School visit

On Friday I was fortunate to be invited by Charmaine Minami to visit Miyahara Elementary school in Oguni. The purpose the visit was to meet the students and teacher who will welcome Xavier for part of the day on July 17. As part of his trip to Japan, he's going to experience the Japanese school system. I know, just what every kid wants to do on summer vacation - go to school. Luckily, his visit will follow a national holiday, Umi no Hi (Ocean Day), when the class will go camping. Therefore, the students will likely be tired and will enjoy doing fun things in class. For instance, art, sports, and other things that should be easier for Xavier, even though he doesn't speak Japanese. The teacher basically wants to decide the day's schedule based on what Xav would like to do.

While the kids sat still for the English lesson, they exploded with energy afterwards, playing as all kids do. The classroom has a lot of animals in it (mostly tadpoles and a variety of insects, and colorful artwork done by the students. It's a bit old, and the room will likely be hot in July (no air-conditioning), but it's a great introduction to the life of a Japanese kid.

Notes: these students are in the 4th grade and are all 10. They just started learning English, so they can really only manage some basic greetings and some nouns and verbs. Yesterday we learned how to ask, "Do you like cats?" (or other things) and answer, "Yes, I do" or "No, I don't". That's it. There are a few kids who have more experience speaking, but not a lot. Some are wearing white hats and masks in the last photo because they are in charge of serving everyone else lunch. It's a rotating position that everyone has to do eventually. They all eat school lunch together in their classroom.