hTTi

Dear TT friends, I would like your opinions on the following.

We are considering Schulaustasch for our 15yo, now in grade 10 Gymnasium

She would be going to Japan. She is japanese, like her mum, my wife. They have been there a number of times, for few weeks at most, but she never lived there. She is very eager to do this as a way to properly connect to her country, Japan, and as a life experience.
The cost would be extreme for us, though possible, I think total near 20-25k.

Broadly speaking, we are in favor.

But here one aspect that makes me hesitate: unfortunately her academic performance has always been mediocre. Never had to repeat a class, but more than once close. Average grade is typically 3.5. On top of this, here extracurricular interests are practically zero, sport music theater volunteering scouts whatever. Just no motivation / interest / energy.
In my old-fashion stereotype view school exchange is something for the best students. I know there are other aspects, life experience.

I spoke with german colleagues who actually did it, and they encouraged me to send her. But "unfortunately" academically they were all superstars at the time.

Do you have knowledge about school exchange?
Do you have knowledge about school exchange in case of students whose academic results are mediocre?

One more detail I did not like:

when we spoke with one of the organizations, they told us most students go to English speaking countries, and it is required an already good level of English. Absolutely agree.

But for those going to more exotic countries (the one person with whom we spoke went to China), zero knowledge of the language is accepted. After all "once you are there you learn it immediately", this is exactly what this person told me. We are speaking about teens thrown into a normal local school, with obvious academic expectations.

My take:
do they just want selling you something, regardless of the reality?