News 

Dear Parents,

At YIS, we have students from about 50 different countries and for many of our students English is not their first language. From within these 50 countries, there are many language groups represented. We would like to celebrate our diversity of languages and culture during:

Mother Tongue and Culture Week
December 7-11, 2009

During this week, we would like give parents and students the opportunity to present and share their language and culture through various ways. In the elementary school, the daily morning assembles have provided the perfect platform for big performances such as dances, songs and skits. Some of the performances from the past years would include; Sinter Class skit, Santa Lucia songs, Croatian songs, dances from Philipines, Australia, Dandia and Bhangra dances from India.

This year, we would like to extend mother tongue into the classrooms. Parents are invited to share their language and culture with their child in the classroom setting.  This would be a short lesson that could include for example reading a story, learning basic greetings, sampling some cooking or teaching a song.

If you would like to present something which reflects your child’s mother tongue and home culture during the week, in either these morning assemblies or in your child’s classroom and also, if you have any queries or questions in this regard, please contact Sunita Devadas devadas@yis.ac.jp.

Paul Neary
Elementary School Principal