FUKUCHIYAMA, Kyoto — High schoolers from Taiwan recently visited a high school in this west Japan city and engaged in cultural exchange with local students through English conversation, dancing and class activities.
Thirty students from Taichung Municipal Long-Jin Senior High School in Taiwan visited Kyoto Prefectural Kogyo Senior High School in Fukuchiyama on April 17, as part of an educational trip to experience foreign culture and interact directly with young people of the same generation.
Student representatives from both schools presented slides and other materials on the characteristics of their schools. The students from the Japanese high school introduced the history of Fukuchiyama, Osadano Industrial Park and the legend of ogres on Mount Oe. Six female students from the Taiwanese high school performed a dance to music popular in Taiwan.
In the English class, each student introduced themselves in English, talked about anime and music, and showed their smartphone photos to each other. In the Japanese culture class, a Japanese teacher from the local school explained about the language, and students from the school wrote the names of the Taiwanese students in hiragana syllabary characters. The Japanese students also demonstrated their skills by laser engraving the names in hiragana on wooden chopsticks.
Haruki Nagai, 17, a third-year student in an information technology course at the local school, smiled and said, “It was an important opportunity for us to communicate and connect with each other through gestures and English. The dance performance by Taiwanese high school students was new to me.”
In his welcoming speech, the school’s principal, Yoshiyuki Nomura, expressed his condolences and sympathy regarding the major earthquake that hit Taiwan on April 3, saying, “I am relieved that everyone is safe at Long-Jin Senior High School, but there may be some relatives who were affected. I pray that they will be able to return to their normal lives as soon as possible.”
(Japanese original by Manabu Niwata, Fukuchiyama Local Bureau)
Tags: Taiwanese students experience Japanese culture visit Kyoto Pref high school
