Fourteen students from Kokusai Junior College, located in Tokyo, Japan, visited De Anza College for a week to interact with students and practice speaking English.
The students participated in interactive activities organized by the Inter Club Council that included exercising their speaking skills in an American setting. After learning different slang versions of saying “hello” and other greetings, the Japanese students taught their counterparts from De Anza origami.
Other activities that allowed the students to connect included word games such as Fat Cat, a variation of Hangman. These games exposed the Japanese students to new words to build their English skills.
“I love these sessions. I am learning a lot and seeing a lot, and the same time I am having fun too,” Yumi Kichida, 19, said.
The Japanese students practiced their English through singing mainstream American music, guided by Miki Melton, a teaching assistant in the English as a Second Language program. Melton created this method to help foreign students get rid of their accents, calling it the “Popular Song Method,” conducting the group through the lyrics of Adam Lambert’s “What Do You Want From Me.”
“Through singing, the students are able to learn native pronunciation patterns,” Melton said.
Every year, different students from Kokusai travel to De Anza as a learning experience. This year, Shinichi Harada, an English instructor at Kokusai accompanied the trip as a chaperone. Harada focuses on preparing his students to use their English in different setting.
“Our Kokusai students are enjoying this week in which they are able to interact with Americans, while their English is improving and they are gaining confidence when speaking a language completely foreign to them,” Harada said.
According to Harada, few students apply for this trip because of its cost. The fee for the entire trip is $4,000, with an additional $500 for meals and shopping.
Each student lived with an American host family for the week. Some were paired up with another Kokusai student in one family and some were assigned alone. The incentive behind the students living with host families was to increase opportunities to use communication skills and to increase their abilities in using English in practical life. Through living with American families, the Kokusai students were also exposed to a different culture, such as daily routines, habits and way of living of an American family.
De Anza students volunteered in interacting with the Kokusai students. Former ICC officer Antonio Ramos Jr. said that through interacting with the Kokusai students, “At the very minimum, De Anza students gain social skills, patience and it’s a great learning experience for us. We learn more about the foreign world and it makes us less ignorant.”