By Jenel Hunt
Stanthorpe holds a particular fascination for students in Shiwa, Japan.
Shiwa, in the Iwate Prefecture about 500km north of Tokyo, is Stanthorpe’s sister city and while the regions are similar in that they are both apple and wine grape-growing areas, there are certain things about Stanthorpe that Shiwa students find especially different.
One is the school curriculum. In Japan, there is a heavy emphasis on academic subjects and the 10 students and three teachers who visited Stanthorpe recently were captivated by some of the subjects which were available at Stanthorpe State High School. A bit of surreptitious animal petting seemed to be one of the favourite activities, as Japanese schools don’t have an agricultural or vet component.
In turn, Stanthorpe students couldn’t get over the fact that the pupils who walked to school wore bells on their schoolbags to let the bears know they were coming!
Stanthorpe State High School Head of Department English and Languages Lucien Giles-Duffy said the Japanese staff who had accompanied the students had commented on the fantastic range of subject offerings.
Throughout the week the overseas students tried their hand at English lessons, baking, word work, art and agriculture.
The sister city relationship is the best part of 20 years old. The wheels were put in motion in 2003 when the then Stanthorpe Shire Council gave its in-principle support to a sister-city relationship with Shiwa and by 2005 Shiwa and Stanthorpe were sister cities. Or towns, really.
Mr Giles-Duffy said the school visits had always been one-way, with the Japanese visiting Stanthorpe regularly until COVID-19 stopped travel plans for a couple of years.
“There have been formal visits from Stanthorpe to Shiwa – mayors or councillors, for example – but our school has never had the chance for a reciprocal visit,” he said.
But now, with the Stanthorpe curriculum including Japanese, he can see the day coming when Stanthorpe students will at last have the opportunity to visit their sister city.
“We’d never had a Japanese program until a couple of years ago,” he said.
“But when it became harder to find a native Italian speaker who was a qualified teacher we stopped doing Italian immersion although we were still teaching Italian as a subject.
“It became obvious that we could start teaching Japanese. I had studied Japanese in high school then university and taught at Warwick for 10 years before coming to Stanthorpe six years ago. Then we had a teacher who transferred here and had Japanese teaching ability. It became evident that with two teachers available, we could introduce the language.
“These things take time, though. For a trip to Japan to be really helpful to the students they have to have been studying Japanese for a few years.
“In 2019 there was quite a lot of consultation about having more of an exchange program rather than it always being them visiting us.
“At that point we said we could put it into a five-year plan. I think once we get students to take Japanese into Year 10, 11 and 12 it becomes more beneficial for those students to go. So we are moving to that point.“
Mr Giles-Duffy said some Stanthorpe families had hosted multiple children from the same Japanese family over the years.
“Many of them keep in contact by email or Instagram,” he said.
He said that with only 10 spots available for students, they felt very lucky to get the chance to visit. The trip was heavily subsidised by their council, and students had to go through an application and interview process to win their place.
It was a flying visit. The Japanese contingent went to the Gold Coast briefly on the way to Stanthorpe and visited Sydney where they stayed at accommodation within walking distance to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge before boarding their plane for home.
