Travelers
The first week of lessons for 2025 ends today.
I can’t believe it’s been a week already since I came back to Japan from overseas. Time really flies.
Speaking of overseas, last year many of my students went abroad.
My youngest student, who’s still in elementary school, went to Turkey then Singapore then the Philippines with his family.
A girl who entered junior high last year went to Australia in the summer and stayed with a host family.
One of my third-year junior high school students also stayed with a host family in Australia in November, and a girl who’s the same age as him stayed with a family in Canada.
One of my students who is finishing his master’s degree went to France and London.
One of my adult students went to London with her daughter, another went to Guam and then later on to Vietnam with her family, and another went to New Zealand with hers.
They went to different countries, discovering different places, trying new food, experiencing different cultures, learning how to interact with different people, and opening their world a little bit more.
It was so exciting, and I asked all of them about their trip when they returned. Even though the younger ones couldn’t express themselves very well in English yet, they all came back with a bit more confidence in their words and in expressing themselves, as if they realized there was no need to worry about their English level.
I’m always happy and proud when they tell me that they were able to use English in their travels. It isn’t a big amount of practice because they were abroad for only a few weeks at most, but I think every chance they took was an important small step in their journey to improvement.
I hope they get more chances this year! ✨