３月２３日に終業式がありました。
本校ALTのRyan先生が韓国へ行ったときの話をされました。
是非，翻訳を試みてください。

　　　Home ｓｔａｙ先の家族と一緒に撮った写真

Good morning!

Congratulations on finishing your 1^st or 2^nd year at Toyooka High School.  Next year is going to be a little bit more difficult for all of you and I wish you the best of luck.

I know some of you probably often wonder, why are we learning English?  Well, a couple of weeks ago, I finally completely understood the importance of learning languages and I want to share with you my experience.

As many of you know, I recently traveled to Korea. 
While I was in Korea, I was shocked.  So many people spoke perfect English!  What is more, so many people spoke perfect Japanese!  You know what’s even more amazing?  A lot of people spoke both!!  I was very surprised. 

When I was in Seou, I did a homestay.  A homestay is where you pay a small amount of money and sleep in the apartment or house of a family.  The family I was lucky enough stay with was extremely kind, generous, and very friendly.  They were both retired and invite many people from all over the world into their home as a unique way to learn about the world.  Their English, however, was not very strong.  In fact, except for a few words here and there, they couldn’t speak much at all.  This worried me at first, but, I then realized ? they spoke beautiful Japanese! 

We spent the next 3 days speaking Japanese to each other, even though my Japanese is limited.  Imagine a Canadian and 2 Koreans using Japanese as a common language ? amazing!

Before this trip, I had become worried that maybe studying Japanese was silly.  It was only a language I could use in Japan.  But after this trip, I recognized that learning a language has many more benefits than I could have possibly imagined.  As such, I fully believe that your study of English is even more important.  Many more people around the world speak English than Japanese, so learning more and more English can only be a wonderful thing for your future.  Good luck!