「7」のつく日のBIEE通信【2017年11月27日号】
☆彡オーストラリア・ニュージーランド高校交換留学生
留学レポートⅢより（その③）
I can’t believe that my exchange program is about to finish. Honestly, I really don’t want to go back to Japan. I’m going to miss my sweet people, my friends and host family so much. I also want to see my friends and especially mum & dad, but I know that I will be able to see them when I get there, while it would be harder to meet these friends and host family. I really don’t want to go back. I want to stay here. Since around February or March, I’ve been seriously thinking that I want to come back here again and go to university in Australia. I love people, environment, animals, everything about Australia! I’m really proud of myself that I’ve decided to go on the exchange program and I’m about to finish it successfully. It was much harder and tougher than I thought. But there is something you can feel only when you go on an exchange program at this age. It is not only because of English but also because I learnt that I wasn’t doing anything when I was in Japan. I’m now more confident about myself and I can feel that I grew as one young adult. I can’t appreciate enough to my host family, my friends, my family, my school, YFU, and BIEE. The normal life everyday was a great experience for me as “Australian.” Huge thank you to everyone who involved in my exchange. Anyways, I’ll do my best on the rest of my life in Australia so to my mum & dad, enjoy the rest of the days without me.●The 10 months that I spent in Australia was really fast and there are many things that I haven’t done. I have to spend time carefully from today and tell my host family, friends and teachers that how grateful I am. I hope I can do my best and tell many people about Japanese culture and my life in Japan. I don’t want to leave Australia.
●First of all I feel the time is very important because it passes so quickly. What I’ve learned from this experience is that being thankful is very very important to us. At first I had no idea on everything like what they’re talking about or what teachers are saying in classes, but once I got used to listen them, the whole life has changed. I was able to listen there I could have a chat with friends ever I could go out with friends. So I mean keep trying and never giving up are very important, and I’ve learned it from this experience. There’s only about half a month so I want to make many lovely memories and don’t want to miss anything that I wanted to do. When I leave this country, I want to feel like that this experience has been my treasure within my life. And it definitely made we grow up. So I appreciate all of you who is involved with this.
●My life has changed a lot since I left Japan and I feel like I am growing day by day. My English has especially been improving a lot. My friends and the teachers often tell me that I am getting better at English. I am very glad to hear that. I get better marks at some tasks and assignment at school now. However, I still have to ask my teacher or my friends for help sometimes, because I don’t always understand what the teacher says. The goal for the next term is to get higher scores than the last time in the next exams. The time is passing away so quickly. I have less than only 2 months to stay in Australia. I cannot believe that I have spent 8 months here already. I feel like I have been here for only a month. I have experienced so many things in Australia and I have made a lot of kind friends too. Not only my friends but also my host family and other people are kind and warm-hearted. They always help me when I get in trouble. I am so thankful to everyone who have been involved with me. I think I will miss Australia when I go back to Japan. However, I am excited to go back to Japan. I am looking forward to seeing my family and my friends and to showing what I have done in Australia. In the next 1 month until I go back, I want to enjoy as many things as possible so that I can share more experiences with them.
●I had a great time these 9 months. However I need to improve my English skills more. I don’t have any huge problem in daily conversations, but sometimes I couldn’t understand what teachers say in the class (especially science class and EAL class). So I thought I should learn English more. 250 days passed so fast. I think next 50 days will pass so fast as well. I want to go back to Japan to tell my family and friends about this experience, but I really want to stay in Australia. I will enjoy the rest of my days. P.S. I haven’t been homesick yet. I will be Australian sick.
●My studying abroad is full of “regrets.” When I was in Japan, regret what I had done everything. Now, I’m so feeling guilty because my family and relatives expected me to be successful. When I go back to Japan, I have to apologize to everyone. But I still have two months. So I’ll do my best. I got a chance. I’ll move to new host family. I’ll communicate with them and get vocabulary and communication skills.
●From now on, I will plug away at studying English not only speaking ability but also writing, listening and reading at my spare time although I’ve been worried about whether I can do it or not. I would like to cherish the time I spend together with my mates on weekends as it seems to slip by quickly.
●Actually, I don’t think I want to go back to Japan. To be honest, I thought I would think I want to go back to Japan before I’ve come to Australia. But, I’ve met lovely people, lovely environment and lovely animals. Time passes so fast. I’ve written a daily diary in English since I came to Australia. Recently, I read my diary, which brought back memories. All experiences are really good for me. I’ve had experiences that I can’t do in Japan. For instance, I feed horses and a ram everyday. I’ve learnt how to use coffee machine and how to make delicious coffee at school. It was a good opportunity for me to do these things. I’d love to come back to Tasmania after this exchange program. Someday after I retire, I will open a Japanese restaurant in Hobart.
●I have met a lot of new people in the last seven months. It was really great to get to know people from all over the world and different cultures. I made friends from not only New Zealand but also South Korea, China, Philippine, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Chile. I can visit them in future, so I’m really excited about that. I think this exchange brightens up my future. I have realized a lot of things which I couldn’t when I was in Japan. What I felt the most was my appreciations. I want to say thank you to my family, friends, host family, teachers and people who have helped me so far. I’m sure that my English got improved, but I don’t think it’s enough and I really want to be able to use a better English. To improve my English, I want to read English books as many as I can in the next 2 months. I’m going to go on a South Island trip in 1 week. I’m really looking forward to seeing an another part of New Zealand. I’m sad that I have to leave this amazing country, but I’m really excited to see you again in Japan.
●I have been in Australia for 9 months, which means I have only 1 month to spend in Australia. I think time is passing so quickly. Come to think of my exchange and 10 months (Jan-Nov), many things happened to me. I was happy and sometimes sad. When I came to Tasmania, everything was different; views, people, and of course language. Before I come to Australia, I thought my exchange program is going well because I got good grades on English tests. However, I just realized my English is not good enough to talk. I realized I’m good at writing and reading but not talking in English. Because of it, I couldn’t talk much, so I was so quiet. And then because of my English, I’ve got in many difficulties with my HF. When I got in trouble, my English was always involved. For example, someone asked me something, but I didn’t understand what they said. So I didn’t know what to do. And I also didn’t (couldn’t) ask for help. One day, my old HF said “I was disappointed because you can’t talk much.” When I heard that, I cried a lot and blamed myself every night. I just regret coming here and I was thinking I want to go back and see my family and friends. I got homesick. When I go to my Japanese school, there are many friends and it’s not hard to talk to them at all. So I talked a lot at the school but here I just cannot speak English. I was so quiet. I was disappointed myself and blamed myself. BUT, I realized that as long as I keep on disappointing myself, my English won’t improve or can’t talk to anyone. So I started to do my best, talking to people. And now, I can talk to people, and I have Australian friends because I was doing my best. If I was giving up, I think I wouldn’t be like this. And I do have people that support me, especially my host family. They encourage me when I am crying or something. Also they are always supporting me and caring about me. They are treating me as “Ramsden family”. I didn’t actually expect to have such a good host family, so I’m very happy and one lucky exchange student. I’m planning to tell my feelings of thankful to them more. I just want to make them happy, so I will do something for them before I go back next month.
This is also my plan. “Enjoy the lest of life in Tassie Australia.” That’s my plan!! I can’t believe myself thinking I don’t want to go back. I want to stay. I just can’t believe. I have people that support me and make me happy, so I love Australia! I don’t regret to come here now!
☆彡オーストラリアからの2ヶ月受入プログラム生無事到着しました
＠オリエンテーション
11月24日早朝、オーストラリアの学校の夏休みを利用して2ヶ月間の日本での家庭生活・学校生活を体験する「高校生交換留学短期プログラム生が羽田空港に到着しました。暑いオーストラリアから寒い東京へ…もともと平熱が高いこともあり、オーストラリアからの留学生たちは「暑がり」ですね。オリエンテーション中、日本人スタッフや大学生OBOG達は厚いジャケットを羽織る中、彼らの多くは半袖！風邪をひかないでと祈るばかりです。
当協会で受け入れる選考基準の中に「日本語を2年以上学習していること」という項目があります。年数が満たない場合は、日本語の作文を提出してもらったり、スカイプでインタビューすることもあります。今回「日本語学習歴10年」という長期間日本語を学んでいるという留学生が2名いました。「きっと日本語ペラペラかも…」と期待していましたが、ほとんどしゃべることができず、逆に「日本語歴1年」という留学生は、語彙力、文法の理解度も高く、簡単な日本語のやり取りは全く問題なしでした。「効果ある語学教育って何なんだろう…」と考えさせられました。ちなみに1年弱で日本語を上達させた留学生の勉強法は、ワークブックとアニメを日本語で見ることだったそうです。
語学力に差はあったものの、「日本が大好き！」という気持ちは全員一致。もっともっと日本や日本人を大好きになってほしいと願っています。
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