After they came to Japan on June 1, 2017, the NAU (Northern Arizona University) students experienced various Japanese cultures in Abiko, traveled to Kansai Area and came back to Abiko, where they stayed with host families for two nights.    (No. 17-7)

1. Meeting with Host Families

Date and Time:  Friday, June 23  4:00 p.m. ~ 4:30 p.m.

Venue:  Room 1, Abiko Civic Plaza

After a Japanese flower arrangement class, the eight students met with their host families with whom they were going to stay for two nights and three days.  Mr. Hayasaka, manager of AIRA culture and exchange section, gave guidance on the matters to be attended during the homestay and informed emergency contact numbers.  After the meeting, the students, with their beautiful flower-arrangement work and large baggage, left for the home accompanied by their host families.

2. Homestay Debriefing Session

Date and Time:  Sunday, June 25  1:30 p.m. ~ 2:30 p.m.

Venue:  Room 1, Abiko Civic Plaza

Attendants:  8 NAU students, Ms. Mary Adachi, 8 host families (16 people), 3 Fusa Junior High-School students, 5 AIRA staff members.   33 people in total.

The three-day homestay finished blessed with nice weather in spite of the rainy season.  
There was a debriefing session on the last day.  It was held in a relaxed atmosphere emceed by Mr. Hayasaka.  The Japanese attendants’ comments were translated into English by Ms. Yamaguchi.

Each family and student talked about what they did and how they felt during the three days.  Three students from Fusa Junior High School also spoke about their experience of spending half a day with an NAU student and her host family.

Some families said they were not so good at English.  But they tried to communicate with the students using smart phone applications or inviting their grandchildren and niece as translators.  The students also tried to talk to them in Japanese using a dictionary.
Below are comments by some attendants.

a. We cooked Okonomiyaki together.  It was delicious!  The first sentence the student learned was “Keita dokodesuka?” (“Where’s Keita?”), because the parents were always looking for their mischievous son.  (Thomas)
b. We have no daughters and were happy to have her stay with us.  We talked a lot and cooked together.  We felt like she was our daughter. ( The Kimura Family, Samantha)
c. On coming back from a long drive to Narita and Boso Fudoki-no-Oka Museum, he was so tired that he slept for two hours.  At night he recovered and sat up late playing cards with the children.  He slept on futon and folded it to put in Oshiire (closet) for the first time.  (The Tabata Family, Michael)
d. He learned new words such as “Ikemen” (good-looking guy) and “mottainai” (Don’t waste.) Our first impression was “You look like Jesus!” (The Nakajima Family, Riley)
e. He made banana bread for us, which tasted very good!  We were impressed that he tried to speak to us in Japanese with a dictionary in his hands even when we were in the car. (The Takahashi Family, Dominik)
f. We invited three students from a junior high school in the neighborhood.  They spoke in English and the student spoke in Japanese.  It was good that they were able to communicate in languages they were learning.  (Fusa Junior High School students and Grace)

It seemed both the students and host families had a lot of wonderful memories.  “I’d like to come back,” said students, and “Come again,” replied host families.  As they shared pleasant stories with each other, the meeting came to a close.

Finally Mr. Murakoshi, vice president of AIRA, thanked the host families and Ms. Mary Adachi also thanked them, saying “I’m happy that all of the students had a great time.”

Prior to the homestay, the students and host families had a chance to meet to introduce themselves to each other.  The families asked the students what they wanted to do during the homestay, which seemed to help to make the homestay smooth and pleasant.

Besides, inviting junior high-school students to let them communicate with the NAU students should be noted as a new step of broadening the possibilities of international exchange AIRA is trying to promote.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Visiting Namiki Elementary School

Date and Time:  Monday, June 26  11:00 a.m. ~ 2:20 p.m.

Venue:  Namiki Elementary School

On the next day, June 26, the students visited Namiki Elementary School and experienced taking classes of English (fourth graders), music (third graders) and PE (second graders).

In the English class they played games and children practiced asking and answering questions like “What day is it?”

In the music class they played the recorder and sang a song “Oh, Makiba wa Midori” (“Ah, Lovely Meadows”) in chorus.

In the PE class they took part in a relay race and played tag.  The children were second graders, but the students didn’t go easy on them and dashed as fast as they could.  In the game of tag they were chased by active children and finally were tagged.  Now it was their turn to be “Oni” (it) to chase.  They were all in a sweat running after children but it wasn’t easy to get them.

After the classes, they ate school lunch, played in the school ground and cleaned classrooms together with children.  During “Namikids Time”, an English learning short class for fifth and sixth graders, each student visited classrooms and sang The Beatles’ “Let It Be” with children.

The nearly one-month stay in Japan finally came to an end.  They learned and experienced Japanese culture and left for home with a lot of pleasant memories.

(Translated by Chizu Yamaguchi)