Thirteen students from Columbus North and Columbus East high schools who are studying Japanese traveled to Columbus’ sister city Miyoshi, Japan this summer.
The trip, which has taken place every two years since 2006, allows Japanese language students to immerse themselves in the Japanese culture, said Elizabeth Bays, a Columbus North Japanese teacher.
Students visited different shrines, temples and other landmarks, which involved a home stay with a local family, Bays said. In the past decade, the trip has been expanded to include a weekend in Tokyo and a few students are able to experience more of Japan, she added.
This year’s trip, from June 13 to 28, was a good way for students to practice their Japanese speaking skills based on what they have learned in the classroom, Bays said. Students are considered to be “friendship ambassadors” on the trip.
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“I try to stress in my classroom you can make mistakes,” she said. “They (students) really get to put that to the test.”
A delegation from Miyoshi that includes faculty and students visit Columbus once a year.
The Columbus students said the trip helped broaden their perspective about another culture.
“I wanted to make something of studying a new language,” said Kara Peetz, a senior at Columbus North.
Peetz, who has been in Japanese classes for two years, said she practiced her Japanese vocabulary before the trip.
Her home stay with a local family involved a visit to Miyoshi High School.
Columbus East senior Emylee States, who has taken Japanese classes since her freshman year, said going on the trip was an important experience as she plans to become a foreign language interpreter someday, she said.
States used her Japanese speaking skills most of the time with her host family.
“It was fun to connect with them through trial and error,” she said. “They were actually incredibly welcoming and the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life.”
States, who intends on majoring in Japanese in college, also reviewed what she had learned in the classroom with some classmates at East that included some help from a few native Japanese speaking students.
“Anyone who has any interest in learning about different cultures should travel abroad,” she said.
The trip also allowed students to make lifelong connections with individuals they met, Bays said. Sixteen middle school students and five educators from Miyoshi will be visiting Columbus Aug. 22 to 31.
“Students bonded very well with their host families, to the point of tears as we said our goodbyes and made many new friends at Miyoshi High School,” she said. “We’ve had a really wonderful cultural relationship between students and families.”
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High school students from Columbus North and Columbus East High School have traveled to Miyoshi, Japan, every year since 2006. The trip, which costs about $4,000 per student, involves a home stay with local families, in addition to a weekend visit to Tokyo.
For more information, contact Elizabeth Bays, Japanese teacher at Columbus North, at [email protected].
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