Today, junior Rhen Pass will be welcoming her exchange student, Haruna Matsushima, into her home as well as into her own high school. In her third year of hosting, Pass has prepared to welcome culture and diversity into her family.

“It’s been a normal part of high school for me now,” Pass said.

As of this year, Elk Grove will be participating in the now quarter-century Japanese exchange program with high schools Ashikodai and Ashitandai in Ashikaga, Japan. In its 25th anniversary, the EGHS Japanese Exchange Program welcomes 10 Japanese high schoolers and two chaperones from March 8-22 onto campus.

Fourteen EG students, in addition to orchestra and cello directors Bill and Gail Baar, will be the hosts for this year; a total of 15 households will care for these foreign students.

To Japanese teacher Clifford Darnall, as to many students who are or have participated in the exchange, this program is an immensely important and wonderful language-learning opportunity, especially in the workforce.

“I think it’s changed a lot of students lives,” Darnall said. “People have been motivated to go on and study Japanese in college, or to go on and work for a Japanese company.”

Generally, bilingual individuals get the job when faced against a monolingual competitor.

Students who do participate in the exchange get a flavor of a different culture on both sides of the spectrum. Pass believes she’s been nurtured by the mere experience of hosting and interacting with three Japanese girls during her high school career– an experience most easily possible by the exchange program.

“It helped me sort of grow as a person. I was able to experience a whole different culture and learn more about it,” Pass said. “Not only that, but I was able to make friends and do some really awesome things that are a once in a lifetime experience.”

The cultural benefits are not only limited to the American students. It makes its appearance on both sides of the spectrum. Japan has a largely homogeneous population– 98.3 percent of the entire island is ethnically Japanese. Being one of the most notorious nation-states in the world, diversity is extremely uncommon.

“We walk down the halls here and we’ve got people with all different kinds of faces,” Darnall said. “It gives them a chance to be aware of the world outside Japan.”

There are two parts to one year for the exchange program. First: the Japanese students come to live in the US for two weeks. Second: the American students go to live in Japan for two weeks.

“I get to make friends not only from Japan, but I get a lot closer to the American hosts as well,” Pass said. “I learned how to communicate with people, actually. Not everyone knows English that well, so just normal conversations aren’t always an option.”

The exchange program has brought interaction to a whole new level. The program makes and keeps ties. Socially, the program helps to make friendships happen.

“I learned different ways of how to connect with people, whether it be through myself attempting to hold a conversation in a mix of languages or just using hand motions or pointing,” Pass said. “It’s surprising how a friendship can grow with such little conversation.”

A total of nine American students will be going to Japan, including the Baars, in June. At first, there were more Japanese students than hosts, as there are a small number of EG students actually participating in any Japanese language class, and therefore program had expanded its core to appropriate any EG students who were interested in participating. The exchange was largely made possible by charity and support from Meiji Corporation, Americ Machinery Corporation and Sumitomo Cryogenics of America, Yuasa-Yi International, Shunichiro and Mitsuko Kishioka and Jarosch Bakery.

Regardless, the exchange between Elk Grove, Ill., and Ashikaga, Japan, will be filled with hours upon hours of experience, interaction and fun. During the foreigners’ times here, the exchange group will be spending a lot of time in Chicago, ice-skating, hanging out at “Food and Fun Time” and even a Chicago Bulls game. When the EG hosts eventually go to Japan, chances are that they will be experiencing common Japanese customs as well.

[You get a] wider perspective on life,” Darnall said. “If you go someplace different, you come back and see things differently.”

By: Morgan Loxely