On Friday, June 9, a “Cross-cultural Understanding Class” was provided to third-year students of Kochi Prefectural Kochi Outemae High School as part of their school curriculum, and nine international students of Kochi University participated in it as guest lecturers.

　The high school students were divided into nine classrooms to attend a class given by one of the nine guest lecturers coming from nine different countries, namely Indonesia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Sweden, America and Russia, who were asked to speak about the following: (1) what had brought them to study abroad in Kochi, Japan, (2) what the food, clothing and housing customs were like in their home country (people’s lifestyles and the ways of thinking behind them), and (3) what challenges were faced by their home country (in terms of economics, education, social policies, etc.), share with the class what they had thought or had begun to think about once away from their home country, and think about the issues with the high school students.

　High school students in each classroom listened intently to the international student as they talked about the unique cultures and lifestyles of their country, much of which was completely new to the high school students, and had active exchanges of opinions after the lecture, asking lots of questions. Kochi University hopes that this community contribution program will lead to improved cross-cultural understanding on the part of these high school students by providing them with the opportunity to think about what society should be like in the future, what they can do themselves as individual local community members, and so on.

　The photos below show how the class was delivered in each classroom.

（Indonesia）	（Vietnam）	（China）
（Korea）	（Mongol）	（Nepal）
（Sweden）	（America）	（Russia）