Dear SSC Members

My name is George Antonio Botier Guzmán, industrial engineer from the Dominican Republic, dedicated to mathematics teaching and now a member of the Sakura Science Club (SSC). I work in the Sala de la Experienca Matemática Dr. Jin Akiyama, of the Biblioteca Infantil y Juvenil República Dominicana, a kind donation from Akiyama sensei seeking to raise the mathematics levels of children and young people in the Dominican Republic.

I had the opportunity to be part of the SSC team and visit Japan in September 2023, accompanied by nine other people. This experience meant a lot to me, because as a child I said that as an adult I would like to travel to Japan. This is because as a child I received several Japanese influences, such as learning to make the famous origami paper crane bowtie at the age of 10; the fact that in the 90s I watched many documentaries and children's programs translated into Spanish on the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) channel, where I learned various things about Japanese culture, and I had a lot of fun watching Noppo-san and Gonta-kun.* At that time Akiyama sensei's programs were also broadcast in Hispanic countries by NHK. And who was going to tell me that as an adult, I would meet Jin Akiyama in person and that I would also be working in a math room donated by him? Also, among the NHK programming I remember with pleasure the World Musical Album, one of the reasons that made me appreciate classical music, and my favorite piece is Pachelbel's Canon in D, a musical piece and artist whose biography I learned about, thanks to that television program from NHK.

*Noppo-san and Gonta-kun appeared in NHK’s educational show for children “Dekirukana” which ran from 1970 to 1990

Going to Japan was my first experience outside the Dominican Republic, and it was something very pleasant: the friendly treatment of the Japanese, the moments of laughter, the flexibility and effort to make us feel good, beautiful places I saw, the Japanese food, knowing and receiving teaching at Tokyo University of Science... Each and every one of you has been a great help to us in moving forward with our library's mathematics project.

Thanks to this experience I was able to discover various ways of teaching mathematics topics to children under 10 years of age that in my country these topics are taught to those older than that age with other types of methodologies that are not suitable for children under that age. As well as other interesting topics to teach to young people aged 12 and up to make them fall in love with mathematics and lose their fear of this science.

THANK YOU, CHRIST for blessing me in this life, with the gift of the opportunity to travel to Japan, and to belong to the Sakura Science Program.

THANK YOU deeply SSP and JST for opening the doors to me and guiding me on how to do my job better.

THANK YOU, Tokyo University of Science for allowing me to grow more professionally and personally, because the classes my group received were not only mathematics, but also other topics for the good social performance of developing countries like mine (such as the talk on organ donation awareness). THANK YOU, directors, teachers, administrative and operational staff, with whom I shared, who enriched me and contributed to making me someone impregnated with principles and values that serve as the framework for a good mathematics teacher.

THANK YOU to the students who explained various modules from the university's mathematics museum, not only for their kindness in their treatment of us, but also because from them I learned new modules to explain other mathematics topics to children and young people.

THANK YOU, to those from the entire university community who became friends and for whom I have great appreciation.

I remember them all fondly and would like to one day see them again.

Regards from Dominican Republic!

George Antonio Botier Guzmán