これはさよならじゃないけど、また後でね〜今年の夏はいろいろありがとう

Eight weeks later and our time in Tokyo with the Language and Culture Program has finally come to an end :(

One month per session is a long, but short time to spend here in Japan. With so much to do every day, the students gained exciting, new cultural experiences; and for some, learning a new language, and experiencing life independently for the first time! I truly hope that the students really maximized their time to do the things they wanted to do!

For group 5, during weeks 3 and 4 our students stayed in homestay families where they were able to continue their Japanese language development with a local Japanese family after class and activities. We also had a full week of activities, just to name a few: Tokyo TeamLab, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Station, and making okonomiyaki (お好み焼き). 

I truly enjoyed my time in Japan with these students. Though there were a few bumps in the road, we all rose up and had the time of our lives. I truly hope the students gained new life experiences they can carry on throughout the rest of their lives! For those of you who are pursuing learning the Japanese language, I bid you all good luck and I hope you can all keep in contact with your peers, homestay families, and even myself! For those who were more interested in the culture side, I hope that you can come back to Japan sometime and learn even more about Japanese culture, outside of Tokyo as well; there is so much to learn on both the language and culture side! 

Learning doesn't stop once you finish school, it's lifelong! Go out and explore the world while you can!

The title of this blog post is, 「これはさよならじゃないけど、また後（あと・later）でね〜今年（ことし・this year）の夏（なつ・summer）いろいろありがとう」and this translates to "This is not goodbye, but see you later~thank you for everything this summer." 

This was a point I wanted highlight to the students; it's a personal life motto of mine. Though the program may be over, we may see each other again; whether that may be in person, over the phone/video call, or sometime in the future! Goodbye is such a permanent and forever valediction, where as see you later is more hopeful and less sad. I hope the students reading this post remember this!