Hello everyone! I am Jyoko in charge of the news letter.
Last month, I visited "Vegetalia Mie University Village" of Pangaea in Tsu city, Mie prefecture, Japan, and participated in their activity after 6 months absence.
In the news letter of this month, I would like to feature the Webcam Activity between the "Vegetalia Mie University Village" and "MIZY
Village" in Seoul, Korea.
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1. Vegetalia Mie University Village - MIZY Village report by Ucchy
2. Vegetalia Mie University Village - MIZY Village Webcam survey report
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1. Vegetalia Mie University Village - MIZY Village report by Ucchy
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Hello, this is Ucchy, I run the Vegetalia Mie University Village as part of the Pangaea, where I have been FL (Facilitation Leader) for the past year.

"Activity Report"
On 14th March in the Vegetalia Mie University Village, we held webcam activities with the MIZY Village (based in South Korea). As part of the activities, four teams were selected at random and then using real-time video streaming, everyone could chat like friends and it helped create a really enjoyable atmosphere. This time we played "Nazoren" (*1) and it was interesting to see the different ways each team worked to come up with their answers. I was surprised too by how varied the answers were, and the strength of the teamwork the children showed when they decided on their final answer.

The Korean children at the MIZY Village would use "Giant Pictons," which are handy placards of facial expression Pictons" to show their feelings and emotions to us through the webcam. Everyone was nervous to begin with, but after playing "Koetsuna," (*2) the children were all smiling and happy. After this, each team introduced themselves and we began to play Nazoren. The children at the MIZY Village would think hard about the answers from the hint they were given, and both the Japanese and Korean teams would celebrate when they got it correct. It was a great way to show them that "the good are good, and the bad are bad" or "judge by a person’s character, not their country;" you could truly feel that they bonded well in spite of any religious or cultural differences.

Pictures from the activities are here

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(*1) Nazoren is one of the activities used here at Pangaea. Groups are made based on location, and one group (for example, the Japanese green team) will have to give hints and the other group (for example, the Korean green team) will have to guess an answer from the hints given. The fewer hints the team needs to get the answer, the more points they will receive. (The green, red, blue and yellow teams all compete against each other)
The point of making corresponding teams from each country work together is that they can earn more points by showing they are thinking about cultural background, ways of thinking or developing a mutual understanding with others.

(*2) Koetsuna is something we use to break the ice before starting the main webcam activity. It means "to bring our voices together". Both sides will shout "Pangaea!" as loudly as they can, and the side which manages to shout the loudest wins. Shouting is a good way to get rid of any nerves.
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"And lastly..."
At the end of the activities, Yumi gave a few kind words. "Thank you for your hard work Ucchy. We are grateful for your work for the past year in the Vegetalia Mie University Village," she said, and then the children and staff all thanked me as well. I was really happy to hear that, and I felt overwhelmed as I realised that would be my last time as FL.

I have been working as part of Pangaea for three and a half years now. The past year as FL has not been easy, but it has been worth it and I have had a great time in the position. I am grateful to those at Tsu City Educational Committee as well as staff who would help think of activities for each month. It was thanks to all of you that we were able to work as we have this year. Also, thank you to Spike and Eri, who worked as FLs previously, for creating an agenda and the structure for the slides, and for explaining this accurately to me. I am truly grateful to everyone. I have relied on your help throughout and I would like very much to say thank you.

I will be working full-time from next year, but I would like to try and continue to participate in the Vegetalia Mie Univ. Village. I look forward to continuing to work alongside everyone in the future.

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2. Vegetalia Mie University Village - MIZY Village Webcam survey report
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Pangaea conducts surveys before and after the Webcam activities to see the changes in children.
The question we ask the children is "How do you feel about the partner country and the people?" Children have 5 options to select from "Love them, Like them, OK, Don’t like them much, Hate them"
Following pie charts (please click the following URL) are the survey result.

We had 43 responses for the surveys. According to the results, the Webcam based communications seem to be providing positive influence for both Vegetalia Mie University Village and MIZY Village. For example, in Korea, the score of the "Love them and Like them" significantly changed from pre-activity 55% to post-activity 95%. In Vegetalia Mie University Village, the score of "Don’t like them much" became 0% after the activity.

For the open question of "Please write anything on what you feel about the partner country," we found many general comments which children write based on what they hear from the society (setting apart the truth or fault of the information) before the activity. However, after the Webcam activity, we found more specific comments based on their visual and physical experience.

I wonder if children are aware of their changes?
These small changes that happen unconsciously are what we want them to experience. I am very happy to see this survey result that is telling me that our objective is somewhat achieved.

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Pangaea runs surveys before and after the Webcam activities to see the changes in children. The question we ask the children is “How do you feel about the partner country and the people?”. Children have 5 options to select from “Love them, Like them, OK, Don’t like them much, Hate them” Following graphs are the survey result from Vegeteria Mie.

Vegetalia Mie

MIZY center(Korea)

We had about 40 responses for the surveys. According to the results, the Webcam based communications seem to be providing positive influence for both Vegetalia Mie and Korea. For example, in Korea, the score of the “Love them and Like them” significantly changed from pre-activity 55% to post-activity 95%. In Vegetalia Mie, the score of “Don’t like them much” became 0% after the activity.

For the open question of “Please write anything on what you feel about the partner country”, we found many general comments which children write based on what they hear from the society (setting apart the truth or fault of the information) before the activity. However, after the Webcam activity, we found more specific comments based on their visual and physical experience.

I wonder if children are aware of their changes?
These small changes that happen unconsciously are what we want them to experience. I am very happy to see this survey result that is telling me that our objective is somewhat achieved.