Australian and Japanese students come together for the Palaygo School joint language learning project

 

Melbourne, June 17, 2025, The Language Discovery Group has welcomed the Japanese Consul-General in Melbourne Tokuro Furuya to launch ‘Palaygo School’, the first ever Japanese-Australian educational partnership project, at Caroline Chisholm Catholic College in Melbourne Australia.

“For the first time ever, primary and junior secondary students in both Australia and Japan are regularly engaging in effective, one-on-one conversations—in real time, in the classroom,” said Frank Noda, CEO of the Language Discovery Group.

In a world first, students from Caroline Chisholm Catholic College in Melbourne and Jonan Gakuen school in Osaka can immediately practice what they learn in class through Palaygo's unique learning system, engaging in face-to-face, one-to-one live video chats with native-speaking peers of the same age, linked to both Japanese and Australian school curricula.

 

Caroline Chisholm Catholic College Head of Languages Mayumi Honzu stated that through the Palaygo program Australian students are more engaged in learning and discovering more than a new language.

 

“Palaygo helps engage students in learning, testing their abilities of what they learn in the classroom. They are also learning about what students on the other side of the world enjoy doing, their fashion, what they like to eat,” said Ms Honzu.

 

In an interview following from the launch event, Caroline Chisholm Catholic College Year 9 students Fletcher Bodman and Adrian De Abreu, speaking on behalf of the students, both described the Palaygo program as not only helping them learn a new language, but that it opened opportunity to learn about a new culture. 

 

“It’s good fun and you get to learn about the culture as well, so learning is easier now as we get real life practice,” said Bodman.

 

“Technology makes it easier to learn and the aides in Palaygo helps us to pronounce the words as well as knowing what we are pronouncing,” said De Abreu.

 

Both students said they were looking forward to meeting in person with friends they have made through their Palaygo chats when Caroline Chisholm Catholic College hosts students from Osaka later in the year in a student exchange program between the two schools.

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Speaking at the launch, Japanese Consul-General in Melbourne Tokuro Furuya said “Education is very important. I’m happy that many students are learning Japanese and about Japanese culture, as it forms the foundation of Japan-Australia relations. Your experiences of engaging with the real Japan are valuable not only for Japan-Australia relations but also for the future of the world.”

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The launch was also attended by Maribyrnong City Council Mayor Cr Pradeep Tiwari who stated that it was inspiring to see a project like this come to life in Braybrook — giving local students the chance to learn a new language while forming real connections with their peers in Japan.

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Palaygo’s in-person school exchange program, Japanese students will visit Australia in August, followed by a visit to Japan by students from Melbourne in October, with both groups eagerly looking forward to meeting their counterparts, with whom they have connected through Palaygo. 

Building on the success of the Palaygo program at Caroline Chisholm Catholic College, the Language Discovery Group has plans to expand the program to schools across Australia, offering support not only for Japanese but also for other languages. Palaygo remains committed to nurturing the next generation of global citizens through its unique international initiatives in close collaboration with educators in both countries.