2019.08.31

柳川高校に短期留学

バンコクのインタースクールの長い夏休み時。
一時帰国する際に地元の学校に入り通学する生徒は多いのではないでしょうか？
APFのプレーヤーズクラスのShawn君と兄のBrian君が柳川高校に約2週間、テニス部の選手と共に生活をさせていただきました。

実は私も柳川高校を訪問するのは初めて。(ZERO1前にピックアップしただけですが)

柳川高校は全国でもトップレベルを長年維持している伝統校です。テニスを通じて日本の文化と教育を受けられる絶好の機会でもありましたし、何よりも柳川高校はタイにも姉妹校を持つぐらいのインターナショナルな学校を目指しています。

柳川高校ホームページ
 For international students

日本語が完璧ではない2名は大丈夫なのか？

推薦した私が彼らのフライト前に授業日本語大丈夫？ご飯は？テニスそんなにできんの？
とか要らない心配をしました。
2人の笑顔が充実した柳川生活だった事を食事中に話してくれました。よく頑張ってたと思います。

バンコクで開催されているallout beatに参加してくれていたメンバーや、
APFのプレーヤーズクラスで育った選手にも柳川高校で再会できたようです。
テニスを通じての人との繋がり素晴らしいですね。
この場をお借りして、柳川高校、本田教頭先生。本村プロ。
心より感謝申し上げます。

またバンコクに柳川高校の選手がきてくれる事をお待ちしております。

Brian君からの感謝レターです！

Hi everyone! It’s Brian. I am an ex-P Class Student. Today I would like to share my experience in Yanagawa, Fukuoka. Tsukada Coach kindly arranged a 2-week transfer, for me and Shawn (P Class Student), at Yanagawa High School. Yanagawa High School (柳川高等学校) is a very diverse Japanese high school with many students around the world. The school offers many different courses allowing students to focus on what kind of job they want in the future. The course that I was in was the international course, which focuses on international relations which provides students skills to deal with international relations.

But the main reason that I went to Yanagawa HS was that in the future I decided that I want to go to a Japanese university. Going to high school allowed me to experience the Japanese lifestyle and culture as well. And of course I had to play tennis because Yanagawa HS’s tennis team is quite well known, it would be a shame if I didn’t go and practice there.

The tradition in the tennis team is very unique unlike other traditions in your average high school sports team. The bond between seniors and freshmen are very strong and respect is a key part of it. The training sessions are all without the coach so a lot of discipline is needed.

Usually, on school days there are two practice sessions; one is in the morning which starts at 7:30 am and the other one is in the afternoon which starts at 4:00 pm. The morning sessions are all fitness-based, so it all happens at school. What usually happens is we go to the stairs at school and go up 7 flights of stairs for three sets. After that, we go to the fitness room to do some weight training. In the afternoon it’s all tennis. The practice sessions are usually 3 hours long but if the coach feels like more is needed then it would be 4 hours.

School, in general, starts at 8:50 am but sometimes there is morning class (朝授業) which starts at 7:30. In school, the subjects are quite similar except for home economics which I have never had a class like that before. Home economics was quite fun, we got to do activities which would help us with problems at home such as sewing. Then school ends at 3:30 pm where I have to go clean specific parts of the school.

The school is very connected to the local community and helps out in many aspects. When I was there the local government has asked the transfer students to help translate some of the texts at tourism spots. Which shows that the school is interconnected to the community. Also when I transferred there the class I was in, held a cultural festival for the community to allow other students and people from the community to experience other cultures from different countries. There was plenty of work to do and the entire class had to help each other to make the event successful. This included the stalls we had to make, the decoration, the poster, and etc. The teacher gave us some time to prepare for the event but sometimes we had to do the work outside of class.

In terms of the dorms, it is very different from what I expected at first. The air conditioning is only on from 8:00 pm till 6:50 am, which I had some difficulties with. The power also turns off at 11:00 pm so I couldn’t go on my phone for that long. Breakfast and dinner is all held at the school canteen. For lunch, I eat at the canteen or at the convenience store. Surprisingly the food from the convenience stores in Japan is way better than Thailand’s convenience stores.

In general, I enjoyed this experience and I learned a lot of things. Learning Japanese culture will definitely help me in the future when I go to university. I hope you enjoyed reading this post about my experience in Yanagawa.

体験レッスン申込み