[KyleGoetz]

I'm actually quite shocked anyone is suggesting he actually practice Japanese with the exchange student. In the US, it costs tens of thousands of dollars for a Japanese high school student to spend a year in the US. TENS OF THOUSANDS.

Do you think the student's parents want to spend over half a US worker's annual salary for their kid to go overseas and speak Japanese?

Granted, I don't know how much it costs in Australia for an exchange student at the secondary level, but the point is: speaking your native language abroad really harms your potential to pick up the new language, even if it's only an hour each day. That's almost 10% of all waking hours!