Holly Malcolm (16) was one of nine New Zealanders selected, from hundreds of applicants, to spend four weeks in Thailand next year, to promote people-to-people links between Thailand and New Zealand and to enhance the English language proficiency of Thai secondary school pupils.
She will stay with a Thai host family and attend a local Thai secondary-level school, where she will be expected to communicate in English as much as possible and interact with her Thai peers to provide them with opportunities to learn and improve their English conversational skills.
Holly said she had been to other countries before, ''but it's been a tourist experience, rather than an authentic experience.''
''[The exchange] is not an opportunity that comes up all the time and I just wanted to gain knowledge of another country and understand the difference in cultures.''
Holly will fly to Thailand in mid-January and return to New Zealand in mid-February, missing the first two weeks of the school term at St Kevin's College.
She will attend an orientation in Wellington next month, where she will learn her destination.
