The Enormous Turnip

Recently, the first-graders read the Russian folk story【大きなかぶ】、or “The Enormous Turnip”.

In a twist of fate, it turns out that one of our ALTs, Tania, was born in Russia and can speak Russian. The teachers had a Russian-language copy of the book, and we decided to give the students a multicultural experience. Tania read the Russian storybook aloud to the first-grade classes. While they couldn’t understand the Russian, they could figure it out thanks to Tania’s gestures! By the end, they were saying「ひっぱって」 in Russian: тянут по-тянут (チャーヌトポチャーヌト) Both the children and the teachers had a lot of fun. Let’s hope we get a chance for more fun cultural bonuses in the future!