In July this year, Steven Nuth applied for this study tour which was run and paid for by CAPEs (The Centers of Asia-Pacific Excellence), and was selected as one of 15 students. He attended the trip from the 16th - 20th Sept representing our school with great pride.

Last week (16/9-20/9), a group of Language students (5 Chinese Students, 5 Korean Students, and 5 Japanese Students) from around New Zealand embarked on a 5 day domestic North Asia Study Tour, starting in Dunedin, Wellington, and finally Auckland; where they learnt the history of Aotearoa in relation to North Asia, improved cross-cultural communication, and Global Citizenship Education through immersive language development programmes.

The tour started in Dunedin with students engaging in a full Chinese immersion lesson with no English at the University of Otago! The group then learnt about the history of Aotearoa in relation to the Chinese migration during the Gold Rush at Lan Yuan Garden and Dunedin's Toitū Settlers Museum. To end the day, we were able to try out Lion Dancing and let's just say we had a blast! It's such an adventure to learn another language from scratch with the help of English, but to learn another language without any English - it's a really fun adventure!

The group then flew up to Wellington the following evening, after spending a day and a half in Dunedin. We engaged in a Japanese immersion lesson at the University of Victoria, where we all learnt how to order in Japanese before heading over to a local Japanese izakaya (restaurant/bar). Using our Japanese skills, we all managed to order our food and pay for our drinks without any hiccups - Thank you Ms. Sawada for preparing me! 

A Japanese tea ceremony was planned for after lunch (but thanks to Air New Zealand), we had to cut the day short and rush over to the airport for our flight up to the City of Sails - Auckland!

Auckland was an adventure in itself! We started the day off with a fun Korean immersion lesson at the Korean Educational Centre, where we were able to master the Korean alphabet in a span of one Ako and had a go at Korean Calligraphy! This was followed by a trip across the Harbour Bridge to have a K-pop Dance Workshop with Rina Chae. The hour with her flew by fast and we were then off to tour a 'Secret' Samsung Showroom. It was like putting a kid in a candy shop - we were intrigued by everything tech!

Finally, we ended the tour with our language groups' presentations and a special meeting with the Director of the North Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence. It was a heartfelt day with many promises made to have a reunion in 2023.

I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to apply for this pilot programme and make a mark on the development of the tour. 

I can't thank enough Dean, Sarah, Elizabeth, Lanxin, Hema and my fellow CAPErs' for making this trip possible - I have been able to develop my understanding as a global citizen and the history of North Asia to Aotearoa, and now more confident in speaking Japanese in public!

Steven Nuth (Year 12 Student)