Kenji

Kenji is a 17 year old foreign exchange student from Japan attending 11th grade in a medium sized Midwest town. Kenji loves that his American host family’s home is much larger than the homes in Japan.  His host family lives outside the city on several acres of farmland, and have two cows and a donkey. This makes living with his host family even more interesting. 

Compared to his current American high school school, Kenji’s school in Japan provides more classes for students to study together. In addition, high school in Japan is three years and he finds that many of the Japanese instructors are unmotivating. Some things that makes American instructors more interesting is that they help him understand the lecture by pausing to ask if he has any questions.

When Kenji is not studying, he enjoys drawing cartoons. His keeps a special journal for his drawings. Since he enjoys anime such as Naruto Shippuden, he tends to draw characters that he would love to see on the show. His career is to become a professional animator. 

Kenji really enjoys learning English because he is able to make more friends and connect with others.  His official English language proficiency level is 2.1 (WIDA). In order to build his English vocabulary and proficiency, his teachers encourage him to converse more with others and increase his reading.