Spotlight on Alumni
In the News - August 2007
Jesse Bias - Winner of the 2007 Japanese Language Speech Contest
Youth For Understanding USA would like to congratulate
our alumnus, Jesse Bias (Japan, 2006), who won the National Japanese
Language Speech Competition May 19th and will now be flown to Japan to
compete with other national winners.
Jesse began his trek by winning the Michigan 2007 Japanese Language Speech Contest and from there traveled to California to take on 15 other competitors in the National Contest held at UC Irvine. As the Grand Prize winner, Jesse received a $500 scholarship and a trip to the International High School Japanese Language Speech Contest which was held in Tokyo on July 23, 2007.
Jesse’s winning speech was based on his YFU experience which was sponsored by the Japan Business Society of Detroit. Over the next four years, Jesse will be attending Temple University's center in Japan, where he will spend his entire undergraduate experience studying East Asian Studies and International Business. He also hopes to volunteer with YFU Japan during his undergraduate years there.
Congratulations, Jesse, and good luck at the JSA!
"The Events of my Shining First Day Studying Abroad in Japan"
Greetings. My name is Jesse Bias. Last summer through a generous
scholarship from the Japanese Business Society of Detroit and Youth for
Understanding International Exchange I was able to study abroad for 8 weeks
in Fukuoka, Japan. My exchange in Japan was a very fresh new opportunity,
and I was able to experience many new things. Now I would like to take
moment and tell you about the events of my first day studying abroad in
Japan.
June 18th 2006 was quite possibly the greatest day of my life, why you might ask? It was the day I arrived in Japan. Since the 3rd grade I have dreamed of someday traveling to Japan, but I never imagined I would have the opportunity to live there for 3 months during high school as an exchange student. The house in which I spent my home stay was a Temple and my host father was a Buddhist Priest. When I first arrived in Japan my Host Family welcomed me warmly into their home, and treated me just as if I was a member of the family. Then they gave me a tour of the house. Afterwards, while my host mother began to prepare dinner my host grandmother and I went and sat by the kotatsu table. My host grandmother kept talking to me about various topics, but her talking was too fast and difficult to understand. I didn’t want to be rude so I nodded my head and did my best to pretend to understand.
At last my host mother finished preparing dinner. During dinner I was surprised to fins that unlike America, Japanese families always eat dinner as a family. During dinner my host family also taught me some of the local dialect, among other things. However, as we were all enjoying the conversation, something bad happened. A cockroach suddenly approached my chair. Until that moment I had never seen a cockroach, especially the size of the ones in Japan, so I immediately jumped up onto my chair in fright. My host mom hurried over with a fly swatter and killed the cockroach, and with that my eye-opening first day in Japan came to a close.
Japanese Language and Culture have made a major impact on my life, and through this exchange I was able to increase my knowledge of Japanese Language and Culture. Furthermore, because of this experience I intend to attend a Japanese University in the fall, and if possible work in Japan someday. I truly believe that if I hadn’t gotten this opportunity to study abroad in Japan, my life would not be the same. I would like to end my speech here. Thank you.
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Last Updated:
Monday, August 27, 2007 02:06 PM