My grandfather lives in a small village in Nagano. He is a farmer who grows apples. Last summer, I stayed at his house for a week and helped him with his work. We got up at five every morning. In the morning, we picked the apples growing on the tallest trees. It was hard work, but I enjoyed it.

One day, my grandfather told me, "Good apples are not grown only by farmers. The sun, the rain, and the soil also help them." After I heard his words, I saw the mountains around the village in a new way.

Now I am thankful when I eat apples. If I were a farmer, I could not grow such good apples. So I want to learn more about the work of farmers. Next summer, I will visit my grandfather again.

Yui is a high school student who studied in Australia for one year. Before she went there, she was not good at speaking English. She often thought that her English was not as good as her teacher's.

In Australia, she lived with a host family. At first, she could not say anything at dinner. One day, her host mother said to her, "You don't have to speak perfect English. I want to know what you think." These words changed Yui. After that, she tried to speak, even when her English was not perfect.

Six months later, Yui joined a volunteer activity to clean a river near her school. There she met people from many countries. They talked about the problems of their own countries. Yui was surprised, because she knew almost nothing about the problems of other countries.

Her host mother also told her an interesting thing. People living in Australia have come from more than 200 countries, and more than 300 languages are spoken there. "Different people live together here," she said. "When our opinions are different, we listen to the other person first." Yui remembered these words many times after she came home.

Now Yui is back in Japan. She says, "Studying abroad was not only about English. It gave me new eyes to see the world. If I were a junior high school student again, I would study English much harder."