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For students to be international-minded persons, this high school provides an Exchange Program with Melbourne Grammar School during summer vacation. MGS is one of the most prestigious schools in Australia. Its philosophy is "Fostering Learning and Leadership". It was established in 1858 on the Anglican basis, which was 37 years earlier than this school, and has produced three Prime Ministers, Antarctic explorers, and the first Australian artist to be admitted to the Royal Academy.
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- This program is carried out by Waseda High School and Melbourne Grammar School.
- Students from Waseda have not only ESL lessons but also regular classes at MGS.
- Students stay at homes of MGS students who study Japanese.
- Students have preparatory lessons before going to Australia.
( ex. Homestay English, The History of Australia, The Wildlife of Australia, etc.
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- This program is for the interested students of Year 10 and 11.
- The quota of this program is about 10 students.
- The length of this program is 18 days.
- MGS students come to Japan in January and Waseda students host them in return.
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Hosting Program at Waseda |
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As the Schedule at Waseda shows you, we hosted eleven MGS students for two weeks in January 2005. We hope the students of both schools have broadened their horizons and gained a real insight into the culture and history of the other country through the exchange program.
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The party led by a MGS teacher arrived at Narita International Airport and spent the first week traveling around, stopping at Hakone, one of the most famous onsen towns in Japan, Takayama, a small traditional country town in central Japan, and Kyoto, the historical capital. And they met their host friends at Tokyo Station after an interval of six months.
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| Japanese Language Lessons |
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In the first and second periods at Waseda, MGS students have Japanese language lessons by professional teachers from Waseda University Center for Japanese. The lessons were coordinated by a Waseda Professor and given in two classes, which were divided by interview tests. The lessons were not grammar-oriented but oral-communication oriented, so they had many opportunities to do activities and use their Japanese.
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| Japanese Cultural Lessons |
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In the third period, the lessons on things Japanese were provided for MGS students by Waseda teachers to introduce Japanese culture: Japanese history and geography, Japanese wildlife and geology, Japanese songs, Japanese cooking, Japanese literature and calligraphy. For example, in the Japanese cooking lesson they made tempura for lunch, in the Japanese literature lesson they composed haiku, 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and in the calligraphy lesson they wrote their haiku in ink with a writing brush. From the fourth period to the sixth, they joined regular classes with host students.
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Eleven third-grade high school students (Year 12), who had already been admitted to Waseda University, voluntarily joined the Japanese and cultural lessons. In the Japanese lessons they were partners to MGS students when they practiced conversations in Japanese. In the cultural lessons they helped translate Japanese into English when the lecturer had difficulty.
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On this program MGS students planned five excursions.
- a tour around Shibuya / Harajuku, areas popular among young people
- a visit to the Tokyo National Museum and a tour around Ameyoko, a busy market street
- a tour around Akihabara, a town lined with electrical stores
- a tour around Asakusa, a Japanese traditional downtown
- Watching a Sumo tournament
They looked around the Tokyo National Museum as we did the Australian Museum in Sydney. The Sumo tournament was the highlight of their Japan trip because they learned about Sumo as a topic in their textbook before coming to Japan. They also went on the campus tour at Waseda University. After school they joined the Kyudo, Kendo and Judo Club practices and tried Japanese martial arts.
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Our Farewell Party was held in the teachers' meeting room at the school after school. MGS students made a farewell speech to host families in Japanese. They were given certificates in the concluding ceremony of the party. They sang "Sakura Sakura", a popular Japanese song which they learned at Waseda, by way of thanks to us.
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