Japanese Immersion!

A big "Thank You" is due to Ms. Kamboz today, as she arranged an unforgettable opportunity for our class. As a final project for their English Immersion classes at the University of Regina, 15 students from four different universities across Japan joined us for an afternoon of Japanese culture. The catch? They had to do the instructions in English!

For an entire afternoon, students circulated through various cultural stations. The lessons they participated in focused on Japanese writing, origami, Japanese games, Manga art, and using chopsticks. I was shocked at the level of English that the visiting students actually possessed, as they had little trouble explaining the instructions to my class.

My students enjoyed every aspect of the afternoon, and were completely engaged in every task. It made me proud to think that these visiting students will return to Japan shortly and, inevitably, will discuss this experience with their friends. I know that they too will say that it was a hugely positive experience and might even try to persuade their friends to give it a try.

It can sometimes be difficult to make direct curricular connections to experiences like these, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are more important than ever. My students are living in a digital era and the world they live in is much smaller than the one I grew up in. Any person in any part of the globe is only a click away, and though this might make it easier to connect to one another, it can sometimes serve to amplify the differences between our worlds. In the course of one afternoon, my students learned that we are all incredibly alike... and that laughter is the true international language.