August 11, 1999
Students experience culture exchange
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Miso, origami and gracious manners.
Water balloons, fast food and the Mackinaw Bridge.
An intense cultural exchange is underway for seven area families as they host Japanese students for a month. Sponsored by the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service, the 4-H/Japanese Exchange program brings together teenagers from the Japan and America to learn more about each other.
The students from Japan live with their host families from mid-July until mid-August, experiencing life as a typical American teenager would and learning English as they go. Their American hosts pick up some of the Japanese language and get a taste the country's cuisine and culture at the same time.
"I learned a lot of Japanese when my brother hosted students for three years," said Ashlee Duguid, 14, of Williamsburg, who is hosting her first student this year, Yoko Moriguchi, 13. "It is fun. We like to go shopping together and are taking her to the Upper Peninsula."
This is the fourth year the Duguid family has hosted a student and the benefits are many for the whole family. They laugh a lot during the visit and try different ways to eat and act while learning about the culture and daily life in Japan. Each year, their student has taught them origami, the art of paper folding. This year, their student does not know it and they are the ones teaching her this ancient Japanese art.
Because the students from Japan often know little English, the Duguids keep a Japanese-English dictionary handy and sometimes both sides must use charades to act out what they are trying to say. They also speak slowly and simply to help the students keep up with conversations in English.
"The benefits of hosting are multiple," said Marlene Duguid, Ashlee's mother. "They are a shy, proud people, very polite and respectful; when they come their suitcases are full of gifts and they are very generous. They leave with a lot of gifts for family and friends back home, too, and they want the things we make in the United States. They love Petoskey stones."
The poise and politeness of the Japanese students also impressed their teenage American hosts, not just the parents.
"Their behavior really makes you want to be nicer so you don't look horrible by comparison," said Trevor Briggeman, 14, of Cedar who is hosting a student for the first time. "They say thank you for anything and everything."
The 4-H/Japanese Exchange program placed 65 Japanese students in Michigan this year. A private organization in Japan called LABO helped create the program to help improve English skills and promote cultural exchange. It has proven so popular that some Japanese parents begin saving for it when their baby is born. Nationwide, LABO placed more than 1,200 students this year. Host students can also travel to Japan to stay with the family of the student they sponsored.
The program places exchange students only in homes that have a child of a similar age and the same gender, who serves as the host. The want the Japanese student to experience a slice of life of a typical American teenager, making friends with their friends, doing the same activities and participating in the family like any other member.
"The host families are just supposed to do what they do every day," said Wanda Repke, 4-H Volunteer and Youth Educator for Grand Traverse County, whose family hosted Japanese students when she was a teen. "They are here to live with the family, do chores and everything, not just tour the United States. If a family has a vacation planned, they go along."