ONU Forges Friendship With Japanese High School
By Beth L. Jokinen, The Lima News, Ohio
Jul. 31–ADA — Two administrators from a high school in Japan were on Ohio Northern University’s campus for the first time Monday. Next summer a group of their students will return.
A three-week camp is planned for next summer that will bring 18 students from Japan and 18 U.S. high school students together on campus.
“I have never seen a program like this. It is a very fantastic program,” said Morio Sakamaki, principal at Kasukabe Girls’ High School in Saitama. “Especially a camp with American students. So they can think in English, speak in English and act in English.”
The relationship with the Japanese school of 900 students grew from ONU officials wanting to develop a relationship with Saitama, near Tokyo, and also near a Honda Plant.
Deanna Shine, director of international admissions, has been to the area several times, and was introduced to the board of education there. From there, she established a relationship with Kasukabe and began talking about collaborations. Officials from the two institutions signed an agreement last month.
Kasukabe is deemed a Super English School, which focuses on new ways of teaching English. School Vice Principal Hisako Kawada said the school takes the top students and teaches more than just speaking English, but also grammar.
“It is a very unique way,” she said. “They build up their grammar and on that basis they can communicate much more easily with English-speaking people.”
The school is also unique from other schools in Japan in that it accepts foreign exchange students. There are students from Norway, Canada, Germany and Indonesia.
The camp will include a week of intensive English studies for the Japanese students and Japanese studies for the U.S. students. The rest of the curriculum has not been determined yet. Kawada said the camp will be a good atmosphere for the Japanese students who have interest in the English language.
“That leads them to have interest in other fields,” she said. “I hope it will provide our students more knowledge about things in this world.”
The program falls under ONU’s History, Politics and Justice Department. Department Chairwoman Ellen Wilson said the U.S. students will come from schools that offer Japanese.
“They will not have the advantage of being in Japan, but they will have everything but,” she said. “They will be surrounded by 18 Japanese students and I bet they end up going to Japan. It will internationalize our campus here in Ada.”
ONU has an Asian Studies program and those students will be helping with the camp.
ONU already has an exchange agreement with Kansai Gaidai in Kyoto, but officials are anxious to reach younger students through the camp.
“We think that influencing students at the high school level is where it begins,” Shine said. “The seed is planted at a younger age and they have a desire in their life to go and see different parts of the world and understand them.”
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