By Sean Coombs
Expo Reporter
OSAKA, Japan — Japanese students from a Canadian international high school located here in Osaka took on the role of guides recently at the Canada Pavilion at Expo, a vivid example of the kind of cultural fusion that is a hallmark of the World Expos.
The Canada Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo has seen many performances and themed exhibits sponsored by Canadian provinces.
The biggest such sponsored event was British Columbia week, held in early June, featuring presentations from BC businesses and a visit by BC premier David Eby during his tour of Japan.
A Canadian high school with BC connections in the heart of Osaka is giving Japanese students a learning experience that’s the best of both worlds
Founded in 2019, Osaka Gakugei Canadian International School (OGCIS) is a high school fully certified by the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care as a licensed BC offshore school.
It operates in partnership with and on the campus of Osaka Gakugei Senior High School, consequently offering Japanese students a dual diploma program where they can graduate from both a Japanese and Canadian high school.
As described by the school’s principal Vim Valera, cultural exchange and strengthening community connections is at the heart of OGCIS’s student experience.
“It gives them a great opportunity to learn about Canadian culture, especially with our staff being familiar with Canadian folklore and culture,” he said. “We exchange that information with students while we also learn from them.”
That’s why the school participated in both the Canada national day celebrations in May and the BC week celebrations.
Throughout these celebrations, school students were selected as volunteers to help guide guests around the pavilion and participated in the pavilion’s exhibits and performances.
Because of the Canadian and BC history that the students were taught, principal Valera says that the students acted as great cultural guides who passed on their learning to pavilion visitors during BC week.
“We had our Grade 11 students go and volunteer again through the whole week in getting information out to the Japanese public and explain to them a little bit about BC and what’s going on there,” he said.
Other school staff members like Grade 11 and 12 teacher Misha Lees said that school’s involvement at the Canada pavilion was a memorable experience for her students.
“It was awesome. They handed out so many pancakes and maple syrup to visitors during the national day,” she said. “They saw the big exhibit inside, and I think a lot of them were surprised at how interactive it was with the projections.”
Apart from experiencing the pavilion events, the school’s students have the unique opportunity to experience staples of Canadian high school life far away from Canada itself, including doing the Terry Fox run and celebrating festive events like Halloween.
“We’re trying to bring these kinds of activities and events and use those as vehicles to help our kids understand Canadian culture,” said principal Valera.
According to him, students are taught to understand all aspects of Canadian and BC history, including Truth and Reconciliation.
“Students here are getting a really good grounding of the history of BC with first peoples and settlement and the issues they’re facing,” he said. “I’m hoping in the future that we can introduce a contemporary Indigenous studies course that explores and compares the BC Indigenous and other Indigenous cultures with Japanese Indigenous culture to give them a really good foundation to understand the issues facing these groups.”
Students like Hanna Songbo agree that they’ve learned much from both curricula.
“I think the Japanese system and the Canadian system of learning is very different, so being able to experience both is interesting,” she said. “In our first term we learned about residential schools and Indigenous people and I think that’s very important.”
While more interactions with the Canadian pavilion once school restarts from summer break are pending, the impact of the student volunteering at the school is evident in the posters hanging on the school’s hallways depicting report projects completed by students after their visit.
“It shows that we have lots of fun here, both at expo and here at the school,” teacher Misha Lees said. “We’d definitely like to go back and volunteer again.”
