PUHI — The brisk trades and sunshine were all the elements needed for Kaua‘i Community College instructor Eric Anderson to move his group to an open-air classroom. Anderson, who reminisced about his days of teaching English in Japan, said, “This
PUHI — The brisk trades and sunshine were all the elements needed for Kaua‘i Community College instructor Eric Anderson to move his group to an open-air classroom.
Anderson, who reminisced about his days of teaching English in Japan, said, “This is a no-brainer.”
He is working with a group of 15 students from the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing, who began their two-week study tour yesterday.
Anderson created quiz cards for the students to use, asking questions that pertained to Kaua‘i history, culture, and popular visitor-destination sites, each student taking a turn reading out a multiple-choice question with the rest of the group’s members ready to answer.
“I’ll create a sheet with all the questions and answers so they’ll have it tomorrow,” Anderson said while he recessed the group so they could discuss what they would talk about with their host families.
That phase of their tour will take place this Friday, Aug. 5, where each student will be paired with a host family for the weekend, returning to their hotel this Sunday, Aug. 7.
Headed up by instructors Tomoko Miyazato and Satomi Yamaguchi, the nursing students will be concentrating their studies on bettering their skills in English, as well as learning some of the Hawaiian practices used in medicine.
These include learning about medicinal plants with an accompanying tour to the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and classroom work in lomilomi massage.
These learning sessions will be punctuated with tours of the various hospitals on the island, and on Wednesday, Aug. 10, the students will actually work alongside the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital staff and volunteers as they help prepare and escort the hospital’s long-term-care patients to the final beach outing of the summer, at Lydgate Park.
“They’re really looking forward to that,” Yamaguchi said.
Brian Yamamoto, one of the KCC coordinators for the trip, explained that, normally, the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing leaders send groups over about three times a year, the summer group being the only one where there is no interaction with Hawai‘i students because KCC students are still out on summer break until later this month.
The other groups arrive when KCC is in session, and part of the learning involves working with the KCC students so the Okinawa students have a better understanding of the way KCC students learn.
Yamamoto said this is the fifth year for the visitation program.
- Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253)
