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.