EXCELLANGUES

On November 22 and 23, the language festival “EXCELLANGUES” was held at the Halle aux Foires of Libramont, located in Luxembourg Province, in attendance of Ms. Ikoma. The aim of the event is to allow students of the fifth and sixth grade of elementary schools in Luxembourg to participate as teams to learn foreign languages and get familiar with other cultures at the different booths which each represent a different country, including Japan.
The Embassy of Japan in Belgium, together with the cooperation of the Belgian Association of Japanese Language Teachers, has been holding the popular workshop “Hajimemashite” (nice to meet you) every year since 2011. During the workshop, simple expressions were taught, such as “konnichiwa” (hello) and “arigato” (thank you). Also, Japanese culture was introduced through Japanese characters and the folding of a “kabuto” (samurai helmet) from a Japanese newspaper. A total of 400 pupils in 24 teams were taught Japanese.
Every team competed with one another, based on their results obtained at the 3 booths they visited. During an award ceremony, the teams in the top three positions received an award, and Ms. Ikoma praised them for their good performance.