NEWCASTLE and its Japanese sister city Ube have not allowed COVID-19 to completely quash its annual student exchange program, instead connecting its teenagers over Zoom.
Newcastle High Japanese teacher Jodie Vandermeer said Department of Education language teacher network leader Coreena Allen coordinated the two hour Zoom meeting, which brought together 17 Newcastle students currently in lockdown, 10 Ube students and some older Ube residents who volunteer their time to promote the friendship between the two cities.
"Normally every year Japanese kids come to Newcastle and we host them in our three schools [Newcastle High, Merewether High and Kotara High. Callaghan College has joined the group this year]," Ms Vandermeer said.
"They would normally stay with our kids in our school communities and be hosted for a week. These kids are devastated that they can't get their trip to Australia.
"So the idea was instead of them physically coming we'll have a link up. We've been working on it for a while.
"We came together and the kids had the best time, we were all so rapt, all of the teachers who were involved, it was great.
"The kids were nervous but it all came off really well."
Ms Vandermeer said the students - who ranged from year nine to year 12 - introduced themselves in the language they are learning and then went into breakout rooms, where they discussed the similarities and differences between their countries spanning from food to pets; played trivia game Kahoot! about their two countries; and discussed what they would have liked to have done if they had come to Australia.
"That was really nice, they said 'Oh I'd like to see a koala bear' and our kids talked about 'You can go to Blackbutt and you can go to Merewether Beach and see the beach' and that was really nice and probably very real for their kids, because they literally would have been coming otherwise."
She said Newcastle High families hosted the Japanese students in 2019 and Indigenous elders taught them about boomerang throwing, traditional dance and how to play the didgeridoo.
They also made Anzac biscuits and went to Blackbutt Reserve.
Ms Vandermeer said the participating Newcastle schools held a speech contest each year and four winners received an all-expenses paid trip to Ube.
She said the Zoom meeting was the first opportunity for the Newcastle students to use their language skills with native speakers their own age, as well as meet other Hunter region students who speak Japanese.
"They're probably going to do it again, I get the impression, because they were all so delighted."
Across NSW, there were 1517 enrolments across the five different Japanese courses in the 2020 HSC.
