Peace Culture Village offers opportunities for local community members to learn English and engage with foreigners from around the world. This takes the form of international exchange events in the countryside during our Peace Camps and Hiroshima Adventures. It also includes monthly work parties, where foreigners and Japanese guests work together on a large facilities or farm project. Finally, we offer English programs, including our PCV Hangouts and English immersion classes for children. A global peace culture will require people from all over the world to communicate clearly and constantly. As such, we consider exploring cultural differences and teaching peace through English to be crucial components of our work. We could not operate were it not for the gracious cooperation of locals in the towns of Konu and Joge, and so we strive to make these opportunities as affordable as possible.
PCV Work Parties
The Peace Culture Village staff welcomes visitors to participate in monthly work parties, where foreigners and Japanese work together to complete construction or farm projects. Examples include planting/harvesting/threshing rice or wheat, shelling and separating soy bean pods for miso, making hot beds, putting down hardwood flooring, clearing mountain trails, etc.
PCV Hangouts
At both our countryside campus in Konu and downtown office in Hiroshima, PCV hosts PCV Hangouts. A blend of English class and cross-cultural exchange party, PCV Hangouts are opportunities to practice English in a relaxed, immersive environment, with several native English speakers at each event. Please see the chart below, which details the differences between the PCV Hangouts held in Konu and Hiroshima City:
Please check our Calendar to see more information about upcoming PCV Hangouts. We ask for a 500 yen donation for entry in order to cover the cost of the facility, beverages, and light snacks.
English Immersion Classes for Kids
Aside from our adult level English language and cultural experiences, we provide several English immersion opportunities for children and young adults. Specifically, we work with Child Academy, a local program for students with disabilities, to provide fun English-themed games and activities. We also provide after school English immersion for local elementary and high school students. We strive for low student-to-teacher ratios to provide more chances for the one-on-one conversation necessary for an engaging learning environment. Unlike cram schools and English classes that only provide one native English speaker for classes between 20-30 students, we consistently provide between 3 and 6 native level English speakers for classes sizes no larger than 15 students. In fact, sometimes the number of native English speakers outnumbers our ESL learners!
