intheir original languages, “Sweden is perfect place for tourists to visit,” said Bernson.

There were a few differences in the school system here that he had to get used to. At home there are less rules and regulation governing the students.”If we’re sick we don’t need our parents to call for us. We can call,” saidBernson. However, here the teachers are more understanding, which madehis transition even easier.

“On the first day Coach Tim (Detillier) helped me with everything. I wasnervous, but if I did something wrong he would say ‘next time you’ll get it,'” said Bernson.

The main difference between home and Lutcher High School is people are a lot more friendly, and they do a lot more. There are no sports in Swedishschools, said Bernson.

That’s not to say there are no sports. There are thousands of soccer teamsaround Sweden, and Bernson plays on three or four a year. All tournamentbased games, the teams travel around playing each other. One of Bernson’steams played in Italy, outside of Venice, before he left for the states.

The St. James Parish community is not too different than his home. Bothrural communities are close to metropolitan cities; Hinds has a population of about 3,000 people. The main difference is the heat. In Sweden it never getstoo hot. “Running cross-country, I had to get used to the heat; that was thebiggest problem,” said Bernson.

The Lears – Tony, Tina and their son, A.J. Jr. – are thrilled to have Bernson asa part of their household.

“We had always wanted to host an exchange student, and three years ago we took up on it,” said Tina Lear. So far they have hosted students from Brazil,Norway, Japan and two from Germany. Bernson is “sweet, fun-loving, just agreat kid,” said Lear.

A.J. Jr., a sophomore, and Bernson run cross-country together. It’s truly likehe’s part of the family.

“I can’t imagine not having an exchange student here,” said Lear. They planto continue hosting for as long as they can, she added.

Hopefully in a few years they can host Bernson again. Since this year doesnot transfer back to Sweden, Bernson is a year behind. That hardly mattersin comparison to the experience he gets of living here, just as his mother and sisters did.

“I hear LSU has a pretty good medical school. I would like to go to schoolthere, that way I could stay in contact with my host family,” said Bernson.

No doubt the Lears would enjoy that as well.

Back to Top

Back to Leisure Headlines

Copyright © #Thisyear# Wick Communications, Inc.Best viewed with 4.0 or higher