Japanese Exchange Students To Arrive

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Alex Pearson, Staff Writer

For the past four years, Hughson High School has hosted Japanese students from Kyoto Gakuen High School. Hughson students can host two Japanese students, male or female, depending on the host student. 

 

The Japenese students will spend five days in California with their host families. While they are in California, they will get to experience what American school is like as well as the  American lifestyle. The exchange students will get to shadow their host student for a day to see how their school life functions. 

 

When asked about his experience hosting last year, Alan Abeloe said, “I learned about their culture and it was fun teaching them about ours. They liked shopping and playing ping pong and bowling. They loved all of our food. It was cool to hang out with them. The performance from them and their classmates was cool, too.”

 

The host families take the Japanese students to places around town or around California. The host families want to make the Japanese students feel at home. 

 

All high school students get an option to host the Japanese students. Whether you are a freshman or senior, you can host students from Kyoto Gakuen High School. As an added perk to hosting the students, all your community service hours will be completed. 

Although community service is a huge draw for hosting Japanese students, it is also an excellent opportunity to create new relationships with students from across the Pacific. 

 

“Over the years that we have hosted the Kyoto High students, I have seen such strong relationships form in such a short time.  It is always so wonderful and yet sad at the same time to see the difference between the Kyoto students when they arrive, looking terrified, to five days later when they leave, crying hysterically because they have to say goodbye,” stated Renaissance teacher Karalee Ruelas, the Hughson High School coordinator of the Kyoto Gakuen Exchange Program.

 

The Japanese students are set to arrive this Friday and both the American students and the Japanese students are excited for the day to finally arrive when they can meet one another.