I'm going Japanese, I really think so.

We hosted two Japanese exchange students for the weekend. They didn’t speak English and really didn’t understand it either. We spent a lot of time using Babel Fish. It would translate English into Japanese characters. It worked with simple phrases, but the slightest figure of speech would elicit a giggle.

We hadn’t really wanted to host the students, but a friend asked us. It was quite fun. The kids interest in learning a foreign language jumped by leaps and bounds. I think we might abandon Latin for awhile and switch to Japanese. I’m going to look into other exchange programs. Then we can focus on learning the language of the student we are going to host. It is more fun to learn a language when you know that you get a chance to use it.

We really liked the Japanese girls. They were so polite and dressed modestly. As part of our duty as hosts, we attended their concert at the high school. A local school band performed also. It was a good reminder of why our children are not going to high school. These were all basically “good” kids, but many of the American kids seemed a little lost. In contrast, the Japanese students behaved as a good example for our children.

The night before the Japanese students went home, we went to dinner at my in-laws’ home. A family friend who is from Japan came over. We got a chance to really communicate with the Japanese girls. We were able to find out about their families and homes in Japan.

I would highly recommend hosting exchange students as a homeschool project.

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