On April 6^th 2011, eighteen StepOutNet volunteers came to the Japan Foundation London office for the final StepOutNet Training Day in our five-course series.

After listening to detailed and interesting reports from two of our volunteers’ visits to Heathside Preparatory School and Sandgate Primary School, the volunteers took part in workshops by Mr. Seiji Fukushima, Chief Japanese Language Advisor at the Japan Foundation.  These workshops demonstrated how Japanese language and culture can be taught in fun and effective ways during StepOutNet sessions, and activities included teaching how to bow, simple self-introduction games and the Origami Samurai Helmet Game!

One of our new volunteers commented, “I thought three hours would be a long time, but in fact it was really useful and worthwhile.  It was great to be able to hear about the experiences of other volunteers.” (「３時間は長いかなと思ってたのですが、すごく有意義だったので、あっという間だった。今まで、ボランティアをした人の経験がきけてすごくよかった。」).

We would like to thank all our volunteers for taking part, and hope that they can join us again for the first StepOutNet Training Day of our 2011 course this summer.

If you are interested in becoming a member of StepOutNet, our volunteer programme for offering Japanese taster sessions at UK schools, please click here for more information.