Japanese Language: Shinwa Exchange Students

As the Japanese Hinamatsuri festival of dolls and celebration of girlhood is just around the corner, Mac.Rob is set to receive exchange students from our sister school — Shinwa Girls High School — in Japan. The Japanese Exchange Program is the longest-running language exchange program at Mac.Rob, and despite the unexpected disruption that the pandemic placed on this wonderful experience, it was a resounding success when it resumed last year. We hope to relive some old memories and form new ones through this year’s exchange. 

To welcome the Shinwa Exchange Students, students from the Senior Japanese Family set up Hina dolls — or, in Japanese, 雛人形 — in the front office on the 21st of February. Hinamatsuri is an annual Japanese Shinto festival held on the 3rd of March, or 03/03, and celebrates young girls and their relationship with their mothers. The celebration is most well-known for the red-cloth-covered, tiered 7-stair display that is elaborately set up by each Japanese household with a young daughter. On the topmost stair are always the expensive and beautifully designed dolls in the visage of the Emperor and Empress. Each successive stair has other members of the Japanese Royal Court — such as musicians, ladies of the court, ministers and bodyguards. 

This is a matrilineal festival, with the Hina dolls being passed on from mother to daughter. Though, in our case, the dolls were not handed down from mother to daughter, but sister to sister; Shinwa Girls High School kindly sent us a variety of beautiful dolls to display, and we were thrilled to be able to participate in such a sentimental and female-empowering Japanese tradition. 

As the bonds between us and our sister school grow ever closer, the Mac.Rob Japanese Family is excited to welcome the Shinwa Exchange Students into our vibrant broader Mac.Rob Community. 

Harshitha M (12A)