Four Skype Sessions with a Japanese Middle School

Photo Credit: https://www.fureai-cloud.jp/azuchi-jh

Both Taiwanese and Japanese students had fun sharing school life, culture, and asking follow-up questions in English through international video conferencing

My seventh-grade gifted class and the International Cultural Exchange Club talked about school life and introduced the campus. 707 and 708 did self-introduction and spoke about their families. We now have a dedicated class, Using English to Introduce the Beauty of Our Hometown, to put textbook English into practice. 

On the other hand, their Japanese ninth-grade counterparts in Omihachiman Shiritsu Azuchi Junior High School shared traditional festivals, clothing, food, and J POP music. On top of that, they presented PPT slide presentations on a big screen. 

The most fun part was asking follow-up questions and talent exchange. Two Japanese students introduced their favorite band, Arashi, and we asked them to sing a bit of the song. My students also did their dance moves, complete with three students playing a piece of Miyazaki's film score with traditional Chinese instruments. 

Of course, both my students and Tommy's have a lot for improvement. They made grammatical mistakes and sounded flat and bland when reading the script word for word. However, the main idea of this Skype exchange was to get the students experiencing the importance of learning English.