Students share culture
Language barriers were no problem for Terrace End School pupils as they welcomed Japanese students to their classroom.
Twenty students from Edogawa University in Japan’s Chiba prefecture visited the Palmerston North school on Thursday to share unique aspects of their culture. The students are studying English at Massey University for two weeks.
After being welcomed to the school, the students joined in on a game of football, before teaching the Terrace End children how to write traditional calligraphy and fold origami.
Pupil Safala Gautam, 11, said she found using a calligraphy brush particularly interesting. Iziah Kapinga, 10, also enjoyed the classes.
‘‘It was cool, I learnt how to write some names in Japanese,’’ he said.
Darah White, 8, had the chance to show some of her writing to the visitors and said they enjoyed learning from her and her classmates.
Deputy principal Kris Funnell said her pupils had been ‘‘extremely welcoming’’ of the Japanese guests. The language barrier hadn’t hindered the fun, especially when they were playing sport.
‘‘I was really delighted about how welcoming they were . . . Sport is a real universal language.’’
Massey University first language adviser Ruriko Miers said the students had limited knowledge of English, so interacting with the children was a good way to practise and see the differences between Japanese and New Zealand schools.
Miers said the students were staying with host families and had come to New Zealand to get fully immersed in Kiwi culture.
They spent a day learning basic rugby skills, visited the New Zealand Rugby Museum and were taking a trip to Wellington this weekend.