Rising Sun at Riverdale

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

Last week was a little unusual for Riverdale High School Grade 11 student Sasha Legault, who was followed around her home by two teenagers from the other side of the world.

"You kind of get used to it after a while," she said.

Legault was one of several students between grades 8 and 11 who took the 113 visiting Grade 9 Japanese students from Hakodate Lasalle High School into her parents' house for a week.

"They've gotten something this week that's just invaluable," said Riverdale principal Tom Rhymes about the program.

Arranged by the Lester B. Pearson International Studies program, the visit is the largest of its kind in Quebec. "This is the biggest group that I've ever heard of," Rhymes said. Though challenging logistically, the visit was a success thanks to strong co-operation between the school board, Riverdale staff, its students, and their parents. The latter agreed to host the Japanese students for their week, in some cases taking more than one student.

Legault said that what struck her the most about the visit was that "students are just students" in the end. "We all play video games, though they're better at it," she said as an example.

Akira Nogirama, one of the visiting students from Hokkaido, Japan, said that he found students in Riverdale to be just as mischievous as those back home.

Most of the Japanese students who took the visit do not have a solid grasp of spoken English, so there was a bit of a challenge to overcome, explained Hakodate Lasalle vice-principal Osamu Inoue. "(Math) is the only subject they can understand," he said, since the academic demands for math and sciences are much higher in Japan than they are here.

The visiting students each followed their "buddy" classmates around their classes all day, attending courses like a regular Riverdale student would. "The relationship between teachers and students is more friendly," Nogirama remarked. In Japan, university-style lectures and more formal interactions between students and teachers are the norm, according to Inoue.

"You can't really understand what they're saying sometimes," joked Shaundell Roberts, Grade 9, who had a buddy herself. She said it gradually became easier, however.

"(My buddy) has a little translator that he can type what he wants to say into and then I can understand him," said Dylan Alberts, Grade 10.

Though Hokkaido is in northern Japan, Riverdale's visitors were still somewhat surprised by low temperatures once they arrived here, particularly on their visit to Quebec City last Wednesday. "It's a beautiful town, but it's freezing cold," laughed Inoue.

Carol Mastantuano, who co-ordinates international studies at Lester B. Pearson, said that the ultimate goal of their program is to allow students from Pearson's schools here in Quebec to fly to other countries and study there for a while.

"We'd be open for anything," Rhymes said of possible future visits, "but that's a ways off for now."

For now, Mastantuano said that the school board would try to ensure Hakodate's students visited Riverdale every year.