This summer, senior Bryant Lin traveled overseas to Japan with students from Monta Vista High School to homestay with a Japanese family and shadow his host at school. He applied for the trip with Pacific Reach, a program that organizes tours for students studying abroad in Japan. Lin says, “It’s pretty lax; there is a loose structure, but [Pacific Reach] trusts the students a lot given that there are so few. When we were touring Japan, they would let us roam around as long as you checked in once in awhile.”
While experiencing school life in Tokyo for three days, Lin substantially improved his Japanese language skills. He says, “You are immersed in the culture, so every day you are forced to use your language to communicate. You can experience the speed of a native speaker and also learn some slang.” Unlike learning language at Aragon, studying abroad kept Lin constantly using and learn Japanese.
Throughout his stay, Lin built a friendly and open relationship with his host buddy and family. “[My host family] was very nice and welcoming. They made a lot of delicious food and taught me quite a lot of Japanese and Japanese culture. I felt like I was basically one of their own during my stay. They were all very casual around me.” Outside of class, Lin also watched his host buddy’s dance practice and played video games with him.
Lin also got the chance to sightsee in Japan. He traveled by train for one or two hours to the cities Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, and Miyajima. Lin says. “Kyoto and Nara are cities with a mix of old and new, so there might be a shrine or a temple and across the street, an office building.”
Lin admits that language was the main cultural barrier between him and the people he met. “[My host buddy] didn’t really speak English, so I either had to think of what to say in Japanese or he used Google Translate. Since I was only a first year Japanese student, I kind of just pointed at things, but I learned quite a lot of useful Japanese phrases from my host buddy and some of my other group mates.”
Lin’s trip allowed him to push his skills past those of a normal first-year Japanese students. “If I returned to my host family, I could probably talk to them a lot more. I’m pretty sure I can survive a few days in Japan on my own with only my Japanese now.”
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Senior Crystal Lee studied abroad in Taipei, Taiwan at a six-week program with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commision this summer to learn Chinese. Lee, who has been visiting Taiwan for six years now, also attended this program two years ago.
Lee took classes that started in the morning and lasted through the early afternoon. Besides learning the Chinese language, Lee also expanded her knowledge of Chinese culture. She says, “[we played] Chinese chess. We would tie traditional Chinese knots. There’s some kind of plant that has a certain smell in it that’s supposed to drive away mosquitoes; we would put that into the satchels [we made] and just carry them around.”
When she attended the camp, Lee met a diverse set of people and made long-lasting friendships. Lee adds, “It’s an international program for expatriates, so there’s people from Germany, France, the [United States]—those were the main countries. I also met someone from Nicaragua once and people from Japan. I really liked being able to get to know people from a lot of different countries. Even people from different states in the [United States] can have a really different experience.”
To communicate with people from different countries, Lee had to use Chinese the majority of the time. “We had counselors for each class and you would have to use Chinese with them,” says Lee. “When [language] is all around you, you’re hearing it all the time. Even if you can’t really understand it you just get used to the cadence of it. In the United States, even when you’re [in] Chinatown, there’s always a way out. You can always go for English. Even with your parents you can always just switch to English.”
Lee’s experience lasts through the friendships she made. She says, “The camp itself was great because I got to meet new people. I’ve made friends that I’ll keep for life. I have friends from two summers ago that I still talk to.”
