International Virtual Exchange with Omihachiman

 

Exchanging fun facts about school life, cultural differences, and anime with Omihachiman Shiritsu Azuchi Junior High School on Google Meet

 

For many years in a row, I've been conducting virtual exchanges with my Japanese counterparts at the school around this time of year. The idea is to get our students to feel the need to use English and have fun promoting and learning about each other's cultural differences, such as:

l  school lunch

l  Japanese and Taiwanese rice balls

l  night markets and street foods

l  historical castles

l  favorite anime

 

A girl in my school recorded her singing for the event and played it during the session, along with a boy showing off his fantastic basketball moves. Also, a talented boy drew anime-styled pictures that looked like copies of the original ones. They would remember this session for a long time without a doubt.

 

Thanks to Tr. Fumiya, we created another opportunity for Class 802, 813, and 816 to have this hands-on experience right before the upcoming arduous journey of being ninth-graders, with countless tests and homework waiting ahead of them. Of course, without their English teacher and homeroom teacher's support, we couldn't make this happen.

 

Speaking English can be intimidating for many students. It'd be perfectly normal that they refrain from speaking up and tend to read word for word from their scripts without little eye contact. However, this learning experience will be worth the effort and energy because they can never learn anything like this from textbooks or tests. 

 

Due to the surging COVID infections, the government announced another extended week of school closure and moved classes online. Students from my school attended the exchange session from home using their own devices, while the Japanese students participated at the school, an odd sense of deja vu if you ask me.