Friday, Aug. 01, 2008

Japanese exchange students visit Los Banos

Children teach origami to youths and meet with city leaders

Japanese native Rumi Furukawa remembers the monthlong American exchange experience she participated in almost 13 years ago with fond memories and a little bit of regret.

"I thought I was good at English but it was such a shock when I got here and not being able to talk," Furukawa, 27, said. "I came out of it really shy which was not who I was."

Furukawa was so disappointed that she didn't get as much out of the exchange as knew she could so as a teenager she signed up again for a longer stay in the United States.

Now the fluent English-speaking Furukawa works for the agency that allowed her trip to happen and was eager to accompany other Japanese children through that stepping stone.

Furukawa and 29 children from Kagoshima, Japan will wrap up their educational exchange program in August, taking with them a little more knowledge of American culture and leaving Los Baños children with an experience they will never forget.

The students are part of the Cultural Homestay International, a non-profit educational exchange program founded to promote cultural understanding. Serving more than 40 countries, programs include homestays like the Japanese students' trip, high school exchange placements and au pair work experience programs.

In their first week, the children have been busy with English lessons, visiting the local sites and completing community service requirements.

For one of those requirements the group visited Volta Elementary School Wednesday to teach children origami, the ancient Japanese are of paper folding.

Carefully demonstrating to third-grader Bailey Hernandez how to fold and refold thin squares of colored paper, Yurie Wakimura, 14, and Hernandez, 8, made paper cups, jumping frogs and cranes.

"Look it's a basketball," said Tayuka Tashiro, 15, of a modular origami shaped like a ball.

Coordinator Jaime Haug, who is housing a few students in her home, said the experience is both enlightnening for the students and her children.

"My boys just love them," she said.

Haug said Los Baños has been a host for exchange students for many years and the visit always ends with the celebration of an American holiday, Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July, and a "sayonara party" in which the students cook a traditional Japanese meal.

Furukawa said that once the students get home they will continue with their English studies which begin in the seventh grade. Some she said might opt to come back for a yearlong exchange after this trip.

"This summer is a stepping stone, "I think it's an eye opener for most of them."

Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565 or by e-mail at mperez@losbanosenterprise.com