Bonhomme Richard Sailors teach English to JGSDF Soldiers

SASEBO, NAGASAKI, JAPAN

12.18.2015

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Lance Burleson 

USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6)

SASEBO, Japan – Sailors from the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) gathered with soldiers of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGDSF) at Camp Ainoura, Sasebo to help them sharpen their English-speaking skills, Dec. 18, 2015.

Camp Ainoura leadership invited BHR’s Sailors after the soldiers finished the first week of their three-month Basic Enlisted English (BEE) class. Lt. Luke Dundon, Bonhomme Richards’s Staff Chaplain, organized this event.

“Relations with any ally, especially one as close to us as the Japanese is very important and building that relationship is a crucial advantage to both countries,” said Dundon. “What better way to do so not just with the civilian population, but with the military population, which is what we seek to achieve visiting the soldiers of the JGDSF unit at Camp Ainoura.”

The soldiers were given 15 minutes to have a conversation, in English, with each of the visiting Sailors.

“It’s one thing to speak to a group of 100 people or a 1,000 people,” Dundon said, “but there’s a beautiful advantage to this event because it’s one-on-one or one-on-two. These Sailors come and sit down directly facing these individual soldiers, learning about them, learning about their lives, teaching them how to speak the English language and sharing their own stories with them. And so what happens is that they foster friendships with each other. And it starts in the simplest of ways, by a visit during the holiday season to Camp Ainoura JGSDF base.”

The BEE Class Leader expressed why learning a foreign language was essential to building relationships.

“The Japan-U.S. relationship is getting important more day by day,” said Sergeant 1st Class Abe Motomu. “Learning English is important, not just for this class, but it’s important for training, and overseas duty.”

Motumu added that “the class was difficult, but fun.”

One Sailor, originally from the Dominican Republic, knew from personal experience the sort of challenges facing these JGSDF soldiers.

“I’ve been where they’ve been,” said Machinist’s Mate 3rd Michael Ceballos. “English is not my first language, so I know how it is to start all the way from the bottom and work up to where people can understand you and you can understand the language itself. It was a really good opportunity and it made me feel really good.”

Bonhomme Richard is the lead ship in the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group and is forward-deployed to Sasebo, Japan in the 7th Fleet area of Operations.

• Date Taken: 12.18.2015
• Date Posted: 12.20.2015 18:33
• Story ID: 185022
• Location: SASEBO, NAGASAKI, JP