By Jazmin Angel-Guzman

Today, February 29, 2020, while I was walking towards the classroom, I noticed something blue. A blue that speaks to the soul and attracts the eye. My favorite color is blue, and whenever I see blue I’m always intrigued by that something. Then I found out that he was Ryoma Tatsuoka. Apart from having amazing blue hair, Ryoma san is an exchange student who participated with the YFU exchange program. He is from Osaka, Japan and he’s seventeen years old. He now stays with a host family and attends School Without Walls, a high school located in Washington, D.C. Today, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to meet Ryoma san. He’s funny and always helpful when you ask for help. He was always helping me with my Japanese when I made a mistake, or he would jump in to come out and help me. During our conversations in our small groups, he was the facilitator.

When I look at him, it’s still strange to me that I am older than him! I find it’s a great opportunity to be able to speak with a Japanese native speaker who’s around my age. I’m applying the Japanese I have learned thus far and putting it to practice. That is one of the things I love about learning languages. Learning languages is the key that enables you to speak, interact, and network with other people. You can learn so many things with just one sentence. For example, that one sentence can be a sentence of introduction about yourself. In my junior year of high school, I learned something really important about languages. Languages aren’t only about communicating with words, it’s about communicating and expressing your ideas to other people, in addition to sharing those ideas. Therefore, I’m glad I met Ryoma san today.