Practicing languages with overseas peers is fun and educational!!
"All my students are saying this is a great program for improving their conversational skills for both ends."
(Mayumi Honzu, Head of Learning Languages, Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, Victoria, engaging VCE Year 11, 12 students)
"It's really brought the study of language alive for my students. It's been really engaging for all the students. "
(Therese Sakamoto, Japanese Teacher, Derinya Primary School, Victoria)
About Palaygo
(including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's visit)
Feedback from Primary School students and a teacher in Australia
Why you need Palaygo?
With Palaygo, students at all levels can easily communicate at higher levels with sound and text support!
Use the language, learn the culture.
News
Palaygo Tour - Hiroshima students visit and stay in Victoria, Australia
In March 2019 15 students from Kindai Hiroshima High School in Higashihiroshima, Japan which have been engaged with Palaygo since 2016 visited their Palaygo counterpart school in Victoria, Derinya Primary School and homestayed with the students' families. It was a very touching and exciting period for both the visitors and hosts. The tour and visit photos can be seen here at Kindai's school blog.
Kinki University High School students embrace Palaygo
Since June 2016, junior high school students at Kindai University High School in Higashihiroshima have been enjoying Palaygo.
The school has introduced Palaygo into all Year 7 students as part of their International Education curriculum and to let the students understand the joy of learning English.
The students are lately enjoying their communication with their Australia counterparts on topics such as the Olympics and their local baseball team Hiroshima Carp winning the championship for the first time in 25 years!
Palaygo presented at NSJLE (National Symposium for Japanese Language Education)
in Sydney, Australia.
Palaygo and its educational outcomes were selected (by an expert panel) and presented at the biannual National Symposium for Japanese Language Education (NSJLE), held in Sydney on 2-3 November 2018. Summary of the presentation can be seen on Page 50 of the program here.
Visit to a Primary School using iPad for Palaygo!
In June 2016 we visited one of the primary schools in Australia which has been actively using Palaygo for their year 5 & 6 students over the past few years. Hawthorn West Primary School is located 5km east of Melbourne CBD where is origin to the famous AFL Hawthorn Football Club.
Ms. Caroline Gray, the Japanese teacher gave us Great Feedback on Palaygo.
This year the school has been exchanging with students across Japan including year 7 students which can be seen on this Video:
Meeting with Palaygo Friends and Families in Japan
Students and teachers from two Australian primary schools visited their Palaygo online friends and their families in Japan as part of the Palaygo Tour project and had great fun together.
Palaygo wins National Senior Award!
Palaygo project won a National Senior Award at the "9th Kids Design Award" in Japan on 3rd August 2015 among the largest number of entries ever (474).
Palaygo came within the top 20 of all the entries, and for Children’s Learning and Understanding Category, was ranked 3rd place as Encouragement Award/KD
Chairman Award only after the top Prime Minister’s and the Excellence Awards.
The assessment committee comprised of experts from various fields gave the following reason for the award:
“This (online) English learning program is based on email and English sentence construction which is a high quality communication model where users can recognize difference in cultures and ways of thinking through exchange. By making English construction easy, it will also make it easier to convey and respond to others based on their real feelings. We have assessed this service to be a futuristic system for language communication and global studies.”
*Kids Design Award is backed by the Japan's Ministry for Economics, Trade & Industry and Consumer Affairs Agency and run by Kids Design Committee, a not for profit accredited by the Cabinet Office of Japan. The award chooses products that have been developed to contribute to kids safety, creativeness and future learning etc.
Palaygo on Language Learning Space
Palaygo is now promoted on Language Learning Space's "Connect" after an agreeing to an arrangement with Education Services Australia, which is a company owned by all Australian Education Ministers and runs a new portal for Japanese teachers and students in Australia.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visits school in Japan and sends a message using Palaygo!
In June 2008, the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his wife Ms Therese Rein visited Akabane Primary School in Minato-ku, Tokyo where he observed the Palaygo system operating between Japanese and a number of Australian schools. The visit was organised by AEI, Australian Education International at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo. After being greeted by all the students at the school waving Australian and Japanese flags, the Prime Minister observed the Japanese students constructing messages and replying to Australian students using Palaygo. One of the messages came from Gruyere Primary School in Victoria. An article about the school in the
Herald Sun newspaper on 12 June 2008 included the Prime Minister’s following comment. “A tiny primary school
on Melbourne’s eastern fringe is a model for the way Australia could become the highest Japanese-speaking nation in the West”.