先日、昨年８月から1年間の予定で、アメリカ インディアナ州の高校に留学中のAyumiちゃんから、大変嬉しいメールが届きました♪

Ayumiちゃんは当スクール在学中からとても意欲的で、こつこつと着実に実力を伸ばしてきましたが、現地の高校でもとてもがんばっている様子.........

このように当スクール出身の子供たちが、スクールで培った自信・実力・自立をもって、国内外問わず元気に活躍してくれることは国際教育に携わる私たちにとって大きな喜びと励みになります。

これからも自分の目標に向かってますます活躍し、将来世界を舞台に大きく羽ばたいてくれることを心から願っています。

To Mr. Elwell,

Hello, Mr. Elwell.
It has been a long time no see you. How are you doing?
Time flies so fast and a half of my exchange year here in the United States already finished.

My host family is so nice and they are used to having exchange students, so they are so easy to get along with. I have a double placement sister from Germany and we are getting along with very well. I'm learning German from her. High school here is pretty hard. At the beginning of this year, I had a lot of hard time opening my locker or looking for classrooms in a short time. But now I'm used to it. The classes are interesting. I'm taking theology, math, English, choir, microbiology, and US history. Teachers and students are so nice and they helped me a lot. Theology is pretty hard for me since I'm neither christian nor Catholic, but my teacher always help me understand. All the classes are hard because of English but they are also so interesting. I study a lot and I now can sometimes get A on the tests. I'm so happy when I get A. I'm really enjoying learning a lot of stuffs in English.

I appreciate for all of your help and support. I really liked to go to your school. I am always looking forward to go there on Saturday. When I was in 9th grade, I started to go to your school. I really didn't have interest in English till then. At the beginng, I was kind of scared to go there because everything is in English and I could not understand most of what you said. But I learned little by little and I came to love English. I think the best thing about your school is that we can learn English by actually using English. Though I could hardly understand things, I really enjoyed learning English by using English.

We study English at school too. But most of the time it's only for exams. And they scarcely teach speaking English. They teach a lot about grammer, reading, and writing. But not really about speaking. So we do not really understand when to use, where to use, or how to use the words or phrases. So it was great opportunity for me to learn English by English. When I talked with teachers or when I was listening teachers talking or speaking, I was always thinking "I learned this phrase/word at school!" and it was the time when I really "learn" and get the English in myself.

I enjoyed these discoveries in your school a lot. Thanks to you, I really get easily used to the classes here. Of course I cannot understand everything, but I did not have any weird feeling for having classes in English even on the first day of school here. I think it's because I had your English class all in English and I am used to having classes in English. Everything I learned in your school helps me a lot. I really love English and your school.

Still I have some hard time but I will keep doing my best.

Thank you so much for helping me prepare for this year. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in the school and learn English with you again. Please say hi to Mrs. Elwell, Miss Ohyama, and everyone in hakusan international school.

Sincerely,

Ayumi