Twenty Okinawan high school students were chosen to visit the United States and experience college at UH. After about two weeks of living at Cougar Village and learning English, the students performed traditional Japanese dances to celebrate their gratefulness in this opportunity. | Courtesy of Chieh Chen
Japanese foreign exchange students visiting UH celebrated their last week in the United States with music and dance on Saturday at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.
The 20 hand-picked Okinawan high school juniors and seniors began a week of farewells with Japanese-pop choreography, skits, happi coats and the Houston-based Okinawa drumming dance troupe, Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko Texas.
The audience was filled with host families, visitors and students in awe with the performances. Sociology senior Michael Lenmark, who is a member of the AIESEC UH chapter, was thrilled with the event.
“It was very interesting. I’ve never seen a Taiko-style dance before,” Lenmark said. “I’ve never really been exposed to a lot of Eastern cultures.”
The bright youths from Okinawa didn’t travel across the Pacific to dawdle; they came to study English and American life for three weeks at the University through Japanese government subsidies.
The Okinawa Prefecture Study Abroad Consortium chose the students from 65 high schools and a pool of 300 applicants for this unique opportunity. For three weeks, the selected students underwent cross-cultural Culture Bump training and ESL courses.
Carol Archer, a UH faculty retiree with ties to the Language and Culture Center, was excited to have worked closely with the students who absorbed the Culture Bump methodology that she created.
“What we’re doing here is creating global leaders for the future,” Archer said. “My dream has come true in these young men and women.”
The representative director of OPSAC, Tadahiko Kinjo, coordinated with UH Japanese instructors Kagenobu Nakamoto and Helen Nakamoto to foster the growth of Okinawa’s future leaders.
“Houston is one of the best place for young students to learn things academically. [There is] NASA, Medical Center, many museums [and] so on,” Kinjo said. “UH main campus is a perfect university.”
For Amber Mapp, a Chinese senior and the Japanese Culture and Language Association president, who volunteered to be part of their team of teachers, the exchange students’ dedication and eagerness to learning was an inspiration.
“They seemed to have captured the essence of American culture,” Mapp said. “It wasn’t just learning about the language. It wasn’t about tolerating cultures; it’s about respecting other cultures and learning why they do certain things and embracing it.”
Emily Iramina, an Okinawan high school junior, was so thankful to have been selected.
“I love here. I love Okinawa. I love Houston,” Iramina said.
arts@thedailycougar.com