A 14-hour flight. A trip to New York and Boston. Stepping foot into BHS.
After their brief stay in New York, a group of exchange students from various Japanese high schools arrived and attended classes from Wednesday, March 11, to Friday, March 13. During their stay, the students immersed themselves in BHS through a tour and classes alongside their host students.
BHS canceled the Japanese exchange trip with Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School in Kyoto, Japan, as a result of an administrative change on Kyoto’s end. As a solution to this cancellation, the high school accepted an offer from EdFuture, a non-profit organization based in Japan that offers accessible study-abroad programs for students across Japan. Unfortunately, the Brookline students were unable to travel to Japan this year. However, with the cooperation of Brookline families, the program successfully organized the cultural exchange for the Japanese students.
Japanese teacher Fukiko Shapiro was one of the primary organizers of the exchange program and arranged the students’ attendance. Shapiro said the culture in the U.S. is a motivating factor for students to participate in the exchange program.
“From my experience, in Japan, students start learning English [in] seventh grade,” Shapiro said. “Some students love the culture different than Japan’s, and America is a big influence, so it makes sense to want to have an experience in America.”
Mahana Takasaki, who attends a high school in Tokyo, was one of the 12 exchange students. Takasaki said that participating in the classes was an experience far from what she had imagined.
“My first impression was that the students are all very active,” Takasaki said. “My first class was history, and during that class we were supposed to choose a book we liked and spend the rest of the time researching it further. I thought everyone might just slouch around during that time, but instead, everyone was actively looking for books and reading more. I felt that they have a sense of initiative that’s a bit different from Japanese schools.”
Erika Uekusa, who attends a high school in Tokyo, said she saw a distinct difference in teacher-student relationships.
“In Japan, you have to think about honorifics and express respect for others through your words,” Uekusa said. “Here, teachers and students talk much more casually. It feels like we’re friends living together; you can see that atmosphere even from the back of the classroom. That’s what struck me as different.”
Takasaki said she was impressed with the engaging back-and-forth conversations during lessons.
“In math class, students speak up quite a bit,” Takasaki said. “Students ask, ‘Isn’t this supposed to be like this?’ In Japanese schools, that kind of thing doesn’t happen at all; it’s mostly just listening to a one-way lecture and taking notes. I think there are pros and cons to both approaches, but I was really impressed by how the students actively participate on their own.”
The exchange students explored Boston through sightseeing and visits to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. They also spent time in New York, where they visited major tourist spots such as the Statue of Liberty and toured Columbia University.
Takasaki said that through this trip she found a new aspiration: to attend college in the US.
“At first, I wasn’t interested in studying abroad at all, but when I participated in a tour of Columbia University, I was really drawn to the idea that I wanted to attend American universities, and universities abroad in general,” Takasaki said. “People are out and about, typing on their laptops, reading or having group discussions. I was captivated by the idea that you can study and learn in whatever style suits you best, and that’s when I started to feel like I might want to go to a university abroad.”
Uekusa said she found herself thinking about how the Japanese are perceived by Americans.
“Americans probably see us as being pretty reserved because we don’t really assert ourselves much, and I agree with that when I compare myself to Americans,” Uekusa said. “But we do have thoughts and feelings inside; we just don’t express them. It might take some effort on our part to muster the courage and talk, but I think it’s totally worth it. I think we’d come up with wonderful answers or ideas.”
