Coordinator's Report

In January and March the TC SIG Tokyo Gathering presented the theme Feelings
where we shared many activities to help draw out children’s feelings and
then discussed how we can guide them in meaningful ways. Picture books
were introduced as the tools of the activities.

Also in March, I was able to take part in the JALT Hiroshima Chapter’s
Children’s Confe-rence in Fukuyama city, Hiroshima with Mayuka Habbick,
our Program Chair. It was a good opportunity to for us to introduce the
TC SIG to many new people in that area.

Japan is known as a single ethnic group, single language country, however
when we visited an International Kindergarten in Hiro-shima we observed
a frontline of bilingual education, and my experience now tells me that
things are gradually changing.

As for my personal life, I had a chance to spend Christmas holidays with
my family in Hawaii. Hawaii, the paradise resort is rather for the tourists
and the local residents are deeply involved in their own ethnic traditions
and celebrations. In Japan we often hear the phrase “Experiencing ‘ibunka’
through stud-ying English.” but the word ibunka meaning “foreign culture”
does not exist in English language or in Hawaii, the melting pot. We should
expand our consciousness to the wider world, accepting the multi-culture
world even in Japan.

My reports hereafter will be from Hawaii and I would like to think about
language education in Japan from the outer world.

Naoko McLellan
TC SIG Coordinator