SD53

School District 53 has 9 schools:

1 Primary schools
5 Elementary schools
3 Secondary schools

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Kimiko organized a series of cultural workshops for the Southern Okanagan Oliver Secondary School (SOSS) students who are going to visit Bandai this summer.  Oliver office received many positive feedbacks from students, their parents, and the mayor for this initiative.  The Oliver mayor reached out to SOICS team members during one of the community meetings and commended the Oliver office staff.

Bandai, Japan, is a sister city of Oliver. The relationship began in 1988 and involves delegations visiting the cities on an alternating basis. In the past, members of council and the business community have travelled to Bandai.

This is the first year that a group of SOSS students with a chaperone are travelling to Bandai.  Seven grade nine students attended all three sessions.  Tracey Harrington, Vice-principle of, and chaperone for the program, attended two sessions.  SOICS partnered with the SOSS student exchange program and offered Kimiko’s services to orientate these students.  Kimiko is certified to teach Japanese and was very happy to design the orientation sessions.  These sessions included information on a combination of Japanese culture and Japanese language lesson for beginners:

• Brief background about Japanese culture: Geography / Climate
• Various Manners (greeting salutations, communication style, meal selection and eating manners)
• Difference of foyer, bathroom, washroom, bedroom
• Tourism Info of Bandai, Asakusa and Harajuku where students are visiting in Japan
• Currency denominators, local youth culture, what to expect from the host family
• Japanese language: personal introduction, greetings, asking questions (directions, prices, time, object), Requests such as “Please pass me/hand me”

Tracey specifically asked Kimiko to arrange more orientations sessions if possible because she found this arrangement to be very helpful.  The next orientation (date to be arranged in the future) will involve parents of the students and members of Oliver Town Council.

The group leaves for Bandai, Oliver’s sister city in Japan on July 30 – returning August 5th .

While in Bandai, the group will have the opportunity to live with a Japanese host family, visit the town office and local sights, and then tour parts of Tokyo.

This trip is made possible through the International Education Partnership Project of Bandai.

[hr]All of SOICS’ services are free for eligible immigrants. For more information on becoming a SOICS client, please visit Getting Started at SOICS. To make an appointment, please call or visit one of our offices.