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Peppy Kids meet Saipan counterparts
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Posted on Jul 23 2005
Members of Japan’s Peppy Kids Club arrived Friday morning and all 176 of them went straight to the EIC Marianas Inc. office in Nauru Building for a daylong cultural exchange with CNMI youngsters.
Some 220 local children from the Commonwealth greeted the visiting Japanese children and engaged them in several interactive fun events, such as origami and mwar mwar making.
Saipan Education Center Inc. president Akira Hiraii and Saipan Business Language Institute president Ikuo Yoshizawa welcomed the visiting club members in the morning.
Both presidents said the event aims to provide both groups of children a chance to experience and learn about each other’s cultures through the interaction.
The Peppy Kids Club is the English language academy of Chuoh Publishing Core Inc. In 1993 there were only five such schools in three prefectures in Japan, but because of the success of Peppy Kids Club, it currently has over 1,000 schools spread throughout 41 prefectures, with a total of over 78,000 students.
EIC officer Irene Cruz said the activity is one of the sponsoring groups’ multi-cultural exchange programs. She said the first batch of the cultural exchange program started Friday and will last until today.
Organization president Ikuo O. Yoshizawa said they are also working with local agencies to work on the tour. Cruz said the activity, entitled Pacific-Peppy Weekend Summer Fun Event, is a three-day event that will hold cultural exchanges between the two nations at the Nauru Building in Susupe, followed by a mini-Olympics at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium from 10am to 1pm yesterday.
Another cultural exchange at the Nauru Building will also take place today, she said.
Yoshizawa earlier said the objectives of the club are to give students international awareness, provide the opportunity to communicate with children around the world, and stimulate students to formulate exciting dreams for their own future.
At the Peppy Kids Club’s schools, students put into use the skills they have gained using a unified system called the Total Set System. The skills are learned by speaking, writing, playing games, dancing, singing, crafts and arts, and doing other activities in English.
