Kids' Activities 20

Making Friends with Foreigners

The students of Class 2 in year six of Hie Elementary School in Yokohama have been taking part in exchange activities with foreign visitors who are in Yokohama to watch the World Cup. Pinning a badge saying "Ask me" on their chests, they have been actively seeking out foreigners in the street. When they find someone, they go up to them and say, "Excuse me."

There are 32 students in this class. After Yokohama was chosen to host three matches in the group stage of the World Cup plus the final, each student took charge of one country and found out basic information about it. The result was that each student produced a report of about two pages on their country, covering things like location, population, language, and relations with Japan. The kids then had the idea of making friends with foreigners they met in the street.

When they met someone like this, the conversation started with "Excuse me" and went fine as far as "My name is . . ." and "What is your name?" But even though the kids had been taught simple English phrases by their teacher, parents, or brothers and sisters, they had difficulty taking things further. Somehow, however, these kids found a way to communicate, often using the body language kids are so skilled at. One kid was even asked, "Please teach me a Japanese song," by a foreign person they met and happily sang the Japanese national anthem "Kimigayo" there and then.