Welcome, Exchange Students / ようこそ、留学生
Last autumn, for the first time in a long time, we welcomed two exchange students to Friends School. While we have been able to send many students abroad on AFS programs it was difficult for foreign students to get into Japan. However, at the start of September we had two girls join us or this year. One girl is from Hungary and the other is from Switzerland. They are still just learning Japanese but they have been able to settle into school life pretty well. They have joined many of our English classes and it’s been great watching our students in all grades muster the courage to speak to them.
Last week they made a morning worship speech in their classroom. Of course they spoke in English since they have only been in Japan less than two months but our students enjoyed hearing about their hometowns, their home schools and their first impressions in Japan. Neither of the students come from a large city so moving to Tokyo had been both exciting and overwhelming, but they seem to be having a great adventure. Right now they re working on some posters to display at School Festival. I’m glad that Japan has opened its borders again so we can have foreign students because this is something I really enjoy about our school, and I do believe it has huge benefits to our full-time students to have the opportunity for authentic, meaningful communication in their second language.
先週、彼女たちはクラスで朝の礼拝をしました。彼女たちはその時2ヶ月弱しか日本にいなかったので、もちろん英語で話しましたが、生徒たちは出身地や学校、日本の最初の印象について聞くことを楽しんでいました。2人とも大きな都市の出身ではないので、東京に引っ越すことには楽しみも困惑もありましたが、大冒険をしているようです。彼女たちは学園祭で展示する模造紙を書きました。私は、日本が再び水際対策を緩め、海外の生徒を迎えられたことを嬉しく思います。なぜなら、これは私が本当に学校を楽しめることですし、生徒たちが第二言語で本当に意味のあるコミュニケーションをする機会があることは大きな利点があると信じているからです。 Translated by A.H 高2