Unlike usual workshops where I work through things in stages according to the teachers needs, this week’s workshops have all got titles. Tomorrow afternoon is “International Understanding”. Usually I have that as the big finale at the end, to show the teachers how important their work is. But tomorrow I have a full 3 hours devoted to it. So yesterday I was collating all my material to decide on what order to do things in and had a read through the articles I wrote for ALC’s Kids Com magazine in 2001. There’s some real gems of ideas in there that I’d completely forgotten about! They all have Japanese translations, so if your teachers ever ask you about International Understanding, show them the articles, it’ll be a nice eye opener for them.

Of course these are all just a variation on the “Ibunka kyouiku” ( “cultural differences”) theme, although I much prefer to say “doubunka kyouiku” (cultural similarities). The real international understanding comes in the project work.

If you’d like to add to this post, have a look at the Genki English forum.