Hokushin Elementary School Visit - 20 June 2006

A day with the kids!

Was fortunate enough to be one of just four foreign students chosen to spend the day with the kids at Hokushin. This was the first time their school had such a type of visit, and it as also my first official school visit in this capacity- so both sides were very nervous.

Murun (Mongolian girl next to me), Emiko san (their teacher - you would NOT believe how old she is - but then agian if you have been in Asia long enough, you kinda realise most Asian women look much younger than their actual ages. When I discover their secret...I'll be willing to sell it to y'all;) with part of the class. The class before this was really tough - we had quite a bit of extra time (and it was our first class so we were still kinda warming up) - so Murun and I had to improvise quite a lot of conversation afterwards. I had no idea I could speak that much (probably broken) Japanese (hope the kids understood though;)

The sweetest thing - girl with the white top (with the '03' on it) - she took me under her wing as it were. I was like her best friend of the day. She took it upon herself to be my 'guardian' and make sure I was fed etc. She actually speaks English quite well (for a Japanese child her age) - I think she tries extra harder coz she REALLY REALLY wants to travel to foreign countries (including Zim;) when she gets older. Between her beginner English and my basic Japanese, I could get around quite well. She wanted to be pen friends (so junr school huh) - never did get her address though (taechers told them thay had to go clean up when she was gonna give me). Wish her all the best. Maybe will meet her agin one day. Trust me, its a small world!

We played games with them and taught them songs our kids back home sing. We also had to say a bit about our countries, show them where they are etc - in Japanese!
Very interesting indeed.

oh, did I mention they wanted us to try and dress in our national costumes and stuff . Zim has no national dress, but I tried to at least look African - gees, African attires are not made for playing with kids on a blistering hot day!

Absolutely brill. Cant wait till my next school visit - I should have another couple coming up soon.