Thank You

The Tokai Study Abroad Summer Programme for 2016 has come to an end. All the boys are now safely back with their families in Japan. This year has been a very eventful learning journey for them all. The boys have been fantastic. In each of the three locations that I visited, Edinburgh, Marlborough and Malahide, I was told that this year’s group was the most outgoing and friendly group that had come from Tokai in all the years we have been running these trips. There was a really fun atmosphere in the air led by some particularly energetic and big-spirited individuals. Their courage allowed the whole group to be lifted to new heights.

The group at Marlborough College in England was enthusiastically led by Mr Bond and Mr Kiuchi and the two weeks passed safely and productively. This year Learning Journeys was well represented by Lottie Colquhoun and Bella Duncan who really developed the programme to new heights winning everybody’s hearts with their cheerfulness and excellent care for the details of the day to day running of the programme. We hope that they will be able to lead future Learning Journeys groups.

One of the highlights of the trip to England was the London Visit. The group had the chance to spend a whole day getting to know the famous historic and modern sights of that incredible city and thoroughly enjoyed their experience of riding on the London Underground as well as a Thames cruise to the 950 year old Tower of London. It was fun to eat at Macdonalds in Paddington Station before heading back to Marlborough after a great day out.

One of the strengths of the Marlborough College Summer School programme is that the boys get to choose from a range of fun and educational activities. This year we had boys doing all sorts of things from Mountain Biking to Photography. Some of the groups had a chance to perform at the end of the week and the Dance and Rock School courses put on a great show. 

We got very good feedback from the Summer School staff about the Tokai boys’ conduct in their English lessons and their activities. Meg Dempster, the evening activity coordinator described them as ‘lovely’. We also got very positive feedback from the homestay families. It is so beneficial to the boys to experience life in a regular English family. Overall, this year the boys integrated with the other groups and individual students very well and they made friends with students from a wide variety of other countries. That’s one of the most important goals of the programme – to build bridges with the rest of the world and for students to understand that they can use their English to communicate and to make friends. 

We can see this very clearly at Japan Corner. That’s when the boys have a chance to show off Japanese things such as origami, happi, kendama, furoshiki and so on. People always love seeing their own names written in kanji and learning how to use chopsticks and folding fans. This year, the event was a triumph. The other teenagers, young kids and adults are fascinated by this display of cool Japanese culture.

This year’s group should be very proud of themselves. They have been excellent ambassadors for their families, for Tokai, and for Japan. I hope that their experiences will have a positive effect on their further English studies and that they will continue to broaden their minds through study abroad and developing friendships with people around the world and with foreigners living in Japan. I also hope that they will keep in touch with us and with the people they met in England, building up their network of contacts and friendships. Some of them may even want to join the Tokai programme next year.

This year we celebrate that 500 Tokai boys have studied abroad during the past 13 summers. That is something that the Tokai teachers who have made this possible should be very proud of. Without their energy and dedication none of this would have happened. Particular thanks go to Mr. Tatsuya Ito who has been an inspiration to the whole programme. He makes close friendships everywhere he goes and that makes him the best role model of all for the boys. We hope that those students who have enjoyed themselves will share their adventures with their families and ‘kohai’ back in Japan. This will ensure that the programme goes from strength to strength.

Finally, a great big thank you to all the parents and grandparents back in Japan who have supported this project. I can assure you it is a wonderful gift to your sons and grandsons.

It’s a Learning Journey!