Our Year 8 Japanese students recently enjoyed a visit from a group of five senior citizens from the Shizuoka prefecture in Japan. The visitors (who are all in their 70’s) are friends with a local Japanese community member who comes from the same home town in Shizuoka.
Our students had an opportunity to practice their Japanese self-introductions and to make an origami paper crane together with their guests. Students were able to communicate and work together with the visitors despite the significant language gap, and learnt from them about their life in Japan. The Shizuoka citizens have visited other schools in various locations around the world and were very impressed with the manners and respectful attitude of our students.
As part of a unit of work on Japanese food, my Year 9 Japanese students have been researching “Obento” – in small groups, they planned and produced their own Japanese style “kyaraben”. The term “kyaraben” is short for “character bento” – it is a bento lunch where the food is arranged in elaborate styles to resemble popular characters, portraits, plants and animals. This style is currently a popular trend in Japan; our students enjoyed translating their research into a tasty and healthy lunch meal.
~ Mrs Tanya Booker (Japanese Teacher)