Keio Shonan Fujisawa Junior and Senior High School "Germany Study Tour"
Kanade Yoshizawa
Teacher, Keio Shonan Fujisawa Junior and Senior High School
From February 26 to March 4, 2025, a 5-night, 7-day Germany study tour was held in Berlin, the capital of Germany. This tour is the school's first overseas program centered on learning through a second foreign language.
In our school's foreign language education for second languages, students choose a language they wish to study from German, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, and continue studying that same language for two years. Originally, this was a class only for 6th-year students (12th grade), but starting from the 2020 academic year, classes began in the 5th year (11th grade). Following the opportunity to study second foreign languages more deeply, including the history and culture surrounding the languages, this overseas study tour centered on learning through a second foreign language was planned.
In this tour, after tracing the footsteps of history from the Kingdom of Prussia to the Nazi and Cold War eras, students participated in a two-night homestay. The program is designed to provide experiences that go beyond language training to deepen understanding of German history and culture. At every location visited, the tour allowed students to capture the breath of people who lived through both glamorous and dark, cold eras, and to encounter the lives of German people today as they move forward while inheriting both tradition and reflection.
Here are some excerpts from the voices of the participating students.
*Things I had previously learned as history on paper were actually right in front of me, and I was living with people who were directly involved. Furthermore, related museums and monuments everywhere asserted the existence of those facts. It was an experience that made me feel as if I had wandered into a dream, like Alice in Wonderland. But this dream is reality; I can touch it and engage with it. And reality brings an experience that stains one's memory more vividly than anything else.
*What I felt strongly while being with my host family was their strong awareness, as German citizens, of the actions Germany took during World War II. When I toured Berlin with my host family, we looked at "Stolpersteine" (stumbling stones)—10cm square plates engraved with the names, birth and death dates, and locations of death of Holocaust victims. These stumbling stones are embedded in the cobblestones in front of the last residence the victims chose of their own will, and I saw them in many places throughout the city. I was surprised that the subject used when explaining these plates was "we." Instead of explaining by separating themselves from the Germany of that time, they explained using "we" as a collective form, which I felt reflected Germany's way of facing the war after the Great War.
*My host family regularly hosts students from various countries; they were very curious about other nations, asked many questions about Japan, and taught me a lot about Germany. During these conversations about our countries, the host father said, "Germany might be world-famous for its car brands, but now we are falling terribly behind in the EV race and I'm worried." Hearing that, I thought the situation might be similar to that of Japanese automakers.
Since its opening in 1992, our school has placed English education at its core and implemented various overseas study programs, with one-quarter of the student body being returnees. About 30 years have passed since the school's opening, and the international society in which today's students live is one where problems are complexly intertwined amidst rapid development. As those who should become "future leaders" in that society, they are required to look at the world from a broad perspective and multiple angles, not limited to specific countries or regions. I am convinced that overseas study tours centered on learning through a second foreign language will provide opportunities to become aware of the social responsibilities they must fulfill. We plan to conduct these tours sequentially from the 2025 academic year onward, and we hope many students will participate.