What I have learned in this program …

Clemens Heng-Kee Wan
Baldwin Senior High School
Long Island, New York

I think one of the most valuable parts of this trip to Japan was more of the idea that all of us (teenagers) had a big responsibility as ambassadors to a new country. I sometimes find it hard to match my clothes… I think jumping from that into being an example of a model American seems very stretchy. However, I think all of us made positive examples of responsible teenagers to the Japanese schools and families. I’m sure all of us are still speaking to the new friends we made in Japan and all of their classmates are still happy to see an email or two from us.
The other thought that I had in my mind was the fact that I was traveling into another country without the help or concern of my parents. This is indeed a big burden on my parent’s nerve (hehe) but I think I’ve learned more from this adventure than any other trip to a museum or park. It’s the entire mentality of being with new faces and learning a new culture. Its only after the entire trip is over that I realize how important we were to helping teenagers like ourselves in another culture to find misconceptions about Americans and also find similar interests.
In addition the program’s intention of our acquisition of knowledge of the problems that Japan and America suffers becomes a further development of understanding between both environments. Homelessness, diseases, family issues, and aging society are international problems and an introduction to the information of both American and Japan grow an interest to find further problems around the world... a hope to make a better life for everyone.

As I write this I’m just looking over all the pictures I took with my new friends and the beautiful scenery... actually the greatest time of my life and I only remember bits and piece. However as I see all these pictures, a rush of memories flow back to me. The wonderful times at school where we were some strange Americans walking without our shoes around school… listening to some lectures in Japanese and cleaning the classrooms! Our welcome was with such joy and excitement that I was in awe of how amazed they were at the way we spoke and the way we…. I guess… lived.
What also came to mind was our community service, helping the Japan Food Bank to distribute food to homeless people. It was a depressing scene indeed of homeless people waiting for the distribution of free food along the Sumida River, but a greater learning experience to be handing out food to the homeless than reading about it in textbooks.
The entire program opened my mind to new cultures, new things. It wasn’t just the things we did, but it was more the idea that we did it and that we were all part of this program to experience a new lifestyle and learn hands on about human-to-human interactions and culture clashes and to gain an understanding of world problems and our proposed solutions -- the better and the worse of both worlds. It’s interesting how many Japanese and American people may think so differently but we are all in fact the same. We’re all human with the same problems and our combined ideas may solve them.