SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : For Japanese Intern, a Whole New World

Accustomed to the quiet and strictly disciplined students of her native Japan, teaching intern Miwako Nishiyama went into culture shock when she arrived recently at Harold Ambuehl Elementary School and was exposed to its typical American students.

“The kids are so frank and friendly,” she said. “When I ask a question, the children all raise their hands to answer, even if they don’t know the answer. In Japan, students hesitate to answer even if they have the knowledge because they are afraid to make mistakes.”

Nishiyama, a 25-year-old trading company clerk and prospective English teacher in her native Tokyo, arrived at Ambuehl in October for a six-month stay. Her internship is sponsored by the Japanese School Internship Program, a nonprofit group that places 200 Japanese annually as unpaid interns in American and Canadian schools.

Nishiyama helps Ambuehl’s teachers with their regular lessons, gives presentations on such staples of the Japanese culture as the paper-folding art of origami and teaches Japanese to a group of gifted students.

Principal Kathy George, in whose home Nishiyama is living, said she volunteered her school for the program because students need to learn about other cultures.

“With the growing influence of the Pacific Rim, exposure to the Japanese is invaluable,” she said. “And the enthusiasm of the children has been wonderful. Adults fear trying to learn a new language, but for the children it has been pure enjoyment.”

This week, Nishiyama worked with a group of six gifted students, teaching them how to ask for items they would find in a department store.

And while words such as zubon (pants) and hon (book) were unfamiliar, the students were surprised to learn that the Japanese have borrowed English words such as nekutai (necktie), hankachi (handkerchief) and kamera for items not native to their culture.

Students in a sixth-grade class said they were shocked when Nishiyama told them of life in a Japanese school.

“She told us that if a student talks or gets out of his seat, that is considered an embarrassment to his family,” Shawna Draper said. “That’s really different.”

Outside of school, Nishiyama said she is enjoying American life, although she misses Japanese food and Tokyo’s transit system. One twist, she said, was discovering microwaves, dishwashers and other Japanese-made kitchen gadgets that one never sees in Japanese homes.

Another is the American preoccupation with holidays.

“For Halloween and Thanksgiving, everyone was so excited,” she said. “And now it is ‘Christmas, Christmas, Christmas.’ But all of this is very nice.”