It’s been a whirlwind 10 days for 40 students and two teachers from Nagano Nishi High School in Nagano, Japan, and for the almost as many host families in East Lyme who welcomed the international visitors into their homes.
East Lyme High School has an annual spring tradition of rolling out the red carpet for students from Japan who come here with the Center for International Training, Inc. (CIT). The Connecticut-based nonprofit organization was founded by Robert Brown, originally from East Lyme, who has lived in Japan for many years. Celebrating 20 years of exchanges in 2008, CIT’s first programs started with East Lyme High.
The purpose of the home-stay is to provide Japanese students with a chance to practice their English with native speakers and have an all-American experience of living with host families. Sightseeing in New York City, Boston, and Connecticut are squeezed in, too. Spending time in U.S. classrooms is usually a significant part of the home-stay, but this year, organizers had to work around the obligatory CAPT testing in high schools.
So, the program included a cultural exchange with third-graders at the Lillie B. Haynes Elementary School. Their curriculum includes some Japanese language and a social studies unit on Japan. Students had the welcome signs ready for their international visitors. They also had plenty of questions.
“It was perfect,” said Julia Kuja, one of the three third-grade teachers. “How often would our students have this opportunity to interact with people from another country?”
The third-grade classes, taught by Kuja, Mrs. DeGrooth, and Mrs. Henry, were able to use the visit as a kickoff to their study unit. The teenagers helped the 8- and 9-year-olds make origami, write Japanese characters, and treated them to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The Japanese girls came dressed in kimonos and served green tea and Japanese sweets.
“Everybody kind of clicked. Nobody wanted to leave at the end of the day,” Kuja said. “Both the Japanese students and my kids were having such a nice time interacting that they didn’t want the experience to end.”
While East Lyme host families of the Japanese students waited in the lobby and school buses lined up outside, the students talked about a universal topic: sports.
“My children wanted to know their favorite sport, which they said was baseball. I have half Red Sox and half Yankees fans in my class, so it was fun when one Japanese boy said his favorite team was the Red Sox,” she said, laughing.
The Japanese and American high school students had already bonded over another sport earlier in the week with an international volleyball matchup at Connecticut College. Members of the Nagano Nishi girls’ volleyball team got to play an All-Star team of ECC girls’ volleyball players. It included several from East Lyme, some who also hosted their counterparts.
The idea came up last December, when Brown told Larry Roberts, East Lyme High School principal, that seven of the school’s volleyball team members and their coach planned to come on the trip and they had one wish: to play a good American team.
“It worked out great. It was wonderful to see them have an international exchange that involved sports, as well as academics,” he said. “Everyone was full of smiles over being able to share another part of their culture together.”
The match ended up as a 2-2 tie, as Brown put it, a perfect diplomatic situation, with both teams scoring some wins.
The Japanese students also organized a cultural presentation at the East Lyme Senior Center. Sightseeing in New York City included a tour of the United Nations, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. In Boston, they toured Harvard, MIT, the Boston Commons, Old North Church, and, of course, Fenway Park.
In Connecticut they toured the Connecticut state Capitol, the Mark Twain House, and visited Yale. Brown encouraged host families to join in on the tours.
Japanese students and teachers arrived on March 8. Their last night included a farewell party with host families at East Lyme High School, complete with traditional costumes and performances and potluck dinner, on March 17.
Another group of Japanese students from other high schools will arrive on March 15 for a 10-day program at Saint Bernard School in Uncasville.
For more information about CIT, contact Arlene Brown at 739-4686 or abrown13@earthlink.net.