This is my 7th month in the Czech Republic and I would like to share my experiences with you all.
The first part is about my host school.
My host school is a special English school. I have many subjects but most of all, like 70% are taken in English. You might think it’s easy to understand what teachers talk about in the classes but not. They study really difficult things so sadly I can’t get good marks from my academy record. But I enjoy going to my host school. I like the students and teachers in my hos school. I feel teachers enjoy teaching their students and students enjoy learning new things from their teachers. Students ask many questions to their teachers to be smart and answer questions confidently even if they don’t know the answers which is not normal in Japan. In Japan, we as students don’t want to say something and our feeling are in from of people so we normally go to the teachers’ room if we have questions after school. The first I was really surprised at students saying their opinion and staff in the class but now I like it because I can be able to get new knowledge from their questions. The next is about my friends from my host school. They are kind and they always try to help me. And we (my friends and me) hang out to go shopping, eat something and so on. I went to two parties which are held by my friends and these are precious memories for me. The first one was Halloween Party and we dig pumpkins to make Halloween pumpkins. I know it’s not Czech culture but it was my first time digging and also the first time going to my friend’s house. The second one was my friend’s birthday party. There, I also experienced new things. I’d never known that a Birthday girl holds a party to herself and pays for everything by herself for everybody.
The next part is about my host family.
I travel a lot with my host family in Czechia. They know a lot of beautiful places in the Czech and every time I enjoy that. They are kind because they take me everywhere in the Czech. After all, I love traveling even though my host doesn’t like to travel. They love nature and we often go to forests and mountains. I’ve never been to go hiking in Japan because I live in Tokyo and there is no forest. Since I came here, I have often gone there with my host family and now I love that. I can think a lot about my future in a relaxing mood surrounded by nature.
My host family members are honest and they always make effort for everything so I respect them. And I learn a lot about Czech culture but I also learned a really important thing about family. I rebelled against my Japanese parents a lot but now I realized it was wrong and it’s not obvious what my Japanese parents did to me. I have a huge thank you to my parents I respect them and I try to be good as their children to make effort for everything and respect my parents and be honest as my host family does.
Still, I have a couple of months. But I could experience a lot and I guess I’m a better person to compare to before coming here. So I’m glad to be able to come here and meet a lot of good people. I’m gonna miss the Czech Republic for sure but at the same time, I’m excited to go back to Japan. Because I feel like I can do a lot of things which I couldn’t do before coming here and I think my future is so nice
– Mahoka, exchange student from Japan in 2021/2022