Published: 2022/05/11

～Introduction～

We always work with international students from different backgrounds and have students from various backgrounds in Japanese schools, which are gradually becoming more internationalized.
We respect each international and Japanese student as an independent individual, while at the same time, we aim for Japanese students to enjoy learning about and interacting with the cultures and values of various countries in English
Therefore, we would like all participants to understand the “goals” and agree with these “important” things.

【Goals for all programs】
The programs we conduct focus on the Japanese students, aiming at giving them an optimal educational opportunity. We expect that international students pursue the same goals with Tomonokai and put effort in achieving it together.

The goals of our programs are that Japanese students:
1- Get the courage to communicate using English
2- Feel that “they have the power to do it”
3- Have interest/curiosity towards the World

【Important policies for all programs】
Attitudes stated below are required to every participant.
-To be respectful to all the people who are related to this program
-To be patient and try to understand others
-Not to judge others / not to give decisions of good/bad opinions
-To think about the different opinions as different points of view
-To refrain from discussing the following extremely sensitive topics, that may lead to unexpected problems between us.
　-Political arguments
　-Religious claims (although it would be interesting to talk about customs and culture...)
　-Sexuality

*We are asking these as ways of working with us in the programs and do not wish to limit your private, personal thoughts.

～About discussion in our programs ～

In some programs, the contents may bring some discussions between participants and we might find differences of opinions / viewpoints, so we would ask you to understand the following important things as well.

【Important points for the discussion during the program】
Through the discussion in programs, we would like *students to..

A ) know and learn about many aspects of the issues happening/ cultural differences in the world
In this program, we deal with social issues / cultural differences and think about them from different perspectives.
We would like students to realize that those events are happening in “our world”, not “somewhere in the world”.

B ) think about the issues / diversity in an inclusive way
The goal of the discussion in our program is to encourage students to follow a direction in which
-how we can all be happy
-how we can help each other

C ) share their ideas comfortably
Not to give students certain answers, but to give them the opportunity to share what they feel, think through the conversation with international students.
*students=participants of this program from Japanese schools

～Lastly…～

There might be many conflicts, paradoxes, fights, destructions and abuses in our real life.
We think that through conversation, we can learn from each other, try to understand, and start thinking about small things that they can do.
Needless to say, it is not an easy process, but we think those small steps make “our” future better.

Tomonokai Co.,Ltd.
Global Education team
Power in ME programs