HANCOCK COUNTY — Yurano Chiba and Miku Nakamura glanced at each other before letting out identical giggles.
The three high-schoolers sitting across a table from them had just introduced themselves and now, at a teacher’s request, Yurano and Miku were attempting to translate the names into their native Japanese.
After a moment, after collecting themselves, the two 13-year-olds from Greenfield’s sister city of Kakuda, Japan dragged the felt tips of markers over a bit of paper, tracing the characters of their alphabet to spell out their new friends’ names.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThirteen girls, all eighth-graders from Kakuda, are visiting Hancock County this week as part of the local Sister Cities program. Tuesday, they spent the day at Greenfield-Central High School, touring the building, eating lunch and visiting with the students there, escorted by a set of student ambassadors — the high school and middle school students from Greenfield who just returned from visiting Kakuda in July.
At the same time, three other Hancock County schools were continuing their own week-long visits with foreign exchange students from Asian nations: Mt. Vernon Schools has 16 students and teachers from Taiwan visiting; Eastern Hancock Schools is hosting 10 Chinese students; and another seven students from China are visiting Zion Lutheran School in New Palestine.
Teachers and organizers of these exchange programs hope the interactions American students have with these foreign visitors will broaden their minds and teach them to appreciate other cultures.
Paula Perry, a foreign language instructor at Greenfield-Central High School, opened her Spanish class up to the Kakuda visitors, and traded in a traditional lesson for an afternoon of activities.
First, she had the Kakuda students write out their new American classmates’ names in Japanese. Then, she passed out bits of colorful paper that was cut perfectly square and had the Kakuda kids show off their origami skills.
Even though there is a language barrier, the kids find a way to communicate with each other, Perry said. There’s lots of timid gesturing and nervous laughter; but in the end, they all have fun, she said.
They learn to look past their differences and see only what makes them the same, Perry said.
“These one-on-one interactions show them that people are people,” she said.
Last week, students in Mt. Vernon Schools had a similar experience as eight Taiwanese students displayed their musical chops in the music room at Fortville Elementary School, playing piano and classical guitar for fifth-graders, who danced and clapped for the young musicians.
A group of about a dozen students and teachers, representing 11 schools from different parts of Taiwan, toured Mt. Vernon Community Schools Corp., staying with families from the school district.
The spokesman for the group, Lujiang Elementary School principal Chun-Sheng “Handsome” Chen, said the students were most surprised by the community’s hospitality and kindness, as well as the amount of land surrounding the houses.
“Taiwan is a small island with many people and is very crowded,” Chen explained.
He said the students were also impressed with the district’s technology, especially the fact that every student is equipped with an iPad or Chromebook.
Chen said he thought the schools’ focus on students, rather than the teachers, was an interesting difference from how schools operate in his homeland.
“Our students have less space,” he said. “I feel the spirit of student-centered here. In Taiwan, teachers are still teacher-centered, which is something different.”
The Taiwanese delegation took time to visit Washington, D.C. and Chicago as well as sites in Hancock County, administrators said. They leave Friday to return to Taiwan.
The group is the first of the school year to visit, but far from the last, as the Mt. Vernon school district focuses on building relationships with communities around the globe, officials said.
On Sept. 20, the district anticipates welcoming 20 students from Spain, and six Mt. Vernon students and teachers will travel to Quebec, said Greg Roach, Mt. Vernon High School principal.
In October, Mt. Vernon plans to send a group of educators to the Global Forum on Education in Anshan, China, Roach said. The district is familiar with the Chinese city; several delegations have traveled there or to Mt. Vernon schools from there in the last year, officials said.
In the spring semester, Roach anticipates a trip to Germany and for Mandarin students to travel to Taiwan in June, he said.
“This will probably be the busiest year we have,” he said. “As we work to establish these relationships, we’ll see return trips. In the future, we’ll spread them out a little more and have them on alternating years.”
Roach said Mt. Vernon schools aims to expose its students from kindergarten to high school seniors to different cultures with its exchange programs.
“Our world is smaller,” he said. “We feel like this gives our students an advantage in a worldwide society.”
