Welcome to Crossroads!

Welcome to the first of what we hope will be many posts to the Kanto Daiichi High School International Club's official blog, Crossroads.

Why Crossroads? Well, we wanted a title that communicated the idea of several different countries and cultures meeting in one place. Our club has students of Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Chinese decent (as well as an American teacher), and our school has students with family ties to places all over the world, from Asia to Africa. Beyond the diversity within our own walls, our club is working hard to develop a strong sister school relationship with Central Coast Grammar School and Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School in Australia, as well as Tavistock College in the UK. So as ambassadors to the international community both inside and outside of our school, we feel we are truly standing at the place where international cultures, experiences, and perspectives meet: the crossroads.

This is our first year as a club so as excited as we are to start having fun, we also realize that we have a lot of work to do. We hope this blog will help us record our achievements, see where we have been, and decide where we want to go in the future. And of course, we hope that this will be a place where our families and friends can share in our experiences as we grow throughout the year. Feel free to post a comment. Everyone is welcome!

Until next time!

Happy Graduation Day!

The Graduation Ceremony for the Kanto Daiichi seniors was held on Tuesday. It was a nice ceremony and we're really proud of everyone for making it through three challenging years of high school. We know that wherever they go from here they will do great things!

Even though the lower-classmen had the day off our club members came to the ceremony anyway to say goodbye and give message cards to Miwa, Harumi, Shun, Yurie, Ryo, Sachiko, Emi, and Mai. Here are some pictures from the day.





Thank you for the wonderful memories and we'll never forget you!
Kanto Daiichi International Club

Hey guys!

I'm Wenho, a member of international club.

Today we did two things. First, we took a video to introduc our school to foreign country students.

Then, we brought things from home and decorated a pair of jeans. It is for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants program.

It was fun, and we did a good job!

SkuSkuSchool Visit!

Hello eveyone!!I'm SHIORI.

今日は西小松川小学校のすくすくスクールにお邪魔しました(^^) すくすくスクールでは小学生に英語を親しんでもらうために、ゲームをしながら楽しいパーティーを年に数回開いています！

今回はジェスチャーゲームと伝言ゲームをやりました(^O^) 最初は緊張していておとなしかった小学生たちでしたが、徐々に積極的に話してくれるようになり、ゲームはとても盛り上がりました◎! みんなの前でジェスチャーをするのは少し恥ずかしかったのですが(笑)、小学生たちが楽しんでくれたのでよかったです(＃^.^＃)

終了後には、スタッフの方からおいしいお菓子もいただきました☆ありがとうございますm(._.)m 次回も楽しんでもらえるパーティーが開けたらと思います！

それでは、来週のブログもお楽しみに(^^*)!

We had a good time today.

See you～☆

Happy Valentines Day!...でした

今回のブログ担当は小林舞です。一昨日はValentine’s Dayでしたね。

Everyone, how many chocolates did you get??

ＩＮＣではある部員が皆にクッキーを配ってくれました。とてもおいしかったです。
今日の活動は英語で学校紹介する動画を作るために何を紹介したいかなどを話し合いました。頑張って楽しい動画を作るので楽しみに待っててください！

また、いつもと同じように英会話をやりました。今回は「Have you ever~? (今まで～したことありますか)」という英文で会話をしました。

See you again!!

Weekly Update

Hello everyone
松木結佳です！

今日の活動は英語版“スゴロク”をやりました。ただサイコロを使って駒を進めるだけでなく、英語で簡単な問題が書かれています。それに答えられたら駒を少し進めていいといったルールです。

例えば：
A: Do you like sports?
B: Yes, I like playing badminton.
A: Nice! Forward 9 spaces.
B: Oh! Lucky!!

ゲームで楽しく遊べて、英語の力も身につきます！

See you next week!

Weekly Update

こんにちは、

初ブログ一発目の担当は八木はるかです。

関一のインターナショナルクラブでの活動内容は２月２２日に行われる「すくすくスクールのイングリッシュゲーム」に向けての準備と英会話の練習です。

すくすくスクールは小学生と英語のゲームを通じて一緒に英語学ぶことを目的としています。今回はジェスチャーゲームと伝言ゲームを行います。部員全員で力合わせてアイデアを出し合ったり必要なものを作ったりと準備に取り組んでいます。

英会話は留学生が来校したときのために英会話力を強くしようとエリック先生を中心として行っています。みんなで楽しくおしゃべりしています。

部員みんなで協力して楽しく活動しています。

Earlier this year we were honored to meet the Ethiopian ambassador to Japan and have dinner at his residence. We are hoping that at some point Kanto Daiichi is able to develop a sister-school connection with a high school in Ethiopia and the ambassador and his staff have been very gracious and helpful throughout the process.

In fact, they were kind enough to send us tickets to the Ethiopia Association of Japan’s annual event: Ethiopian Night of Music, Dance and Cuisine. Eric Sensei and two of our students went and had a great time dancing and eating (and eating and eating and eating!). We’re very grateful to our friends at the Ethiopian Embassy for letting us take part in such a fun event!

8 months later

Well, as those of you who read the blog have no doubt noticed, posting has been light (read: non-existent) since March. Obviously, the earthquake played a pretty big part in the initial drop-off and then we just got busy with other things and forgot to update in a timely manner.

Well, we're going to try to get back on track. In the coming weeks expect to see posts about the following:

Local Elementary School Visit
English Conversation Classes
Australian Students' Visit
Ethiopian Night of Dining and Dancing
British Students' Visit
Christmas Party

We'll try to put something up once a week so that friends and family can see what we've been up to. Thanks for you patience and we look forward to your comments.

KDI

Earthquake

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're doing okay. There's just no way to know from day to day what part of our lives will be effected by the damage from the quake and speculating would be irresponsible. So we'd just ask everyone to keep Japan in your thoughts, especially those people in the north directly effected by the quake and tsunami.

The Red Cross always needs blood. Now would be a good time to give.

Visitors from Poland!

This past Tuesday we were lucky to host a dance group from Poland. They're here for a competition in Edogawa but they came by in the afternoon and joined us for some Japanese crafts and cooking. They tried their hand at origami and they cooked shiratama, a traditional Japanese sweet made from rice flower.

Everything turned out great and the students had a wonderful time meeting each other. The wonderful thing about a second language is that it doesn't limit you only to communicating with native speakers of that language, but also allows you to interact with anyone who's studied the same language. We were happy that our students had a chance to speak English with our guests from Poland and hopefully their world view has expanded that much more.

Big thanks to the cooking club for taking the time to teach us how to make such delicious food!!

Student Movie Presentation

Some of our students were asked to create short summaries of their favorite movies. The results were really creative and fun. Here's one:

Cinderella

Once upon a time there was a girl, Cinderella.















She lived with step-mother and three sisters.
They were bullies.

One night, good witch appeared and put magic on her.

Witch cast a spell. “Chi-chin-pui-pui-no-pui!”

Cinderella became a princess.

At last, she was taken to the ball and met the prince.











She was dancing with the prince merrily. But it was time that the magic would not work.

When she was running one of her slippers fell off.

The prince picked it up.

One day, the prince visited the village where Cinderella lived.

Checking all the ladies. No one could put on the slipper.

At last, he went to Cinderella’s house and he found the slipper fit Cinderella!!

The prince said, “You are my destiny!” They lived happily ever after.