In September 2018, students from Legnani, Italy visited and in October we had students from the Leys school in the UK come visit for short-term exchange programs.
For both of these exchange programs the international students, from Italy and the UK, visited Japan for two weeks and stayed with host families from our school. Later, the students from our school will go to visit their partners for homestays in their countries.
Legnani High School (Liceo Classico SM Legnani in Italian) is a national high school located in scenic Salonno, Italy. It is about 20km north of Milan. From September 8th until the 21st, we had 12 students from Salonno visit us in Japan for a cultural exchange. During the Legnani High School student’s visit to Tokyo, they got to enjoy visiting many famous places such as Kamakura, Asakusa, and Harajuku while learning about Japanese culture and history. They also received a welcome party and during our school’s cultural festival, they had an Italian booth and held Italian lessons which allowed them to share their culture and language with our students and visitors.
Six students visited our school from October 20th to November 3rd from the prestigious public school named the Leys School which is located in Cambridge, England. This cultural exchange has been occurring since 1995. While in Japan, the students stayed in their host partners’ homes, and on weekdays took classes with Aoyama Gakuin students.
After school on the October 30th, we held an "International Sweets Festival" with some of our long-term international students who came to our school. These students have attended our school for almost a year. Our visitors from Cambridge, England also participated. They interacted with many students while answering quiz questions that they made about their home countries.
- Impressions from the foreign students who visited our school –
◆My host family was really wonderful. They welcomed me into their home from the very first day and I had a lot interesting conversations with them. I had a lot of fun and they treated me like a family member. We could talk a lot at dinner time and we conversed on various topics. I think that I was very lucky to have had such a wonderful experience. I think that I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful family to live with for two weeks.
◆I received many lessons and I was able to understand many differences between Japanese and Italian schools. I think that this experience was a very good study opportunity. Walking around Kamakura was very good. But what truly satisfied me was that the Italian and Japanese students were able to spend quality time together and that I was able to exchange a lot opinions and ideas.
◆We took many English classes, and I was able to actively participate in every class. I also participated in a physics class. In this class, the teacher explained in both Japanese and English, so I could understand the contents and participate in the experiment. I would like to thank the teachers at the high school for preparing such great classes for us.
◆In Japan, I was able to take lessons with many students. I was able to meet wonderful teachers and students. It was a fantastic experience.
Students from our school will visit the UK in January and Italy in March. We hope that they each learn as much as their partners did from this exchange program.
