Kiwi Cobbers

Kiwi Cobbers (New Zealand English for friends) is a multi generational program for parents (and grandparents) and children to study English and have fun together in New Zealand. It is based on the recognition that much of effective language acquisition is dependent on the desire to learn and the opportunity to use what is known in pleasurable activities such as playing with peers who are native speakers of the target language. This philosophy is based on over 20 years experience as an English teacher and parent of bilingual children who learned much of the target language because of a desire to play and have fun with other children. It also seeks to provide back up in the form of improved ability of parents to support their childrens' studies when back in their home country.

Who is eligible ? : Children from five years old through to high school who have sufficient basic ability to be able to benefit from living in a New Zealand homestay environment including children of approximately their own age. By this is meant the ability to understand and reply to basic questions and engage in simple dialogues related to family life and the expressing of one's desires, dislikes and preferences. Candidates will be subject to testing to see if they can meet such requirements and if not, should enroll in a Kiwi College or other approved school until such time as they can.

How it works: Children study in an English language school during the day and spend the rest of their time with their homestay family practicing the language., meeting their parents in the weekends if desired. Their parent(s) and grandparent(s) can study and/or have holiday either at another homestay or in a motel, private hotel or other accommodation.

It is highly recommended that parents study, as many of them have latent abilities that are woken up and can quite rapidly be built on in this type of environment so that they can be useful assistant tutors on return home. Those who do not wish to study can take part in programs giving access to the wonderful opportunities that New Zealand has to offer. For example, golf is unbelievably cheap - it is not a religion in New Zealand.

When : For those attending schools, obviously it will be around the school holidays, although, to get sufficiently long time, groups will leave earlier and arrive back later than the usual school holiday periods. This is not as much of a problem as it would first seem, as most schools in Japan at least have quite a few days at the end and beginnings of terms when there are half days and not much of consequence is done. However, for pre schoolers, especially those with mothers whose husbands are tanshin funin, there is no special time.

Schools : The schools in the program are all well known to us and chosen for their location and experience with or speciality in handling children, including staff with a good command of or native speaking ability in the children's language.

Typical Course Costs
(all prices in NZ dollars with discount airfares)

Three week NZ Christmas/New Year Mother and Child Full Time

Tuition(full time mother and child) $2,100
Homestay fees (for two in different families) $1,000
Administration fees,airport pick up etc. $$600

Total course related costs ....$NZ$2,700 - ¥135,000
Airfare (Two people leaving before Dec. 20) -¥180,000

Total cost ¥315,000