Dec 2007 Newsletter: Yumi's Monthly Note
Hello Everyone,Konnichiha! Ahn-nyong-ha-se-yo! Hello!! At the beginning of our 3-location Webcam activity, taking place on November 24, all children exchanged greetings in three languages, Japanese, Korean, and German. Webcams offered real-time communications among three cities, Kyoto, Soul, and Vienna. In spite of the 8 hour time difference and language barriers, kids were energetic; rooms echoed with children's voices. We prepared some games and activities for this event. During a game, Tell My Name, both Japanese and South Korean children were impressed by Viennese kids and gave a big hand. Initially, those Asian children viewed that pronouncing Korean names might be difficult for Viennese children: Korean kids didn't expect to be pronounced their names correctly. For this event, we made our flip cards, Giant Pictons, bigger than usual. Kids were waving the cards to cheer on their team mates, which brought a lot of excitements. To be honest, we couldn't shake off our worries until we saw children playing a Color Matching Game. We were wondering if it would be a daunting challenge for them due to huge cultural differences between Vienna and two Asian countries, Japan and South Korea. Nevertheless, they played it very well. We surprisingly had a perfect match in three languages.
We were thrilled
by the fact that there are similar ways of thinking among children
regardless of cultural background. They tend to be reserved around
those whom they don't know well, but they all stood up to greet and
introduce themselves to other kids in foreign languages. As their names
were called via webcams, their faces were lit up with a bunch of smiles.
It was a long way to get to this point. There have been many devoted volunteers helping with us in Kyoto. In order to carry out this project successfully, they attended rehearsals and webcam meetings, connecting Kyoto, Soul, and Vienna, every Saturday. We needed to overcome time differences among those three cities. Vienna was our biggest concern: those who used to work for Pangaea as a facilitator rushed into there from England and Italy to rescue us. There are some ingredients to make this event success, such as hard work, solidarity, and technology. Our powerful translation tool, the Language Grid Project, was a key component of effective communication. Of course, without technical volunteers and their capabilities, the machine would not be operated. They tested it over and over again in three languages. Indeed, it IS Peace Engineering! Kids fully enjoyed the event; they have no idea that we worked frantically to make the day exciting.
One of our facilitators, Sho, mentioned me that it will be great if we can have a social function with Vienna facilitators. Evidently, his comment shows all staff participants, as well as children, bonded as a team. It can be a big step toward exploring our new projects in Europe and Africa next year. Anyway, it made our day! I prepared myself to give speeches in German and Korean for this event. Because of my struggles with German, I was relieved that I could make myself understood in both languages. German is really, really, really difficult... But, I might want to take an advantage of this opportunity to learn German. We'll see!
The writer of Pangaea Ring of this month is Mr. Kouhei Kadowaki, a graduate student of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. His nickname is "Kadoppe" and he is a Technical Leader at Pangaea Activity in Kyoto. As a technical volunteer staff, he has been contributing a lot to us in modifying PangaeaNet and developing other Pangaea software system.
See you next month!
Yumi
It was a long way to get to this point. There have been many devoted volunteers helping with us in Kyoto. In order to carry out this project successfully, they attended rehearsals and webcam meetings, connecting Kyoto, Soul, and Vienna, every Saturday. We needed to overcome time differences among those three cities. Vienna was our biggest concern: those who used to work for Pangaea as a facilitator rushed into there from England and Italy to rescue us. There are some ingredients to make this event success, such as hard work, solidarity, and technology. Our powerful translation tool, the Language Grid Project, was a key component of effective communication. Of course, without technical volunteers and their capabilities, the machine would not be operated. They tested it over and over again in three languages. Indeed, it IS Peace Engineering! Kids fully enjoyed the event; they have no idea that we worked frantically to make the day exciting.
One of our facilitators, Sho, mentioned me that it will be great if we can have a social function with Vienna facilitators. Evidently, his comment shows all staff participants, as well as children, bonded as a team. It can be a big step toward exploring our new projects in Europe and Africa next year. Anyway, it made our day! I prepared myself to give speeches in German and Korean for this event. Because of my struggles with German, I was relieved that I could make myself understood in both languages. German is really, really, really difficult... But, I might want to take an advantage of this opportunity to learn German. We'll see!
The writer of Pangaea Ring of this month is Mr. Kouhei Kadowaki, a graduate student of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. His nickname is "Kadoppe" and he is a Technical Leader at Pangaea Activity in Kyoto. As a technical volunteer staff, he has been contributing a lot to us in modifying PangaeaNet and developing other Pangaea software system.
See you next month!
Yumi
Posted by: kumakinoko | 3. Newsletter
