Day 6 - Around The World in 11 Years

Monday started our second week of classes at the Academy. Students came ready and refreshed, and hit the virtual books hard in their first period core language classes. It was clear the students didn't forget anything over the weekend. Rather, they brought a sense of deeper understanding as the first week's dose of knowledge had settled and solidified, providing a foundation for the next layer of learning. Students also worked hard in their afternoon Chiho Project classes. Presentation day looms, and the students were eager to finalize their content and check their pronunciation. Presentations are in the final stages now for all six groups, and we are all excited to share them with each other on Day 9.

The students' midday lecture today was taught by Kyle Sensei. He talked about his experience living in Japan for eleven years, and shared his story of living through the Great East Japan Earthquake and concurrent tsunami. He also shared some of his many happy experiences and memories, and encouraged students to visit, if not his home prefecture of Miyagi, at least somewhere in the wonderful country of Japan. Kyle Sensei wanted students to realize that not all foreigners work as language teachers in Japan - you can be an author, a radio announcer, a musician, or anything else you put your mind to! His big tip for studying Japanese was to never be afraid to make mistakes. He fails to take his own advice, however, as he scans his blog entries over and over, looking for spelling errors.

See you on Day 7 for a tour of the iconic and historic city of Kyoto!

The Hokkaido region keeps finding out just how quirky Japan can be, so we’ve decided to be a little ~quirky~ today.

Kyle Sensei begins his talk about life in Japan by showing us where he used to live.

Through the power of digital editing, Kyle Sensei has transformed into an alpaca! Actually, Kyle Sensei was sharing his experiences of being a voice actor in Japan.