In September, students from Legnani, Italy visited and in October we had visitors 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 international 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 10 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 from their host partners.
They also received a welcome party and during our school’s cultural festival they had an Italian booth which allowed them to share their culture with our students and guests.
Two students visited our school from October 22nd to November 5th from the prestigious public school named Leys School which is located in Cambridge, England. This cultural exchange has been occurring since 1995. While staying in Japan, the students stayed in their host partner's homes, and on weekdays took classes with Aoyama Gakuin students.
After school we held an "International Sweets Festival" with some of our long-term international students from Germany, France, and Portugal. 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 which they made about their home countries.
In addition, on the holidays, students held a session in the Shibuya / Harajuku area about Japanese tourist sites.
International Exchange Student Impressions
•All the lessons that I attended were very interesting. In English classes, the teacher made us actively participate in the classes just like the other students. Calligraphy was difficult, but I still enjoyed it.
•The host family welcomed me into their home and took care of me like a second daughter. I was not a mere traveler to Japan because I also got to see parts of Japanese culture and hear views that differed from my own. I was very fortunate to meet such wonderful people.
•I loved my visit to Aoyama Gakuin and it is a wonderful school. The students at the school were very kind and I was able to meet truly loving people. The lessons I received were very interesting and I was able to compare Japanese and Italian schools. The teachers were all wonderful too and they helped me when I was in trouble.
•I couldn’t attend the same classes as my host partner but we always ate lunch together and talked a lot about our perspective cultures and customs. From these conversations I learned many things that can’t be learned from books. I had a great time in Japan!
•If you are interested in visiting Japan in the future I strongly recommend trying to eat with chopsticks, learning Japanese bathing manners, and actively trying new things during your visit like their clothes, food, and language. Lastly, I think you need to be aggressive and ask a lot of questions. If you do this, you will learn a lot about Japan, your own country, and have a unique study abroad 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.
