International Term 3, 2014

Tauranga Boys’ College International
Term 3, 2014
My Homestay Experience - by Pond Mareongsit
Hi my name is Nuttawat Mareongsit (Pond). I live in
Welcome Bay, with my homestay parents Ian and
Deborah and their son Mason. They have a big
Ponds NZ family,
house, I like the kitchen because you can see such a
Carl Meyer (Germany), Mason, Deborah & Pond
nice view outside and I have a really good room. I
am so lucky.
We often do activities together as a family. My
homestay father has a holiday home in Taupo so we
visit the area during holidays. One of the most
exciting activities I did with them was while on
holiday in Rotorua. On a cold winter day our family
went white water rafting. We got up early and got into
our sports gear and then we drove to the Kaituna
River. I was feeling very excited about trying white
water rafting until I saw the photographs of a
upturned raft at the reception. At this point I was
starting to get a bit concerned.
After the safety training we got into the rubber boat
and went down the river. I thought, wow this is easy!!
But then I heard the screams of people and the
roaring sound of water crashing ahead. Scared, I thought
I have got to do this. As I was thinking this we reached the top of the waterfall, and woahhhhh… dropped 8 meters. Our raft
tipped up and I went straight to the bottom. Much, much later I thought how amazing that experience was, and that I was able
to share the experience with my host family.
I want to say a big thanks to Ian, Deb and Mason for giving me so many great experiences. I am indebted for their kindness.
(Pond is from Thailand and will be leaving us at the end of the year to go to University)
Welcome to our new students
pictured with Mr Mangan &
Mrs Roff
!
Franziscus Brux (Germany)
Manuel Frada-Zander (Germany)
Felix Koch (Germany)
Jannis Konietzky (Germany)
Carl Meyer (Germany)
Eneko Molero (Spain)
Maximilian Muehlhause (Germany)
Jannis Mueller (Germany)
Christopher Pieper (Germany)
Paul Schreiner (Germany)
Niklas Schuler (Germany)
Philipp Spindler (Austria)
Manuel Stritzel (Germany)
!
Ski Trip - 18th to 20 August
Our Annual Ski Trip
was a great success
with amazing
conditions on the
first day.
A wonderful
opportunity for the
boys to experience
skiing in New
Zealand. as well as a
trip to the Hot Pools
in Turangi!
Eason Huang &
Franziscus Brux
Manuel Stritzel
Keita, Yoshito & Keiichi
The following is a excerpt from Masaya’s essay on his life in Japan
‘My name is Masaya Hatakeyama I’m from Japan. I was born in Tokyo on 6th March 1998. There are five people in my
family. My family are my parents my two grandparents and
me. I don’t have any siblings. To be honest I wanted to have
some siblings. I do have two cousins, they are both girls and
are like sisters to me. One of my cousins goes to University as
a university student. My other cousin has work in a vegetable
store. By the way my mother and my grandparents run a
blowfish restaurant. They are self employed. They are always
working, except for the summer season. They have their
holidays for two months in the summer, because summer is a
slow month for this business. They can go on trips for a long
time every summer. My school holidays are at the same time,
Masaya on our
so I can go with them. Last year, we went to Korea for one
recent Ski Trip
week. But they are so busy working in the winter season.
Therefore my cousins help them at work if they have a day
off or holiday. Sometimes, I help them as well. They usually
get home around 10pm, so normally I stay home alone in winter. But thanks to their business, I can study abroad. I
reality appreciate it. I am going to do something for my family in return for their kindness when I become a grown-up. I live close to Japan’s tower. It’s name is Tokyo Skytree. Some people call it the second Tokyo Tower because there is
already a similar tower. Tokyo Skytree was opened on 22 May 2012 and is the tallest tower in Japan. Tokyo Skytree is the
highest independent transmitter tower in the world. It’s height is 634 metros. The tower was built about three years ago
by the Government. It is famous and known by many people. Some foreigners visit to look at it and go to the restaurant
where they can eat good food. So my town is very bustling because of the tower. My town is getting easier to get
around.’ too. Buses and trains usually come to stations every five minutes. There are some stations near my house. So if I
want to go out somewhere, I can go easily. There is one more surprise event for Tokyo. It is the Olympics. The Olympics
are going to be held in Tokyo in the year 2020. I’m very happy and I think that everyone is very glad about the Olympics
being in Tokyo. I am looking forward to it.’
International Assembly We celebrated an International Students Assembly recently and speeches were presented by some of our
International Students
!
“It has been an honour for us International Students to come up here today and talk
about our home countries. Being an international student can be fun but also
challenging, coming in to a country where you know absolutely no one, and where
everyone is begin you to drop the “F-bomb’, just so they can laugh at your accent.
But on a more serious note, it is sometimes challenging being an international
student. Leaving you home behind to come to a country that you have never heard
of and having to speak and learn a language that you can’t understand is a big step
for most of the boys. But the International Department and the home-stays try their
very best to make us feel like its our second home. When it comes to making friends
many of the international students managed to find their pairs, when we go camping
and day trips as an International Department. Now we are good friends and see
ourselves as one big international family. However, many seem to struggle when
they re making a kiwi friend. This is very disappointing as one of our main reasons
coming to another country is to expand our friends globally s well as studying.
So I’m going to put a challenge for you boys to go and start engaging the
international boys. Ask them how their day is going, go out and play a sport on the
field - become friends with them. Because I’m sure that the international boys want
the same.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the teachers and the home-stays because the support
and the encouragement help us achieve and overcome some of the challenges of
learning a new language.
Thank you”
!
Soo-Chang Oh (International Head Boy)
ESOL Corner - by Mr Ingoe
It has been another busy term for the ESOL
department with in addition to our long-term
students three short-term groups joined the
ESOL department for lessons. One group from
Tauranga’s sister city Hitachi, Japan studied with
us for six weeks. Another group from our sister
school in Kaoshiung, Taiwan joined us for two
weeks and a small goodwill group from Japan
took part in ESOL lessons for five weeks. In
amongst the fun activities organized by Mrs
Adams and Mrs Mason including lazer tag, a tour
of Mauao, and Hobbiton. Mrs Natasha Peddle
and Mr Barry Parkinson from the Food Tech
Labo students at Marshall
department organized some eel fishing.
Mr
Animal Farm Park
Parkinson generously giving the boys a rare
opportunity to see how eels are prepared for
smoking from start to finish…not for the
squeamish!! They were even lucky enough to try the eel, which by all accounts was delicious!!
!
The boys from our English for Academic Purposes class have continued to work towards earning those hard
won NCEA credits. The term has culminated in a ten-minute power point presentation from each of the boys.
They should be proud of their hard work and impressive presentations. Maybe a few future CEOs in the
making?
!
The Curriculum Support class continues to grow as the students take advantage of the fine tutoring Mrs
Rabone offers in science and mathematics. The ESOL department is very lucky to have such a well-liked and
knowledgeable tutor.
!
!
We hope everyone has a good break and look forward to seeing all the boys in term 4.
My Greatest Adventure at TBC
We went skiing a month ago. I was
really excited to go there, although I
was so bad at skiing. We went to Mt
Ruapehu and it had a lot of snow. I
felt a little strange because it’s a
really hot summer in Japan now.
After an annoyingly long period
getting our gear, finally we started
skiing. With some ski lessons, I got
much better than before.
We stayed at the lodge and we
enjoyed communicating to each other
We were all awake after midnight in
spite of being cautioned by the
Genta at Marshall’s
teachers, so we were really tired the
Animal Farm Park
next day. But it was one of my fond
memories of the ski trip.
We enjoyed skiing for three days and
also went to a hot pool. In the bus back
to TBC, we sang songs of each nationality. I sang a Japanese song with my friend horribly. But it was a
funny experience.
The international skiing trip gave me awesome memories, which I will never forget. I’m really grateful
to Mrs Roff and Mrs Adams and thank everyone who provided me with such a fun opportunity.
by Genta Fuwa
HOMESTAY CORNER
As we near the end of another busy term I would like to say thank you to all of our wonderful homestay families for all your
support. The quality time you spend with our students, making them part of your family, showing them around our region and in
some cases around our country, is just as important as the time
they spend at school.
It is with sadness that we say goodbye to Masaya from Japan who will be leaving us at the end
of this term. Masaya has been a real pleasure to have at our school and I know his homestay
and the International Department will really miss him. We wish him well for his future and we
hope he will stay in touch.
This has been a busy term with three short stay groups, two from Japan and one from Taiwan
thank you to those of you who helped out with hosting these boys. We also hosted a term dinner
with Tauranga Girls’
College at China Town which the boys thoroughly enjoyed and we had our international ski camp with the boys who went having
a great time.
Unfortunately we have not managed to have an official homestay get together but some of you did attend a visit to Hobbiton and
Laser Tag that was kindly organised by Deborah Lee and Ian Jamison. You also had an opportunity to go to paint ball kindly
organised by Deborah and Darren Thompson. It is great that some of you are starting to work together with some of these
events as it helps strengthen our homestay network and provide great opportunities for our boys to participate in wide range of
activities.
If anyone has any ideas for things they would like to do next term and has a little time to help me co-ordinate them please give
me a call. Some suggestions I have had so far are Waimarino Glo Worm Kayaking and
Adrenalin Forest.
!
Housekeeping
A reminder that if you student is traveling out of the area overnight, a ‘Permission to Leave Tauranga' form must be filled out
before any bookings are made. This includes bookings with tour companies as some companies are not approved for use.
!
If you are traveling for the day with your student out of town and will be returning home that night a simple text is enough.
If your student is staying overnight with a friend, once you have contacted the other host family and
confirmed that this is okay, you must then text me with the details of where they are going and
remember approved homes only!!
All students should be at their normal homestay on week night even in exam time unless their
homestay is out of town for some reason.
This term we have had a lot of problems with boys coming to school wearing non uniform socks and
shoes, can you please help us by reinforcing with your students that the school uniform must be worn
correctly at all times.
!
We will be starting placements for next years students very soon so if you want to have another student next year please email
me and let me know.
My hours: I’m available in the office from 9:30am until 1:30pm Monday-Friday but if you need me for an emergency I can be
contacted on my mobile anytime. My mobile number is 021 946 374 please try to keep these calls to urgent matters only
as with 40+ boys you can imagine that if everyone calls me for minor things I get very little private time with my family.
Thank you for your understanding with this.
Please note the school office will be shut over the school holidays and I will be only available on my mobile or by email:
Visiting Delegation from China
At the beginning of the term we
had a delegation from China
visit Tauranga. Pictured with
Mrs Roff, Peter Zhu, Lee Zhou,
Steven Luk and Echo Gao from
Austar.
Out and About
Here is a
‘snapshot’ of our
students out and
about in the Bay of
Plenty and
surrounds.
Nucha & Masaya with
Host Dad, Dale Pearce
at Hamilton Gardens
Lino Zimmerman
& Robert Juhnke
trip to Hobbiton
Manuel Frada-Zander,
went fishing with his host family
Paul
Schreiner
First icecream at
the Mt!
Dinner with Girl’s College at China Town
On the 10 September, we hosted out dinner with Girl’s
College International Department.
Pictured above are Stephan Jo & Minjun Gu.
On the left Nucha Songhmuang & Pond Mareongsit
DATES for your DIARY
First day of Term 4 - Monday 12 October
Girls’ & Boys’ College Function - Tuesday 21st October (details to come)
International Leavers Function - Tuesday 4 November (details to come)
School Senior Prizegiving - Thursday 6 November
Senior NCEA Exams start - Mon 10 November to Wed 3 December
Alternative Programme (for non NCEA senior students) - Monday 10 to
Friday 21 November (details to come)
Junior Exams - Thursday 27 & Friday 28 November
Last day of school for Juniors - Monday 15 December
Student Achievements
News Flash!!
Congratulations to Keita
Yamamoto who was
picked for the Western
Bay of Plenty Under 15s
Rep Rugby Team. Way to
go Keita!!
Congratulations to Jannis Konietzky,
awarded ‘Players, Player of the Year’
for his team in the recent Football
Awards.
International Rugby by Anton Kradisch
International Rugby takes part once a week. Every Tuesday during the 5th Period, most of
the international boys meet on the rugby field, to have a practice with each other. It’s an
amazing opportunity to experience Rugby, without growing up with the sport.
Our teacher for the period is Mr Spice. He is the 1st XV coach of TBC, so we have the best
coach from the school. After we learned how to tackle and pass, we went on to play real
games of Rugby. That is the best part, because we are getting better from time to time.
We also learn about fair play, because that’s really important in Rugby. It’s also a god
opportunity to play with different people and ‘being better than before’.
!
Rugby by Aiman Fariz
I’m Aiman Fariz and I’m from Malaysia. The reason I came to New Zealand is because of
rugby. I’ve played since I was 10 years old and rugby has been a big part of my life. I
came to Tauranga Boys’ College as they have a really good rugby program and I believe
I can strive for greater things in rugby with the High Performance Program the school
offers. My favored position in rugby is halfback, but I can cover the 1st five position on
odd occasions. My main goal here at TBC is to play for the 1st XV rugby team before I
leave school. I’ve so far played one game for the 1st XV against Sacred Heart College
up in Auckland at the start of the season. I started at halfback and played the whole 1st
half of the game before I came off the field. It was an awesome experience and hopefully
I will be in the 1st XV next year. I played the rest of the season this year for the second
half at halfback and as the goal-kicker. We played in the 1st division of the Baywide 1st XV Competition and the Super 8 schools
competition. There have been some memorable games and some good wins for us. The best game of the season for me is when
we played our last game in the Super 8 competition against Gisborne Boys’ High School second XV down in Tauranga-nui-a Kiwa
(Gisborne) where we lost 26-22 to them. Even though we lost, it was the best game I’ve played this year and one of the best our
team has produced and I scored my first try of the season, which rarely happens. It has been an awesome season and I can’t
wait for the next season and hopefully it will be better than this year.