United Nations University OUIK, which is promoting an educational project on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) “Noto’s Satoyama and Satoumi”, has been collaborating with the Noto SDGs Lab in Suzu City, which has been designated as an SDG Future City and is implementing SDG education programmes, and the GIAHS Center of Ifugao State University (IFSU) in Ifugao, Philippines, which was also designated as GIAHS (“Ifugao Rice Terraces”) in 2011, the same year as Noto. Through this collaboration, we have been carrying out online exchange programme since FY 2020 to deepen children’s international learning and understanding about their local culture and lifestyle in relation to GIAHS and SDGs.
This year, 12 students in Grade 5-6 participated from Shoin Elementary School in Suzu City and 24 students in Grade 6 participated from Ramut Central School in Ifugao. Three exchanges are planned in FY 2022, and the first exchange took place on 5 December. First, in the morning, OUIK researcher Koyama gave a preliminary lesson to the pupils of Shoin Elementary School, where they learnt about the characteristics of Noto GIAHS and why they are going to interact with students in Ifugao, which is also designated as GIAHS.
In the afternoon, it was time for the long-awaited first exchange! Prof Koji Nakamura of Kanazawa University, a leading expert in promoting human resource development programmes (Meister Programme) in both region and has been leading exchanges of meister graduates in Noto and Ifugao, also joined the exchange online.
The theme of the first exchange was ‘Self-introduction and school introduction’. The children at each school filmed a ‘self-introduction’ video in advance and sent it to each other, with each child proudly introducing his or her name and favourite things (e.g. food, animals, hobbies, etc.) in English. The videos included photos such as school activities, which gave a good picture of the atmosphere at each school.
The exchange started with the greetings from the teachers in both schools and self-introductions by the staff. It was followed by a ‘school introduction’ time. First, pupils from Shoin Primary School introduced their school using PowerPoint slides, which included things like ‘what subjects they study at school’, ‘what kind of uniform they wear’, and ‘what they do during break time’. They also introduced the school-wide wrestling and marching band activities, their sports day event, and tourist attractions in Suzu City.
Next, pupils from Ifugao gave an introduction about their school. They introduced Ramut Central School as one of the oldest schools in the region. They also mentioned that children from kindergarten to grade 6 learn at the school, they have the opportunity to learn about culture at school, and there are many beautiful flowers around the school.
The next was ‘Q&A session’. First, the students from Ifugao asked questions like “What is your favorite subject?” What is your favorite food?” When the children from Suzu answered that they liked ‘ramen’ and ‘sushi’, Mr Silva, the school teacher of Ramut Central School, mentioned that they also eat them in Ifugao and many children in his class answered that they liked them! It was surprising to learn that such a very familiar food in Japan is also eaten in Ifugao.
To the question “What is your favorite anime?” from a pupil in Noto, students in Ifugao replied “Naruto”, “Dragon Ball”, “Tokyo Revengers”, and “Attack on Titan”. Some of the students in Noto looked a little nervous as they participated the exchange for the first time, however, as the names of cartoons they knew came out one after another, they looked at each other and cheered happily. To the next question from Noto, “What is your favourite snack?”, answers from Ifugao included things like fish crackers called crackarins, chocolate, broccoli, pretzels, and mangoes. Pupils in Noto seemed intrigued by the commonalities and the unexpected answers that came out from pupils in Ifugao!
Finally, as a farewell message, the students of Shoin Elementary School danced rhythmically to a song they often dance at school. The children of Ramut Central School also sang and danced with great energy! Children from both schools performed very well! The 1st exchange went by very quickly and came to an end, by proming to meet again in a month’s time. We can’t wait to see what the next exchange will be like!
