Sister School Japan - Soja Nishi

Hosting a Japanese Student by Adam Bleby 7A

My family hosted Ai Yokoto, a Year 9 student from Sōja City, from August 2nd to 10th.

The best thing while hosting was taking Ai out and showing her Melbourne. We took her to the city, on a walk to Studley Park Boathouse, to an art gallery and on an unsuccessful trip to find kangaroos.

I learned early on that it is helpful to use smaller, simpler sentences to avoid confusion. Building a jigsaw puzzle was a good activity to overcome the language barrier. We also bought some Japanese tea to help Ai feel at home. The only confusion was the way of eating a boiled egg – apparently they do it differently in Japan. Ai made udon noodles for us, which was fun and delicious.

On the final night the school hosted a farewell dinner where the Japanese students performed. When we got home we gave Ai gifts, and the next day all the visiting students left.

Prior to hosting, I was quite nervous because I hadn’t hosted before. I thought it would be like looking after the student and it would be awkward or uncomfortable but it was not the case at all. It was a lot of fun.

Dear Host Buddies and Families,

It’s hard to believe more than a month has passed since our Japanese visitors were here.

It’s been great hearing all the stories from host buddies during hosting week and to hear that some families are keeping in touch with their Japanese student.

If you have any feedback you would like to pass on to the school about the hosting program, please visit this link and fill out the brief survey. Your feedback will be incorporated into the Yearbook https://docs.google.com/forms/d

/e/1FAIpQLSdzelN_xb9FkbQ0A 4ZfYbIKpO79VHjLMpy5NV_mLt VDdD4JSg/viewform            Kew High School Japanese Sister     School     Homestay feedback survey docs.google.com

Thank you in advance.

Andrew Cerini