College Cultural Integration Online Event

One of the many advantages of studying at East Sussex College is the College’s involvement with overseas students and universities. This provides local students with an opportunity to learn about different cultures and gain ‘cultural capital’.

Modern Foreign Languages tutor Liz Long, from ESC Lewes, recently welcomed Japanese university students from Ibaraki University in Tokyo into her A-Level French class via an online integration event.

Describing the session, Liz said, “My A-Level French group and a group of Japanese students studying English [from Ibaraki University of Japan], met on a Zoom call at 9am GMT and 6pm Tokyo time for an intercultural event where we exchanged cultural information about France, England and Japan.

“The Lewes students kicked off the event by teaching the Japanese students some basic French expressions followed by two of the Japanese students showing us how to make Okonomiyaki, a popular street food savoury cabbage pancake, which looked delicious and made us very hungry!”

Liz added, “This led beautifully to our students presenting the delights of British cuisine such as our obsession with frying everything and eating chips with gravy and curry sauce, and our traditional roast dinners. The Japanese were intrigued by the idea of deep-fried Mars Bars!”

The online event was evidently a huge success and as a result, Liz confirmed that they will be meeting up again next spring.

“Our Japanese friends then presented their quirky customs by talking about their trains being on time – imagine that – and their 24-hour convenience stores selling everything you could imagine,” said Liz.

“We finished the whole event by talking about our weird and wonderful customs including tea drinking, pub culture, our love for the royal family and particular interest in the weather and getting a suntan at whatever cost! This event was enjoyed by all so we have decided we will meet up again in the spring next year.”

If you are interested in finding out more about our A-Level courses, including French A-Level, then please click here to read all about what the College has to offer.