See how LEX Homestays offer immersive cultural & language learning through real-world experiences.
Our thanks to Barry for his article about the effect that LEX exchange programs had on his son, Mark. Experience has shown us that there is no better way to get to know a culture and language than to become part of a local family! See our website for more information about our current exchange programs, including international internships.
When Mark was 13 years old he came to me and said that he was tired of years of going to summer camp. He wanted to do something different in the summer. He wanted to be an exchange student, and he wanted to go to Japan as he’d done a unit in school on Japan and he knew the culture was very different.
I researched and discovered LEX America.
When Mark was 13 years old he came to me and said that he was tired of years of going to summer camp. He wanted to do something different in the summer. He wanted to be an exchange student, and he wanted to go to Japan as he’d done a unit in school on Japan and he knew the culture was very different.
I researched and discovered LEX America.
A few months later Mark, who had just turned 14, left for a family in Japan. Some people said “How can you send your 14 year old child 9,000 miles away?” I’d tell them, “You don’t understand. He’s safer there than going to camp in Maine. Japanese parents dote on their children more than do Americans and there’s almost no crime there. You can see six year old schoolgirls alone on the giant subway systems in school uniforms and backpacks, on their way to school—no one is going to bother them.”
After college Mark went to Japan for 2 years to be an Eigo no Sensei—a high school English teacher—under the Japanese government sponsored “JET program”. Then he backpacked around the world for 16 months. Since then he has travelled to many exciting destinations. He is totally fluent in Spanish and conversationally fluent in Japanese.
Mark enjoyed Japan so much that he wanted to return the following summer. He did, to a different area of Japan and to a different family. Back in the States, he said that he had visited a Japanese school and that there was an American teaching there and that he wanted to do that after college.
After college Mark went to Japan for 2 years to be an Eigo no Sensei—a high school English teacher—under the Japanese government sponsored “JET program”. Then he backpacked around the world for 16 months. Since then he has travelled to many exciting destinations. He is totally fluent in Spanish and conversationally fluent in Japanese.
Mark enjoyed Japan so much that he wanted to return the following summer. He did, to a different area of Japan and to a different family. Back in the States, he said that he had visited a Japanese school and that there was an American teaching there and that he wanted to do that after college.
Mark had developed a taste for international travel and experiences. The following summer he studied Spanish in Spain and the summer after that, the summer before college, he held a volunteer job and lived with a family in Costa Rica.
Mark is now 35 and is happily married, living in California with his wife and child. He’s an administrator at a medical college. He has a successful life, is an accomplished world traveler, and is a well-rounded person.
I credit LEX America for starting all this. Mark’s experience with LEX homestays in Japan set him on a path of cultural discovery that has enriched his life and the lives of those around him.
Mark is now 35 and is happily married, living in California with his wife and child. He’s an administrator at a medical college. He has a successful life, is an accomplished world traveler, and is a well-rounded person.
I credit LEX America for starting all this. Mark’s experience with LEX homestays in Japan set him on a path of cultural discovery that has enriched his life and the lives of those around him.
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