Once again this year, 6 teacher-trainee international students who are government-sponsored international students enrolled at Osaka Kyoiku University (all are junior/senior high school teachers in their home countries) participated in the English Salon program in June. The activities are to think and learn about global issues with these international students in English for Hirano first-year students on Wednesdays after school.

This year, these international students are from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ghana, and Morocco. They all have long careers as school teachers and know how to be friendly with Japanese senior high school students well, and they both enjoyed their first exchange with each other.

Four of them also participated in the “Cultural Festival” held on June ２1. Guided by students participating in the English Salon, they had an interesting first encounter to a Japanese high school cultural festival. For the students in charge of the event, it was their first cross-cultural challenge to teach these overseas teachers about what is the cultural festival. It surely become an enjoyable experience for both of them as we found many smiles on their faces during their time together.