Intercultural Exchange in Kindergartens and its Influence on Kindergartners

Recently in Japanese kindergartens and nursery schools the numbers of foreign and bi-cultural children are increasing.Izumi-Gakuen Izumi Kindergarten and Kanto-Gakuin Noba Kindergarten tried various intercultural exchange programs.Izumi Kindergarten employed a native English speaker as a part-time instructor. He didn\u27t need to teach English, but only played with the kindergarten children. This program aimed to help children gain natural contact with people from other cultures from childhood.We had some multicultural workshops in Noba Kindergarten. At first we invited a Korean troupe from Kawasaki to come. They taught us Korean culture through a big picture story. Then they led a game and let the kindergartners try on Korean clothes. In addition to this, parents of Korean nationality cooked Korean food at a kindergarten program and the kindergartners ate it together with them.In addition, we had a cultural exchange program with the Russian school in Japan. Pupils from the Russian school showed us a folk play, and the kindergartners of Noba Kindergarten sang Japanese songs.In this way, Izumi Kindergarten and Noba Kindergarten had cross-cultural exchange programs. This had a great influence on both Japanese children and bi-cultural children