Consul General Visited Laredo Middle School(December 3, 2015)

On Thursday, December 3rd, Consul-General Ito visited Laredo Middle School in Aurora and met with Principal Edie Alvarez and Japanese language teacher, Ms. Miwako Winters. Principal Alvarez explained that Laredo is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School and students are required to take a foreign language. They offer Japanese, Spanish, and French. This year 200 students have chosen to take Japanese, which is a significant increase from last year, and as a result the school has had to hire two additional assistant teachers.

In response, the Consul-General expressed his appreciation for Japanese being one of the languages offered and mentioned that the Consulate would like to pro-actively cooperate in the future and offer support for Japanese language education.

Following the meeting, the Consul-General sat in on a Japanese class where he was warmly welcomed by the 30 students. Consul-General Ito encouraged and inspired the students by telling them that he is rooting for all of them in their studies and that he has high hopes they will deepen their understanding of Japan through touching on Japanese culture and one day visiting Japan.