Last year, our school had the absolute privilege of hosting Japanese students through the Kakehashi (架け橋; “building bridges”) program, a government-funded exchange program that aims to build connections by exposing Americans to the culture and history of Japan and vice versa. 

Last month, our cultural exchange continued when 128 Japanese students and 10 teachers from the private school Suma Gakuen in Kobe, Japan visited our Upper School campus in Red Hook. The visit started early on January 26th at 7:30 a.m., when our Japanese visitors joined BASIS Independent Brooklyn students for a traditional New York City bagels and cream cheese breakfast with fruit and cereal. Students enjoyed intermingling and getting settled. 

Junior Erica Z. took a leadership role in presenting about life in our school alongside Philip B. ‘26, Alexa G. ‘26, Kanika R. ‘26, James R. ‘25, and me. We tried to capture a day in the life of most students at our school as well as how our classes are conducted with a great deal of student participation and discussion with teachers unlike in most Japanese schools. We worked hard to make the visit as smooth and fun as possible. 

Our visiting Japanese students spent a great deal of time preparing their presentations. On top of some live demonstrations of some traditional games, they also performed two amazing dances, including one that involved live singing as well. These dances were so good, and their efforts in practice showed. BASIS Independent Brooklyn will step their game up next year. Maybe we need the high school rock band Harika to perform or we arrange for a group of students to dance.

Next, visiting students shadowed students in two classes before going back to the senior lounge to enjoy some socializing with pizza and soda.

Overall, this was an amazing experience, for students and teachers alike. I personally had so much fun being able to speak with the students in Japanese and learn more about them! 

A personal fun memory for me was when my group finished presenting to the Japanese students, we had a Q&A session, and I figured that they might not feel comfortable speaking in English. That is why I asked the group in Japanese if they had any questions or anything in general they wanted to say. It was funny to see their faces and hear gasps of absolute shock. 

After two wonderful visits, a new BASIS Independent Brooklyn tradition is definitely underway! In April, we plan to host 18 French students from Brittany, and we are definitely paving the way for more cultural exchanges in the future!