International Exchange Class at Namiki Elementary School
Nine people from seven countries visited Namiki Elementary School with AIRA members to join a special English class for about 70 fifth graders. This program is held once a year to give the children an opportunity to communicate in English with people from various countries and understand other cultures. AIRA has been helping this program since five years ago.
Date : Thursday, February 23, 2016
Time : 1:00 p.m. ~ 3:50 p.m.
Venue : Gymnasium of Namiki Elementary School, Abiko City
Participants: 15 people; namely,
9 guest teachers (Ms. Anju Barasiya, Ms. Nisha Choudharry, Mr. Hiratsuka Luigi, Ms. Komaba Caroline, Mr. Dallin Kooyman, Mr. Forau Manase, Ms. Chao Nan, Mr. Teddy Laurente Penaroya, and Mr. Marcus Price), 5 AIRA members (Adachi, Hesaki, Kitajima, Satake and Yamaguchi), and NEC staff member, Mr. Kuratsu
The guests were welcomed at the entrance of the school building and shown to the waiting room by two fifth-graders. In the waiting room teachers, guests and AIRA staffs had an orientation meeting. Following a welcome speech by the principal, Ms. Yuko Yamaguchi, and self-introduction by the guests, there was guidance about the program. And then there was a school tour led by teachers. It was just after school-lunch time and the guests were impressed by children clearing away the dishes from the tables and cleaning up their classrooms. They were also glad to be greeted politely by children. It was a short tour but a good chance to see some of Japanese education system.
At 1:50 the class started. First of all, each guest introduced themselves in front of all the children, showing the location of their countries on a large world map. The guests were from Brazil,China, France,India, the Philippines, Tonga and the U.S.
As an ice breaker they played “Passport Game”. All the people in the gym had a “passport” in their hand and found someone to talk to. Asking and answering questions, and exchanging signatures with each other, the pair said good-bye to find another partner. For about ten minutes they mingled with others and talked to as many people as they could. It was surprising that one child got eight signatures on his passport in ten minutes..
The next session was “Let’s Talk”. The children were divided into eight groups and in each group they talked with one or two guest teachers in English for ten minutes. With a cue the children moved to the next teacher, and they repeated this four times. The themes of the discussions were about favorite foods, games, music, singers, places, and so on, and trendy words such as “Sanadamaru”, “Pikotaro” and “Pokemon” were heard. The guests’ answers ranged from “popular” ones like “Shibuya” (favorite place), “yakiniku”, “ramen” (favorite food), to unique ones like “Kimi no nawa”(a popular Japanese animation movie), “Narayama bushi ko” (a very old Japanese movie) and “Oshi-jo in Gyoda City.” (favorite castle). One guest’s answer about the hobby was “Art”. The guests’ broad knowledge and interest in Japan were perceived in this session.
In the closing the children sang in chorus a song titled “How Wonderful Living Together” to the piano played by one of the children.
The children positively spoke to the guests and tried to express themselves. In a meeting after the class all the guests made favorable comments about the program. “Children were active.” “I enjoyed talking with them.” “Their English was better than last year.” (a guest who joined this class last year), “I was just impressed by them.”, etc.
The school thanked AIRA for its continuous support to the class and it’s a great pleasure that the collaboration of the school and AIRA has been bearing fruit.
(No. 16-34 Translated by Ch. Yamaguchi)
