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Japanese students experience what it’s like to be a Viking

11 January 2010 421 views No Comment

Peace.Love and Japan: from left to right Nina Vue, Saya (last name unknown), Satsuki (last name unknown), Sachie (last name unknown) Mai Xiong, Vasee Xiong, Makoto ito, Halie harper, Tomomi Tsuga gather for a quick shot while visiting our Viking home.

In November, six Japanese students came to Lansing to visit Everett High School. The students are from Osaka, Japan, Lansing’s sister school. The cities often work together to exchange students and teachers in an attempt to show goodwill and respect for one another’s culture.

“The program helps people learn about other cultures, and it helps students make new friends,” said Japanese teacher Dawn Stark.

Families that invited the Japanese students to stay with them found it rewarding, but also challenging. Learning about the different cultures was gratifying; at the same time the language barrier was difficult to deal with.

“Its very stressful to have foreign students stay with me,” said senior Halie Harper, “because of all the translating that you have to do.”

The exchange program has been going on for several years. The United States and Japan take advantage of the opportunity to learn and teach within diverse cultures.

“The program has been going on since 1995,”said Stark.

Some of the activities that the Japanese students participated in while they were in Lansing included shopping at the mall, visiting the capitol building, viewing Christmas decorations, as well as sightseeing within Everett High School.

“It was fun and exciting,” said sophomore Vasee Xiong. “The only sad part was when they were leaving.”

Xiong said that her and her family have hosted Japanese students in the past and are looking forward to hosting them again in the future. They said that they form close attachments with their distant friends making it hard to say goodbye.