Speech by Principal
Okitake Nakayama
At the recent NAHA reception  Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is Okitake Nakayama and I am the Principal of Naha Senior High School. I'd like to say a few words on behalf of Naha Senior High School. Thank you very much for coming to the reception today. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to you for taking our 10 students into your hearts and homes. Thank you for everything that you have done for us while we have been in Seattle. To the host families who have taken very good care of our students,thank you. To the teachers and students at Nathan Hale who have been kind and friendly to our students, thank you. To the families and chaperons that have participated in past exchanges and who have been most helpful, thank you. Through this exchange program, Naha students have learned much about American customs and American culture. They have had the opportunity to reflect on their own culture and they have also learned more about their fellow travelers. As you know, this exchange program between Nathan Hale High School and Naha High School was established so that high school students could experience and share with each other, their daily home and school lives. This program was started in 1975 with the purpose of building understanding between our two cultures and to cultivate internationalization. This year's exchange will be our 30th annual exchange. To date, about 300 of our students have visited Nathan Hale High School. This program offers us the opportunity to speak with the students of your school and discuss the differences in our cultures. We are lucky to have had the opportunity to further deepen our friendships and our goodwill. We are very pleased to be part of such a long existing program. We would like to continue to expand this historic program with your help and collaboration. We hope that through the experiences of this program, the students will build a strong foundation of study and understanding, and that they will become great leaders of the 21st century with global vision. Finally, I would again like to thank all the people who are involved with this program, for making this precious and wonderful program possible. I truly hope that we can expand this program even more. Thank you very much for your kind consideration. March 16, 2005 Principal of Naha Senior High School Okitake Nakayama . |
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