Lockeport welcomes exchange students

By Amy Woolvett

THE COAST GUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

It isn’t easy coming from a population that ranges in the millions to one that hits closer to the hundreds. Add a language and cultural barrier and it can be a very difficult situation.

Yet, despite these challenges Teru Oshiro an exchange student at Lockeport is now on his third year returning to the seacoast town.

He is from Kanagawa, Japan and came to Nova Scotia for the first time three years ago, determined to learn English.

His English is fluent now and as he enters his first days of his last year at high school he dreams of staying on to attend university and to one day become a pilot. “My English wasn’t great when I first came here,” said Oshiro with a laugh. “When someone came up to me and asked my name all I could say was hi.”

He is so determined to speak only English that he has put off calling his parents until he knows his grip on the language is strong enough to handle flipping from one language to another.

When asked how his parents felt about him going across the world to study Oshiro said that he just told them this was what he wanted. “And then I quite high school at home so there was no choice,” said Oshiro.

Rogerio Fernandes has also just started grade 12 at Lockeport Regional High School but this is his first year as an exchange student.

He is from a large city in Brazil called Belo Horizonde. “It is very different here from my city,” said Fernandes. “It is small but I like it.

Fernandes English is broken and each word is thought about before speaking but he hopes by the end of the year it will improve. “I would like to learn another culture,” he said in response to why he chose Nova Scotia as a place to come to.

He is still unsure on whether he will stay for university or return to Brazil by the end of the year but in the meantime will learn as much as possible to further both his cultural and traditional education.