Climate Action Call with Serbia

October 25th, 2017

Today we talked with Serbian students.

<Questions>
Are you in the Northern Hemisphere? - Yes
Do you border the sea? - No
Are you in the Western Hemisphere? - Maybe.
Are you in Europe? - Yes
Does your country name start with a vowel? - No
Do you border Germany? - No
Do you border Romania? - Yes

Are you in Hungary? - No
Are you in Serbia? - YES!!

(Questions from Serbia)
Do you live in Asia? - Yes
Are you in China? - No
Do you live in Japan? - YES!!

They could find our country quickly. So we were surprised. They were 13 years old, but they looked mature for their age. They played their traditional instrument. It was very beautiful sound. We felt pleasant. We showed them PPAP. They laughed a lot. It was very fun!

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(Teacher's Comment)

Again this call was for Climate Action project. After we found out each country, we showed our national flag - though I could not find our own, so we drew red circle on a piece of squared paper. Later, we asked how to say "Climate Change" in each native language, and gave a short presentation about the project. The connection was a bit challenging this time, but we managed to keep the session. 

Thanks Anica Trickovic for setting this session. We also enjoyed your showing your school after the session. :)

Climate Action Skype Call with Vietnam and Denmark

October 24th, 2017

We interacted with students in Vietnam and Denmark today.

16:00 - 16:30
<Questions>
Do you border the sea? - Yes.
Are you in the Northern Hemisphere? - No
Are you in Asia? - Yes
Are you in an island country? - No
Are you in Malaysia? - No, but close!

CLUE "Our country looks like the letter S. "

Are you in Vietnam? - YES!!

They knew a lot of Japanese culture such as anime and sushi.
They were in the same age with us.
They were very active!!
Also, they knew many things about Japan. They told us about Vietnam. Vietnam's famous food is "Pho". A boy students wanted us to call him.

17:00 - 17:30
<Questions>
(Japan to Denmark)
Do you border the sea? - Yes
Are you in the Northern Hemisphere? - Yes
Do you border the Mediterranean Sea? - No
Do you border Germany? - Yes

Are you in Netherland? - No
Do you border Poland? - No
Are you in Denmark? - YES!!

How old are you? - 10-11 years old.

(Denmark to Japan)
Do you live in Asia? - Yes
Do you have red in your flag? - Yes
Do you have white in your flag? - Yes
Are you from Japan? - YES!!
Do you live northern than Tokyo? - No
Is the population in your city more than billion? - No
Does your city border the sea? - No
Is there more than 50,000 people in your city? - No
Are you in Kyushu? - No
Do you live in the capital? - No
Where do you live? - We live in Maibara.

How old are you? - 15-16 years old.
Why do you put mask? - Because it's cold.


They were elementary school students but their English was very fluent. We were surprised!
Denmark is famous for Lego and Little Mermaid.

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(Teacher's Comment)

This call was set to share what we learned in Climate Action project (http://www.climate-action.info). Vietnamese students told us that pollution is a serious problem in their nation and Dennish students showed us their ideas with Minecraft and we were all amazed to see their high creativity.

Also, a Dennish girl asked us why Tokyo is so clean - well, honestly the cityside in Japan is not so clean as the coutryside. But one rule that might interest you is that in Japan everyone never leaves trash. If we can't find trash boxes, we usually bring the trash to our home and it is like a tacit rule. If you leave them, you will be regarded as rude or ignorant. Even in my school, students must bring the plastic bottles to their home if you bring one from their home. I think this rule influences greatly to keep the environment clean. 

Let me show my gratitude to the two educators we had a call on the day - Lieu Nguyen Thi from Vietnam and Katja Borregaard from Denmark. It was great pleasure to see you two after meeting you in E2 Toronto.

Mystery Skype with Genius School in India

September 15, 2017

We talked with students in India via Skype.

<Questions>
Are you in Asia? - Yes
Are you in an island? - No
Are you in Eastern Asia? - No
Do you border China? - Yes
Are you in India? - YES!!

They gave a hint to us: the country Japanese Prime Minister visited recently

<Questions to India>

What time does your school start? - At seven o'clock

Do you eat curry every day? - Yes

Do you eat cuerry with your hand? - Yes

What is your religion? - Hinduism

They were interested in Japan. So they asked some things about Japan to us.

When you take off your shoes, why do you arrange its direction?

- Because you can put on those shoes easily when you go out of the building.

We made some questions of math for them. Of course, they could answer those questions very easily. We were surpirised. 

We enjoyed talking with them. It was fun to make math questions and we decided to compete with them someday.

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(Teacher's Comment)

I'm sure that both Japanese and Indian students learned eaxh culture through this session. (It's timely because currently our Prime Minister stays at India.) Some questions were quite interesting - like why we take off our shoes oppositely when we enter the house, or if it is true that we give handkerchief when we welcome guests at home. (The latter one is not common so we are not sure if it is true or now, but not at home but in restaurants we are given hand towel freely.)

Also, my students asked an interesting question: is it true that Indians are good at math?

They agreed, and we gave them some questions from our math textbook. The Indian students solved the questions quite fast, which surprised all of us! Maybe we should hold Skype competition for math with Indian someday.

Mystery Skype and Cultural Exchange with Cambodia

May 30, 2017

Today we talked with students in Cambodia on Skype.
They were very lively.

<Questions>
Do you border the sea? - Yes
Are you in an island country? -No
Are you in Asia? - Yes
Does your national flag have more than 2 colors? - 3 colors
Are you in Eastern Asia? - No
Are you in the southern hemisphere? - No
Do you border the South China sea? - Maybe yes.
Do you border Cambodia? - No
Do you border Thailand? - Yes
Are you in Cambodia? - YES!!

<Questions about Cambodia>
What language do you speak? - Cambodian language
How old are you? - 14 years old
Is your country hot now? - Yes
How many people are there in your country? - 9 million.

from Cambodia side

They could speak Japanese a little. We were very surprised.
They taught us about Cambodia.
Someday we want to visit Cambodia.
We want them to come to Japan!

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(Teacher's Comment)

According to the UN, Cambodia is listed as one of the least developed countries throughout Asia. Providing kids in such nations with education is challenging but always worth trying.
In that sense, this session was a little special. The Cambodian pupils we interacted this time usually study at CBB School, a language school in Kompong Cham Province in Cambodia owned by Japanese organization, for free. This is because people in the region live with very low income: $3 a day, about $100 - 150 at most and lots of children there go to work to support their family. But if they could speak English or Japanese, they will have more options for the job, which will eventually lead to increase their income. That's why CBB School provides language education for free.

We will keep in touch with them. Hopefully many classes around the world connect with them in the coming new schoolyear.

Cultural Exchange with Poland

May 26, 2017

We introduced Japan and Maibara high school.
The students in Poland introduced Poland and their school to us.
We talked about immigrants.

Poland borders Germany and Belarus. They think that the city they live in is not interesting because there are not anything interesting.

We were surprised that they did not know brass band and wandervogel.
They look adult. Their English is very good and easy to hear.
So we must practice speaking English more.



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(Teacher's Comment)
Thanks Lukas Gierek for managing this call. I feel so happy to see you again via Skype even after E2.
Those Polish students study at Microsoft Showcase School. In the session, we exchanged our views on accepting immigrants in addition to some cultural exchange. Since my students have exchanged letters with Polish students in another school, they must have felt close to you.

Dziękuję Ci!

Cultural Exchange with Lebanon

May 24th, 2017

Today we talked with students in Lebanon on Skype.
The students were 15 years old.

<Question>
Do you border the Meditteranean Sea? - Yes
Are you in Africa? - No
Does your national flag have red? - Yes
ARE YOU IN LEBANON? - YES!!

Lebanese currency

Traditional food in Lebanon

Lebanese flag: the red part represents blood, white represents snow in the mountain and the tree in the middle shows the cedar tree.

They showed me their traditional dance cheerfully.
They taught us how to write our names in Arabic. We wrote their name in Hiragana.

They knew Japanese things well. We learned about Lebanese culture.

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(Teacher's Comment)
Like Israel, Lebanon is not familiar with people in Japan.
Hoever, we were impressed that Lebanese students knew about our country very well.
This was our first Skype call with Lebanon. They prepared a lot of questions to us. Here let me answer some of them again.

- How do you feel living in a place threatened by natural disasters?
  Honestly we do not feel anything specially - of course we do some evacuation trainings for earthquakes at school, you can spend usual daily life here. We know not only how tremendous the nature in Japan is, but how beautiful and how we are blessed with it.

- We suffer from a huge pollution problem. In spite of the fact your country is much bigger, how do you manage to keep it clean?
  In our country, it is a kind of social rule to deal with the trash / garbage we made by ourselves. For example, if you go somewhere with something to drink in a plastic bottles, we usually bring the empty bottles home. We regard it rude to leave/throw the trash away outside. Also, Japanese students clean their classroom after school every day. This is to grow the spirit to cherish the environment given to them.

- Do you always sit on the floor when eating? Why do we see this more often in Japan?
  Honestly we do not sit on the floor when eating nowadays - more and more houses are westernized and less and less people eat on the floor. But in traditional ceremony we often do it. This is the tradition not only in Japan but among some East Asian countries.

I especially feel grateful to Yusser Chidiac, the Lebanese teacher I met in Toronto and who organized this call with me this time. Hope to connect with you guys again. :)

Mystery Skype with Israel

May 23rd, 2017

Today we talked with children in Israel via Skype.

<Questions>
Do you border the sea? - Yes
Are you in an island? - No
Do you border the Mediterranean Sea? - Yes
Are you in Europe? - No
Do you have red on your flag? - No
Are you in Africa? - No
ARE YOU IN ISRAEL? - YES!

<Game>
We were given quizes (played Kahoot) about Japan and Israel.
A Japanese student won the first place!

<About children>
They were 11 years old. They are in Holon (a city near Tel Aviv).
They knew PPAP, the Japanese YouTuber.
They do not read Japanese comics but have watched Anime.
They asked us many questions.

<Reflection>
Israeli children were very, very, very, very, very active!!
One of the children was dancing!!
If they had question for us, they raised their hands and held up their second finger.
They loved Japan!!

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(Teacher's Comment)

Honestly, the country name "Israel" is not familiar with students in Japan.
The only chance we hear its name is through media but mainly not positive news; something related to political issues or conflicts. Due to this, the negative image against the nation had been created, however, interacting with pupils in the nation for real broke it and got rid of prejudice inside their minds.
I feel really happy to find some students even started look for some information about the country after the skype call.

Thanks very much Gali, the Israeli teacher, for the fantastic moment and sending me this presentation about the country.