Teacher note
Access: getting there

Worksheet

People get better access to the world around them if they enquire about it. From inquiry comes information and opportunity to develop understanding. Inquiry that gets such results leads to better access.

Access to things Japanese – and to Japan – has grown over recent generations. Japanese exporters gave the grandparents of today’s students access to cars, trucks and other technologies that helped modernize New Zealand. Those exporters gave the next generation household products such as televisions and radios. A generation ago New Zealanders gave Japan access to lamb and to Kiwifruit, more recently we expanded opportunities for them to study with native speakers of English. This generation has access to all sorts of consumer items – from computers to mobile phones, from play stations to other toys. Thanks to student exchange programmes – and other initiatives the Japanese have taken over recent generations to foster internationalisation – they have increased access to Japanese in New Zealand and in Japan.

Possible key understandings that you may wish students in your class to explore are outlined below:
Globalisation has increased global connectedness.
Global connectedness has increased access to remote destinations.
Organisations are set up to provide travel and work opportunities in Japan.

This chapter of the Kansai through Kiwi eyes DVD offers a number of illustrative examples of access in the New Zealand and Kansai settings, including,
• Playing sports Japanese and New Zealanders both like
• Hosting Japanese students on student exchange visits here, and staying with Japanese homestays on exchange visits there
• Getting information from school, libraries, internet sites, travel agents, airlines, Japanese Embassy and New Zealand government, business and other circles about getting started on a visit to Japan
• Getting started on finding information, funding and relationships which make it possible to study and teach in Japan
• Write a budget for a trip you, and a group from your school, could make for two weeks to a school in Japan. Say where the money might come from.

The link to the PDF files below are examples of worksheets that can be used to explore the central concept (i.e. access) of this chapter.

Further lines of inquiry for the classroom
1. Ask students to describe a situation in which they felt uncomfortable in a new environment. What might have helped them feel better in that environment?
2. Provide examples of Japanese access to education in New Zealand – e.g. exchange visits, fee paying study
3. Use the Japan National Tourism Organisation website, or some other, to write a ‘web treasure hunt’
4. Do members of your class have ideas of their own about access? How would they plan, communicate and make arrangements with students, their teachers, parents and city administration, to visit Japan? Use a wiki on the internet
5. What are some great historical examples of access between Japan and the rest of the world? Eg information, entertainment, markets, visits