Japanese Students Entertain Seniors

Forty-four foreign voices sang in unison, but without the harmony familiar to their American hosts.

The sound reverberated in the tile-floored cafeteria with an eerie, penetrating quality far different from the traditional western songs the audience at the Royale Mid-Valley Retirement Center is used to hearing.

The Japanese standard was “Mother,” an ode to the nurturing cycle of family life, a universal theme in any language. The singers were Japanese students studying English at Soka University of America in Calabasas.

Their visit Thursday to the retirement home was intended to educate the students and 100 senior citizens about each other’s culture. In addition to performing songs and dances, the students paired off with seniors, toured the facility and practiced their English.

“I’m surprised to see people enjoying themselves,” said Haruko Masukawa, 18, as she shared lunch with Royale resident Henry Justus, 88. “In Japan, people this age go only to hospitals.”

Cyril Hirsch, 89, relished the chance to show visitors her home.

“I told them they need to speak [English] when they get home too. That’s the only way to keep it up,” Hirsch said. “The main thing is that people are people. We’ve seen that today.”

After lunching on tuna sandwiches and cake, the students began the entertainment portion of the day. True to the two-way spirit of the event, the program was not limited only to Japanese songs. A nurse at the home decided to teach students the popular American dance still little known in Japan: the Macarena.

Speakers pulsed, and the students flashed self-conscious smiles. But they quickly mastered the right-left-right-left pattern of the dance. Their audience of seniors, many of them also new to the fad, clapped in time.