NIFA NEWS English(S/N001)

March 1, 2019
Issue: NPO N I F A
1chome 4, Edogawadai-higashi

NPONagareyama, Chiba 270-0111
Tel.：04-7128-6007
Email:nifa-support@bz04.plala.or.jp
http/nifa-home.sakura.ne.jp/

20 Students from the Redlynch State College (hereafter RSC) in Australia lead by Mr. Nicholas Smith (usuallycalled him Nick-san) and 2 other teachers visited Japan and Nagareyama in 2 years since the last visit. They
spent 3 days experiencing the home-stay.
When Nick-san was a student, he visited Japan and experienced a home-stay in the city and this was a golden
opportunity for him to touch a different culture, food, lifestyle, etc.

See off with fully packed of good memories

20 RSC students were hosted by the family of the Nagareyama
Ootakanomori High School (hereafter NOH) student, and 3 accompanied
teachers were hosted by the member of NIFA Home-Stay Division.
A few times since Nick-san started a Japan Tour at an early stage, RSCstudents were also hosted by the family of Home-Stay Division. There wasthe NIFA in this background.
Nowadays, NOH students were visiting Australia and they stayed with thefamily of RSC students and a relationship between two schools has beendeveloping to exchange home-stay program at each side regularly.

During their stay in the city, RSC students
experienced a Japanese high school life at theNOH. / 1st period, they attended in a ‘calligraphyclass’, and practiced the two words namely "wind"and "sea". Followed by the explanation on how to
use the tools and the order of writing, and they
started the writing practice using a HANSHI(papered used for calligraphy). After selecting
either word, they wrote the word using a SHIKISHI

One day school life makes them closer, taken by Nick-Sansquare
hardsquareboard hardpaper)and paper)signed andon it.signed on it. / 2nd period, was a [communication basic] class. Combined the(normallyboard
first grade students of NOH with the RSC 2 students and were divided them into 2 groups. One group consisted by 2or 3 NOH students and 1 from RSC, and through presenting a self-introduction and Q&A, they became a very closeeach other soon later.After that, they challenged compiling a leaflet
introducing Australia./ Another group was ‘What am I?’, and or ‘Who amI?’ Quiz activity.One student from each school presented Questions
repeatedly until the right answer come out. This activity was, needlessto say, done all in English. Afterward, the RSC student spent a very
fulfilling day together with the NOH student in' cooking practice andphysical education―１―

NIFA NEWS English(S/N001)

March 1,2019

There were students who seemed "hesitation”, but
through activity they were gradually open their mind being
much closer each other, and the appearance of studyingin peaceful atmosphere was a fresh impression.

We hosted as it isChikako Matsudate

Twenty students and three teachers of Cairns High School, Australia, visited Nagareyama city on September 20
and stayed for three days. Belinda, a woman teacher home-stayed with us for three nights. It was her fourth visitto Japan. She could hardly speak Japanese. As I studied in Australia for more than a year and kept in touch with
Australian friend since then, I did not worry anything about her staying with us and looked forward to her arrival.
I have two sons, four years and one year old. The elder one was interested in English and the younger one wascurious about everything and sociable with others. I expected they would get easily used to visit of a guest fromAustralia.
On the first day, the second son was nervous in the beginning but while Belinda and my two kids were watching
TV together talking on the picture books and souvenirs she brought, they gradually came to understand eachother, though Belinda spoke in English and my kids in Japanese. For example, the elder son asked " What do you
say this in English ?". Belinda answered in English each one by one. He listened and copied her pronunciation.
The second son kept smiling while watching a popular TV CM film kids'songs. I was frankly surprised to see

how kids were flexible to adapt. Belinda seemed to have many nieces and nephews and she was accustomed andfamiliar to treat children. Sometimes my kids suddenly get in a bad mood while kneading toy bodies. It drives me
crazy. We talked children are the same everywhere though the country is different.
My husband is a professional cook. On the first evening, he made a welcome feast for us. Belinda loved Yuzu
pepper in particular served with beef steak. She had known soy sauce and wasabi but did not know Yuzu pepper.
She bought it for a souvenir. She was interested in seaweed cut into Halloween pumpkin shape when I showed
her pictures of my sons' Halloween party of last year.
We offered her Japanese style Tatami room and Futon for her bed. I was relieved to hear that she slept well in
our Futon mat. Our bathtub gives micro bubbles with jet nozzle. I know Australian like to take shower in themorning, but I suggested she try our bath at night before going to bed so that she get healed and recover fromfatigue. She tried our bath on the first and third nights.
On Saturday, the third day, we all went out to a big shopping mall called Seven Park Ario Kashiwa.
In addition to souvenirs,Belinda bought some food ingredients to cook a mealfor us to reciprocate our hospitality.
However, one of the herbs (fresh fennel) was not familiar in Japan so much, sowe could not find it even at a big supermarket. It made it with salmon andpancetta and baby leaf. However, trying to eat it was tasty enough not to botherme even if there was no herb. Last night, she enjoyed playing together with mytwo sons.
Her three- day stay with us passed so quickly. The elder son in particular was
so reluctant to part from her as he was attached to her.
In next year she will be visiting Japan with her husband because there will
have a rugby world convention . I am looking forward to seeing her again.
―２―NIFANEWS

English（S/N 001）

Dutch Class in Kikkoman Arena on Sep.18,2018

March 1,2019～Before the camp of the ladies’ volleyball team from the Netherlands～
The staff of the Arena gathered for training early in the morning on Sep.18.,2018.
The big theme was “The culture of the Netherlands and teaching of the Dutch language”,
which NIFA was requested to do by the Arena.
The Dutch instructor was Mr.Nifuyus Yoss who is known to many people in Nagareyama nowadays.
In the first, the theme was “ Let’s learn about the Netherlands”. He told us about the Netherlands i.e. geography, history,
relationship between the Netherlands and Japan, industry, culture, sports, food, and so on./ In the second, the theme was“Let’s practice Dutch language”. “Good morning” is “Goete morgen”, “Thank you” is “Dank u”, “Yes” is “ Ja”, “No” is “Nee” andso on./ When Dutch players come to Nagareyama, we’d like to welcome them at least with these greetings./ In the third,“Let’s practice English.” Nanika goyou desuka?” is “May I help you?”etc.. We practiced these expressions, repeating after
Yoss and working in groups, which were to be useful to us. The ending theme was “Speak aloud and smile”.
We wondered if this lesson would be useful and practical in the camp from Sep. 23.

Nederlandes Keuken expected on our Table
NIFA held Nederlandse Keuken School that is one of the Netherlands exchange
program allocated by Nagareyama city authority on November 11,2018.
On the day of the event, Hatsuishi Public Hall was filled with the smell of sweet apple
sauce. The instructor was Mr. Stef van Lamoen who is a chef of “BARN&FOREST 148
cafe” in Otakanomori. This day’s menu were “The Netherlands tomato sauce”, ”Stampootof carrot and potato with apple sauce” and “Banana pancake”.
The participants who attended the event were very excited especially when they turned
over their pancake and it seemed like they were interested to what the instructor
said ;Tomato and potato are usually used for cooking in the Netherlands and Pancake
is very popular in the Netherlands and it has a hundred of different flavors. Theparticipants really enjoyed The Netherlands cuisine. This event was held on
27 in Tobu Public Hall.

 Welcome Indonesian high school students
at Ping Pong and Balinese dance and KecakOctober 7th (Sun) was a midsummer day. We had a welcome party forhigh school students from Indonesia on this day. In the morning, we playeda table tennis at the community center and after that a social gathering washeld. This time, 4 students stayed at host families.
They enjoyed table tennis with our homestay division staff divided into
four groups beyond the generations. At lunch time, Miss Zelazoski and herfriend’s family welcomed the students with Indonesian dance. They werefascinated by the vibrant Balinese National costume and music. At the end,
everyone was divided into two groups, and experienced Kecak(*) with aunique shout and something like percussion rhythm .
(*)Kecak is a performance of male chorus for Balinese hindu magicalmusic

drama dance(Sanhyhy)-3-November

NIFA NEWS

EnglishMarch 1,2019(S/N001)

 NIFA supports Tour Guide Training hosts by Nagareyama SGG clubOn September 19th, 2018, 19 citizens who aim to deliver attractive points ofNagareyama to foreign visitors participated in this seminar at Gallery Heizaemon
near Unga station of Tobu Urban Park Line.
In the morning session, Mr. Tadashi Negishi, who has much experienced as aninstructor for guiding interpreters, explained about trend of inbound tourists, afundamental attitude and hospitality required for voluntary guides. Group work wasdone to prepare English expression for afternoon practice.
Walking on the bank of Canal, one by one practiced the guide in English at Chobono-oka, Biriken statute, Waterside Park and about Kubota Sake Brewer.
Participants must have learned that the guiding is a bridge to intermediate
between mind and heart, and that, for good guiding, high level of speaking ability is not required, but it is enough to use clear andeasy expressions. Next year many foreign visitors are expected to come to Nagareyama city.
(( Opportunity of collaboration between Nagareyama SGG Club and NIFA will increase much more than before. ))The report on volunteer interpreter training course for 2020 Chiba

Shiho Yuasa

A 3-day interpreter training course for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic
volunteers was held by the “Chiba Convention Bureau and International Center” at Inzai city last October.
We learned about the mindset and manners required to be English volunteer interpreters there. And we also learned about basic knowledge of theOlympics and Paralympics.
A London Olympic silver medalist in fencing talked about his sport because fencing games are going to be held in Chiba city. He also talked about
what is it like at the Olympic village. He said Olympians are very nervous or sensitive at the Olympic village, and that volunteer supporters helped him
when he was lost in the Olympic village.
A coach of the Japanese Goalball team talked about the Paralympics and he gave us an opportunity
to try some exercises and to play rolling catch wearing `eyeshades` which shut out all light for theplayers.`Eyeshades` are used at the Paralympics so that all the competitors feel the same level of visual
impairment at the game. We learned the difficulty of blind sports but we also learned how much fun it is.
He also showed us how to guide blind people.
This was a valuable experience for learning the mindset for supporting blind people.
Tried Goalball play putting on
Eye-shade Making Te-uchi-soba noodle found to be profound meaning
Wearing aprons, a total of 25 people, including 13 students of lesson course of Japanese, gathered at thecentral public hall on October 24th 2018.
This time, we tried to make Japanese food for a change. The instructor was Mr. Tomio Uehara who runs
te-uchi-soba (making soba-noodle from the beginning) restaurant named Mumei-an in Nagareyama city.
"It was fun to participate in the suba-uchi ( the process of making soba-noodle ). Mr.Uehara taught us withkindness. It was a little more difficult than I had expected. It turned out to be pastas rather than a soba noodle,but it was very tasty.”” This is my first time to make soba. I had thought that soba making would be easy but it was actually very deep. I could feel one of theJapanese cultures throughout making soba." "I enjoyed soba activities so much. I learned how to make soba, I got a little understanding of the culture ofbuckwheat. It was fun to take an interesting class by the teacher. I think that it would be useful for living well. I would like to make it by myself at home. Thesoba I made would be expensive. Thank you." From the impressions of the students who participated in, we found they really enjoyed themselves. We thought
they deepened their understanding of Japanese culture.

Glamorous Tai Chi Dance performing
by NIFA members, between dynamic
and Energetic kids dancingFor the Shimin(civil) Festival, Nov.4,2018

At Kikkoman Arena-4-