An international exchange class was held at Kohoku Elementary School　and AIRA arranged guest teachers for the class. (No.17-30)

Date and Time: Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Venue: Gym at Kohoku Elementary School
Students: 54 sixth-graders
Guest Teachers: 12 people from 6 countries
Liu Peng (China), Zhan Ze (China), Chao Nan(China), Forau Manase (Tonga), Norika Yamanaka (Malaysia), Zhang Hua (China), Ojha Dharma Raj (Nepal), Insho Yamanaka (Malaysia), Zhao Xu (China), Wang Ting (China), Luigi Hiratsuka (Brazil), Fe Kawada (The Philippines)
AIRA Staff: Yamaguchi, Hesaki, Kitajima, Adachi, Osaki

Prior to the class there was guidance for the guests by AIRA staff in the waiting room. On that day 12 people from 6 countries and 4 AIRA staff members joined the program as “guest teachers”. Actually, the guests from other countries spoke Japanese fluently, but they tried to speak only English in the class. The AIRA staff members also pretended to be “foreigners” and talked in English with the students.

The program started with the principal’s speech, a student’s welcome greetings in English and self-introduction by the guests.
1. Ice Breaker “Rock Paper Scissor Train”
All the players find a partner and play rock paper scissors. Whoever loses must go behind the winner and put their hands on his/her shoulder, forming a “train”. The front person of each train finds another train and plays rock paper scissors again. Finally there’s one long train crawling like a snake. Ms. Liu Peng from China turned out to be the last winner, delightfully leading the long train.
2. Telephone Game
The students and the guests were divided into four teams; blue, yellow, green and red. Each team sat in a line and sent a message from the first person to the last by whispering through a cardboard tube. There were tables near the last persons of each team, on which several items were prepared.
The first round was in Japanese. The message was “Put the notebook in the box and take it to Christina.” It seemed that conveying the message correctly wasn’t easy, and only Team Yellow succeeded.
The second round was in English. “Put on the helmet and sit down”. This was really difficult. The players were puzzled and confused, but anyhow tried to relay the message.
The game was difficult but all the players found it fun and there was laughter here and there.
3. Let’s Talk
Each guest and three or four students sat in a circle, and talked in English. This must have been an exciting experience for the students.
4. Kohoku Guide
Nine students introduced historical spots in Kohoku Area, which they studied in the class of social studies. They showed on the screen photos of an old milestone, shrines, an old residence, a Buddha statue, excavated items from ancient tombs, and so on, and explained each of them.
One guest said, “I have lived in Abiko more than ten years but I didn’t know that there are a lot of interesting historical spots here. I’d like to visit them.”
5. Folk Dance “Mayim Mayim”
All the people in the gym made a big circle and danced to the piano. First some guests seemed to feel unsure but soon they got used to the steps and enjoyed the dance with the students.
6. Chorus “On the day of our departure”
The students sang the song in two parts. The lyrics go like this: “Let’s fly high in the blue sky, believing in our dream and power”. Hearing the song, the guests wished them good luck and happy future.

Kohoku Elementary School held this kind of international program for the first time. It was planned with a view to providing the students chances to speak English with foreigners. In preparation for this class the students learned new words and practiced pronunciation very hard with their English teacher Christina.

In the meeting after the class the guests exchanged comments about the class. They said:
“The students’ English pronunciation was good.”
“They were speaking with their eyes shining. I felt they were eager to speak.”
“They learned new words beforehand and were well-prepared.”
“It’s good to learn English while having fun.”
“I wanted to talk with them more.”
“I hope this kind of program will continue.”

All the guests said they had a great time and expressed hope that they would join this program again.

　 (Translated by Chizu Yamaguchi)