Our homestay staff continues their activities in hopes of “Peace in the world from grassroots international exchange” through foreign student homestay in Chigasaki.
The current activities are mainly focused on staying for 3 weeks to 1 month in July for French university students and 3 nights and 4 days at the end of November for Australian university students. (Activities since 2017)
Since we are a volunteer organization, there is no fund and no ability to compensate for losses due to student accidents. So that, we are funded by contributions from Inter Cultural Society for the Arts for the French university students and Mitsui Educational Foundation of Australia Mitsui for the Australian university students.
This year (2018) will be 20th anniversary for the homestay of French university students which began in 1999. The following activities have been performed for these foreign students.
The Japanese class is implemented by Sunday Japanese class group two days a week. Kimono dressing and tea ceremony, which are very popular among students, are implemented by Japanese culture group in Shoraian. These activities are done under co-hosting with the city government to set those places.
In addition, we are also exchanging with young people who will be responsible for the next generation, such as visiting Tsurumine High School, visiting Bunkyo University and visiting local junior high schools. Besides, there are the Kamakura Zazen experience and the Kite flying experience which is implemented in this year.It is a pleasure to hear the news that French students return to Japan for study and work again and have a nice exchange with their host families.
The Australian university student’s homestay continues for more than 30 years which started the before the establishment of IAC (International Association of Chigasaki). This is a popular short-term homestay program.
The most important and difficult thing in homestay activities is to find family members who will be host families. If you want to be a new host family, we recommend to host Australian university students for 3 nights & 4 days as starting good experience.
Homestay group leader:(S.I)
August, 2018
Homestay group members (9) and French university students (7) in 2018
