15 January 2009

IPC Students Visit a Primary School in Japan

Translated by Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake.

Emma Harris playing an English word game with the children

Yeon Ji Oh explaining the word 'Kiwi'

Tim Bunting introducing New Zealand to the children

On Tuesday, 13th January, the three IPC exchange students studying at IPU: Timothy Bunting (from New Zealand), Emma Harris (from New Zealand), and Yeon Ji Oh (from South Korea), visited the Saidaiji Shougakkou (Saidaiji Primary School) in Okayama. This cultural exchange visit was organized to enable the children to enrich their understanding of other cultures and the people from other cultures.

When the three students first arrived at the school, they felt very tense. However, the children welcomed them with big smiles and that broke the ice. In each classroom they visited, before their lesson started a very warm welcome in English greeted them: "Nice to meet you. Welcome to Saidaiji Shougakkou!"

Their lesson began with self-introductions and some information about New Zealand, in both English and Japanese, from the three exchange students. After that, the children were given time to ask questions. They grabbed this moment to ask the exchange students many questions, and each question was answered politely in Japanese combined with gestures.

A series of games using English words followed the question session. In one game, for each word given by the exchange students, the children had to search for the matching word on the flashcards and then write it on the blackboard. In another game, they learnt the New Zealand version of the well-known Japanese rock, paper, scissors game. In this way, the children were learning English and having fun at the same time.

One of the students, Yeon Ji Oh, also taught the children the 3 meanings of the word 'Kiwi' - the fruit, the bird, and the nickname for New Zealanders. All in all, it was a very good opportunity to learn not only English but also about New Zealand culture.

At the end of the day, the children farewelled the students by singing and performing an English play.

The children said that they were very happy and hoped they would be able to meet again. Tim, Emma, and Yeon Ji commented that the children were very nice and they almost cried at the end of the farewell singing and performance.

Source: http://www.ipu-japan.jp/cgi-bin/index.cgi?c=news-2&pk=323 (Japanese)

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