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How to communicate with foreign exchange students?

Taking in two Japanese exchange students, but they don't speak English? Advice on how to communicate?

  • They're both 14 year old girls and they have a lot of the same interests as I do (I'm 15). But they don't speak hardly any English so there's a bit of a language barrier. I'd really like to make them feel welcome. How can I do that when they don't speak much English and I don't speak any Japanese? Thank you!

  • Answer:

    For being exchange students, they probably expect to learn some English. So I think you should communicate with English. Please speak slowly and clearly. And Japanese has a trouble in hearing/speaking "R" and "L" differently. Using electric dictionary is good and there are many online dictionaries in net. And many Japanese girls are good at drawing, using a sketch book is fine, too. Thank you for your kindness to welcome them.

Jessie at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Learning some Japanese? This may sound silly but hand signals and drawings help. (how I communicate with people visiting when we did not speak a mutual language. "welcome" in Japanese is youkoso (yohh-koh-soh) EDIT: online translators like Google Translate are unreliable and inaccurate.

Get their numbers and communicate over text, that way you use can use google translate, for what they say and make a reply the same way.

Ahmed

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