The students of Katahara JHS Japan, prepared and presented reports on elements of Japanese culture in English to a group of our students on Friday via Zoom. 140 third year students (Year 9) gathered in the gym and 6 students were chosen to present the prepared report to our College.
Kokoro introduced us to the Japanese dish called Takoyaki. Tenmaru spoke about ninja and compared their work to the “Mission Impossible” movie. Rei , accompanied by some cute soft Pokemon toys spoke of the many Pokemon characters. Hinata talked to our students about sushi. Which I had brought for our students to eat whilst listening. Eito gave us a calligraphy demonstration writing Crystal’s name in the three script – hiragana, katakana and kanji. Lastly, Kansuke was hesitant to speak about the girl group, Nizi U so Tomo, Sensei suggested that he and his friends show us the dance that they had learnt that is performed by this group.
Our Year 11 and 12 Japanese class surveyed the group asking them “have you ever…?” questions in Japanese. A student was chosen from the group to answer a follow up question e.g. “how was it?” or “what was your favourite?”. WSSC students asked if – they had ever seen Kabuki? , been to Okinawa? Been to Disneyland?, Been to Tokyo ? and if they liked a singer Kenshi Yonezu? We will be following these up with a written discussion as the audio was a bit difficult to understand.
College Principal, Mr Hilditch joined us in the Library and asked about the ninja and other martial arts. Tenmaru’s friend was introduced as a black belt in judo.
It was lovely to have some real communication exchange occur despite the inability to travel. There were some familiar faces from connections made during the Japan trip last year. We’re hoping this will be able to happen again in the new year.
Lana Thorpe
Japanese Teacher