So your kids would have a world view of things, on parent-child interaction, translated…
My son was in the experimental history class when he was in high school, in his first year, he’d taken an advance placement course from a Japanese school. One day after class, he’d told his dad with excitement, “I’m signing up for being a host family for a foreign exchange student from Japan, he was not yet finished, and I’d started hollering at him, “No, you should focus on your studies.”
My son used a round-and-about tactic, “I just wanted to try, I may not even get it”.
My husband who’d spoiled our children, because he was once the receptionist of the Jones Cup Basketball tournaments, he’d raised his arms to support my son. When my son was selected, all I could do, was play my role as the mom of the hosting family.
Recalled how a month before the Japanese student came, I’d started planning, the food, the extracurricular activities, hoping to show the Japanese student an unforgettable time.
When the Japanese student arrived, our entire family welcomed the student. The fruits I’d gone out of my way to prepare, the melon from Meinong, a special kind of local mango, dragon fruits, bananas, passion fruits, all those fruits that were rare or too expensive in Japan, I’d prepared. And, I’d also cooked the traditional items, bought fried chicken steaks, steamed meat buns, along with all the vegetables not available in Japan.
The moment the Japanese foreign exchange student came into the house, walked into the dining area, he’d let out a loud “Wow!”, he was very surprised, and that evening, we’d all dined, happily together.
And the school also planned many activities, everybody goes out to the sites to visit. A week later, on the day the Japanese student left, the parents of the host families all went to the airport to see them all off, we’d waved goodbye to the teacher and student from Japan, and we felt, that this event made our lives become more interesting.
Ever since, my eldest son worked hard to learn Japanese, and, in a short year, he could have no trouble, conversing in Japanese with someone. The very next year, he’d gone to Japan as a foreign exchange too, and had used Japanese entirely, to communicate, to set up connection for his school and the Japanese school too, and the interactions had been photographed and published on the local papers there. Ever since, his confidence level had gone up.
And because we’d given our child a chance, he’d held more expectations for himself too, and worked hard toward his dreams now. And now, his a third year student in the Japanese language department, the year he’d gone to a Japanese famous school as a foreign exchange had gained him a ton of precious experiences, and he’d met a ton of other students from numerous nations too, and has a different view of the world now, and he is more than certain, what he wants out of life too.
As parents, we’re very glad that back then, we’d given our son the supports, helping him find a bigger stage in life.
And so, the lesson was learned by the parents, and, through this foreign exchanging experience, both parties benefitted, and this, is something that parents should consider, but they don’t normally, because of how troubling it seems to be, and then, your child missed out on the chances to broaden her/his horizons…
Mirroring the World 