Bruce and Cindy Steimle, parents of Alex Steimle, talk about their son’s experience studying Japanese


We have two sons who both studied Japanese at The Woodlands High School in The Woodlands, Texas. As strong proponents of learning a foreign language, we noticed that studying Japanese expanded the cultural awareness of our children. Their worldview became less USA-centric as they learned not only the Japanese language, but also about the Japanese people and their religion, history, literature, art, music and other forms of cultural expression. They also quickly realized that learning a foreign language, especially one with three different alphabets, is hard work and that to become proficient requires dedication and regular practice.

One of the most enjoyable experiences we had was when we hosted Japanese students as part of the cultural exchange program at The Woodlands. While we were able to vicariously enjoy the experiences our children had in the classroom, having a Japanese student in our home for a week or 10 days enabled us to experience Japanese culture "up close and personal" in a unique way. We were able to expose the Japanese kids to some authentic Texan experiences (like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo) while we learned about how they dressed, what they ate, how their families functioned, what their schools were like, and many other aspects of their lifestyle. I think one of the benefits of studying Japanese is that it exposes students to a completely different culture, compared with studying one of the European languages, which has much more that is familiar (from a cultural standpoint) to English-speaking Americans.

We would counsel any parent to encourage their child to study a foreign language, with Japanese being an excellent choice in terms of expanding one's cultural awareness. Parents should realize that learning a foreign language takes an applied effort and almost daily practice, so it's important to be supportive and involved in their child's learning activities. We certainly would recommend participation in a foreign exchange program, as visiting the country whose language he/she is learning can be an incredible experience for your child and is the best way to make the language "real" through interaction with native speakers. Our sons still remember their trips to Japan as part of the exchange program, and photos and artifacts from their journeys are still on display in our home.

(February 2010)