In Taito, the kids asked to play in Chinese

The request for English games came from grown-ups. At one of Taito’s after-school clubs, the kids asked for Chinese. They wanted to use it with their classmates. Later they greeted the volunteer with nǐ hǎo when they saw her. They were playing rock-paper-scissors in Chinese, too. For story time, the local volunteers pick a book the children already know. When the peach opens in Momotaro, kids who know what’s inside can follow the picture while a neighbor reads in a language they don’t speak. One mom read in Chinese to the younger kids. Her son had been asking her to skip classroom visits because she struggled with Japanese. He came to watch her read and made sure people knew that was his mom with the book.