St. Charles Kids Learning Japanese Culture From Pen Pals

Eighth-graders at St. Charles Catholic School and 18 pen pals who are visiting from Japan may not speak the same language - but they’re finding some common ground during the 11-day stay.

The Japanese students from Yamaguchi are spending their spring breaks with the St. Charles students.

“This was a great opportunity that came up for our kids and theirs,” said teacher Tim Cox. “My kids need to learn that there is a whole other way of living outside the United States that is nothing like ours.”

He also hopes that at least some of the American and Japanese students will make friends for life.

Tim Aked and Kazuya Narumoto seem to be well on their way.

The pair of 13-year-olds spent their first evening together shooting hoops and eating hamburgers.

“I think we have a lot in common,” Tim said. “We both love sports, especially basketball. He likes to help around our house. He’s going to help do dishes.”

Monday morning Kazuya fixed Tim’s family the kind of breakfast of rice paddies and sugar he would have eaten at home.

During the visit, the American and Japanese students are taking turns learning to write in each other’s languages. Japanese students, who have studied English for about three years, are finding conversations with their fast-talking American counterparts to be challenging, said chaperone Yuri Oyana.

Japanese social studies teacher Masaaki Kubota said his students, like the St. Charles students, haven’t met many people different from themselves. For many of them, the trip from Japan last weekend was the first time they had been on a plane.

During the school day the Japanese students attend some classes with their pen pals. They also have their own language classes and classes about how American money compares with Japanese.

Andrea Wasson said even if language is a barrier, she enjoys watching the Japanese students as they talk and joke with each other.

She’s also noticed the Japanese students watching the Americans do the same thing.

Safety first

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department received a grant to buy traffic cones for the crosswalks outside Deer Park schools.

Quilting bees

Fifth-graders at Brentwood Elementary learned about the slave trade by making the kind of quilt black women made during the era of slavery.

Teacher Millie Hill said her students are now tying the quilt. Earlier in the year the students made African motif animal shapes for the quilt. The work is part of an African American culture and Civil War unit.

“We talked about how all these women could bring from Africa was the memories they had in their heads,” she said. “In their homes at night using scraps of material they made their memories into pictures on quilts.”

Historical studies

Mead’s junior high students won big in the annual History Day Competition. In the competition held at Mead Junior High School last week, 51 Mead and Northwood junior high students qualified to go on to a state competition at Central Washington University in Ellensburg.

The History Day competition is a national program sponsored by the University of Maryland.

Northwood seventh grade winners were: Jill Becker and Megan Ristau. Northwood eighth grade winners were: Kristin Poage, Sara Savage, Michelle Hardwick, Amanda Driscoll, Erica Drouin, Sudha Nandagopal, Leslie Siemens and Maggie Temte.

Mead Junior High School ninth grade winners were: Erin Kennedy, Jeffrey Sackmann, Stephanie Green, Mackzinie Stewart, Shelby Heline, Robert Peterson and Jeff Hubbard.

MEMO: The Education Notebook is a weekly feature of The North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Write: Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, Wash., 99210. Call: 459-5484. Fax: 459-5482.