高校に高校生と話しに行った ・ I went to a high school to talk to some students

先週、高校のイベントに行くことを誘われたので、金曜日に兵庫県立大学の姫路キャンパスに近い高校に行った。その高校に行った一人だけの留学生じゃなかったけど、一人だけのアメリカ人だった。高校生たちは英語のスピーチコンテストがあったけど、僕たちは間に合わなかったので、スピーチを見られなかった。けど、昼ご飯後、高校生たちと話しに教室に、２人の高校生が迎えに来てくれた。

僕と握手してくれた坊主

高校生たちは準備した英語の表現で自己紹介した後、僕とほかの留学生も自己紹介した。緊張していた人は多かったけど、しょうがないな。アメリカ人の高校生も日本語で自己紹介したら、緊張すると思う。自己紹介した後、ちょっと質問されて、質問したけど、僕は大きいグループに質問する経験が少なくて、苦手だ。本当は、１対１話をしたかったけど、できなかった。「マイカさんはクラスに質問がある？」と聞かれたら、最近の研究に関して質問しか思いつけなかった。「ええっと、みんなの夢は何ですか？」と聞いたら、もちろん、ほとんどの学生は答えなかったので、個人に質問しないといけなかった。しかし、絶対に変だと思った。当時の雰囲気に合わない質問だったんだろう。

でも、高校生に会って、高校の教室に入るのは楽しかった。できれば、また行きたい。

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Last week, I was invited to go to a high school event, so on Friday I went to a high school near Hyogo University's Himeji campus. I wasn't the only foreign student that went, but I was the only American. The high school students had an English speech contest, but we didn't make it in time, so we didn't get to see it. However, after lunch, a couple of students came to get me and another foreign student and took us back to their classroom to talk.

After the students introduced themselves with prepared English introductions, I and the other foreign student introduced ourselves. Many of them were a bit nervous, but I guess that's to be expected. I think American students would be nervous, too, if they had to introduce themselves in Japanese. After the introductions, I and the other student were asked some questions, and then we asked some questions, too, but I don't have much experience asking large groups questions, so I'm not very good at it. The truth is that I wanted to have a little one-on-one time to talk, but I wasn't able to. When I was asked if I had any questions for the class, all I could think of were questions related to my recent research. If I had asked a question like, "What are your dreams for the future?", of course most of the students wouldn't have answered, so I would have had to ask them individually. But, I thought that would have been weird. It really wasn't the right time to ask that kind of question.

However, I had fun meeting them and visiting their classroom. If I have another opportunity, I'd like to go again.