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  At present, we have many students from Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, France, studying in our International Program here at Sendai Ikuei. Let's take a look and see how the students are doing, and what kind of experiences they are having. Let's see what their impressions are. |
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| ■France | |||
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I've
been studying in Sendai Ikuei for approximatly two months now, and I seriously
think it's the best thing which happened in my life. I've been expecting
many thing about it, since I knew I was going to do that exchange, but I
would never have imagined I'll enjoy that much...much more than my French
life. I'm thankful I was accepted here, it was a whole life dream Ikuei
allowed me to realise, more particularly Kokusai Center staff, who really
pay attention to us and help us for any problem we can have here, and the
JSL teachers, whose class is the best way to learn Japanese quickly and
in a funny way. And finaly Thomas and Simon who are also really attentive
to exchange students' questions and requests (and always cheerful!). First coming here, I was imagining Japan as a mysterious country, really different, culturaly speaking, from all I'd ever known before. I was sure I'd enjoy my trip, of course, but also that I'd never want to stay more than one year...and finally the idea of coming back here in Japan had turned to an obsession from my first month, I fell in love with the country and her people, culture and so on. It's really different from what I expected, but also really better. Everyday life is at the same time hard but also sweet and I really enjoy every part of it. My host family became a real second family, no longer "host" but "new" to me, by their kindness and welcome. Moreover, I had already lived for one year with my host brother in France where we made a strong friendship. I now live in harmony with everybody, receiving from them, and giving back as a normal family balance...I can say that I love them and am most grateful to them for all they have done for me. My Japanese friends are also an enourmous part of my life here, always ready to have fun and hang out, curious and wanting to know about our home countries, they also help a lot to improve our language level...In fact I think my Japanese would never have improved so fast without making friends and trying to use english the least I could, which was at the same time hard and a lot of fun. To conclude, I still have six months here, and I'll make them unforgettable, waiting for the day I can come back here, forever this time. |
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| ■Canada | |||
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I
couldn't believe that I've been in Japan for three months already; I guess
time really flies by when you're having fun. During my stay in Japan, I
met some really nice Japanese students in my school. Oh, and I have got
to mention my host family. They are really nice and treated me as like one
of their family members. Also, they looked like my REAL family too! I guess
the school must have done some research of my family. I remembered my first day when I came to Ikuei, I couldn't even answer some of the easiest questions the teacher asked me; even though I've studied three years of Japanese in Canada. From that day on, I thought this would be a tough journey. But luckily the JSL teachers taught us enough Japanese to help me survive until today. I have got to thank Hoshina sensei and Endo sensei for putting up with us. I know how much effort they put in for the JSL students and every class they would try to make it as interesting as they could. Well, seven months to go. I hope my stay in Japan will get better and better! And I'll have lots of memorable memories. |
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| ■New Zealand | |||
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My
first day in Japan was long. I remember standing in the middle of who knows
where, waiting for who knows what and who knows how long. I didn't even
know if the two other people standing with me could speak English. And so
passed three long hours. I have since learned that those people could speak English - oh, how much more interesting those three hours could have been - and that what we were waiting for, while just dying to sit down, have a glass of water, a bite to eat, were Shinkansen tickets to Sendai. That long day continued through the train ride, to arriving at Sendai station and meeting my first host family. Since that day, however, nothing about my time in Japan has been long and it certainly hasn't been boring. Time has flown by. I have made so many great friends and learnt so much, both about Japan - its language and people and culture - and about myself and life in general. Of course, not everything has been bright and happy. There have been downs to accompany the ups. But throughout it all I have been taught so much, something for which I am very grateful. Life here in Sendai is pretty much the exact opposite from my life back in New Zealand. School is interesting, people are many, and I now appreciate my parents.... Okay, so that's not entirely true - I appreciated my parents back home too. But, I definitely have come to realize just how much I really do depend on them. I have yet to regret coming to Japan, even for an instant. My exchange here has been great for me. I have gained so much - friends, family, a deeper understanding of life and a different culture - things I don't think I could ever come to be sorry for. |
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| ■Sweden | |||
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I
left Sweden on a normal cold Swedish day and arrived around 15 hours later
in an overly hot Japan. You could see tall buildings in every corner of
your eyes; it was really amazing; this was Japan. After arriving in Tokyo
we took the Shinkansen to Sendai and after that we took the car. The first
thing I noticed in the car was that it had no seatbelt on the left side.
I learned later that Japanese people don't really care about wearing seatbelts
in the backseat which is totally crazy! But I arrived at my host family and this totally cute girl greeted us, and things were looking good. I walked into the house, they asked me to follow them, and so I did and they panicked! ''Nuh'' I thought. Oh, I wasn't wearing any slippers, silly me. So they showed me into this other room, and when I walked in they panicked again. It was a tatami mat and you're not supposed to wear slippers on them. Wow, I must really have made a bad first impression. So we sat down and drank Japanese green tea and they were only talking in Japanese and that was when it hit me! I'm in Japan, on the other side of the world... That's an unbelievably good feeling that's only getting stronger each day that passes by. Ever since that first day I did a lot of fun stuff with my host family. They took me to a lot of different places and let me spend time with them. Just being with them really improved my Japanese a lot. Being with them was really fun but sometimes I couldn't help to get this awkward feeling of being an outsider. I wanted to feel like a part of the family, doing everything they did, but sometimes they just treated me like a guest. Now they always apologize when I helped them with stuff and they hardly ever let me do anything by myself. So being in the family but never really a part of it is really hard. But besides from that, the family I stayed with for my first 3 months here in Japan was really awesome and parting from them was really hard, harder than I thought for taking in a stranger like me and being treated like I was says a lot about a person. They made my first 3 months here in Japan great and I'm forever grateful for that. At the school things are only getting better and better. You're getting many new Japanese friends and each day that passes by the JSL classes become more and more fun. It was really hard in the beginning with all the Japanese but you got used to it and now everything goes on smoothly. The teachers teach Japanese in a funny and easy way I didn't think was possible. The only negative thing that is really negative is the fact that we only have 30 minutes for lunch. Then taking away the time it takes to walking to a store and buying lunch you're down to 20 minutes! And it's impossible to fill your stomach in 20 minutes! So I just get hunger each day and that is not a good feeling. The thing we all are looking forward to now is the Christmas trip, when we hopefully will learn more about Japanese history and culture. The only thing that is missing is the white snow that will hopefully be here by Christmas. |
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| ■Canada | |||
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The
plane touched down on the hot runway, and inside unbeknownst to Japan, I
was having a small panic attack. It was due to the fact that apart from
small cache of useless words, I only remembered one full sentence from Japanese
class. This sentence that was supposed to carry me through the whole trip
was 「いいおてんきですね」 which roughly translated means ''nice weather
huh?'' A lot of good that would do me I but at least in an emergency I could
make small talk. Luckily for me though, the weather was nice. Too nice in
fact - a wall of heat coming up to knock the breath from my lungs, and breathlessly
the journey continued. Together with my fellow exchange students Shannon
Mitchell and Kara Mackay, as well as Kara's father Lewis, I traveled around
Japan for ten days. At the end of this adventure most of which involved walking through a hot, sticky and muggy Japan, we caught a bullet train to Sendai. I knew that the end of this four-hour ride would be the beginning of my new life as an exchange student, and to say that I was nervous was an understatement. We were met at the station by representatives from the school, and five minutes later I had nearly fallen down an escalator on the way to the car. Already off to a good start! We were then driven to the school, given a small tour, and split up to got to our new host families. My host family and I hit it off right away, and a part from trying to make me eat extremely large amounts of food at meal times, I had no problems. The only worry now was what to expect at school. I knew I was going to study Japanese in Japan, but it still came as a shock when on the first day I was handed a large Japanese test by a teacher who spoke no English. I was so confused and I knew that I had failed the test. Then the second day, we were all split up into groups so we could study at our level, my group started with hiragana which I was already very familiar with, but by a week in use were already learning things I never even knew existed! Over the next three months I went to two more host families, and was moved to the dorms (where I now live) twice. By this moving I was able to see a lot of different areas in and a round Sendai. Everyday here I have learned new things, met new people, and seen new places. I now know phrases that might help in life, rather than just comment on the weather, and I went from feeling alone in a huge school, to having many friends and recognized faces. I won't lie, though. It wasn't always fun, there were times when I would have gladly swam all the way back to Canada, rather than fight my way through a foreign country or a strange new language. But when I think back on it now, all the times good and bad that I have spent here, I feel glad that I came, and sad that the time is always ticking towards my return home. In my three months here, I have learned so much not only about Japan but also about life and how when you work for what you really want the moment that you achieve it is worth all the shed tears. |
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| ■Canada | |||
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Although
it has only been a meager three months thus far, I have experienced a
great wealth of fun, interesting, and life-changing experiences in Japan,
particularly in Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School. At first, living here
and adjusting to the culture is difficult, but with the proper attitude
and mindset everything gradually gets better and will eventually exceed
expectations. |
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| ■Canada | |||
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August
30th was when I found myself on an Air Canada plane headed for Japan. It
never really sunk in that I was leaving everything I knew and heading for
something completely different. Once we were up in the air, the announcements
were said in English as well as Japanese. I didn't recognize any of the
words in Japanese. On my first day of school, I was nervous all over and not sure what to expect. There were many other exchange students all doing their own thing talking to their own friends. After we met our homeroom teacher Thomas, another teacher came in and started talking completely in Japanese. I had no idea what she was saying. The next thing I know we were handed a test. As I sat there looking down upon completely foreign characters. I started to question this class and wonder how we were ever supposed to understand anything. The first week was the hardest part, with a new host family to call home and Japanese homework. After a while, I grew to love JSL and the teachers. I found myself picking up words and understanding what I was being asked. My Japanese started to get better and better. I learned so much everyday! The teachers have mastered a great way to teach Japanese. They made it fun by playing games that if you didn't study you would lose encouraging me to study more. ほしなせんせい is one of the best teachers I have ever had and I look forward to waking up in the morning and going to JSL. |
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