On 25 October 2024, the International Education and Student Mobility Division (IESMD) held an international exchange event, 'MANNER DOJYO', in collaboration with the International Academic Research and Resource Center for Language Education (i-ARRC), a part of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS).
The event, a Japanese manners workshop, was aimed at fostering connections between exchange students and regular KyotoU students while enabling the latter to practice explaining Japanese culture and customs in English.
The workshop began with a team of Peer Tutors from IESMD lecturing on the proper ways to drink green tea and use chopsticks. The 20 participating exchange students, each paired with a participant from the host university, then practiced these procedures in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with their partners earnestly guiding them in English. The session was followed by a competition to see who among the exchange students could move the most peas from one container to another using chopsticks within a set period. A Peer Tutor then announced the winner and interviewed him and his partner, bringing the workshop to a close in a fun and lively atmosphere with many of the participants continuing to chat with each other.
The event proved to be a highly productive one for all involved, with the exchange students learning manners immediately useful in everyday life and the participants from Kyoto University gaining valuable experience in explaining them in English.
