Don't worry if you're new and you haven't learned any Japanese...

 A post from our Senseii

Konnichiwa everyone.

In Term 4, I have welcomed 15 new students to learn Japanese. Out of those, only a couple of students have studied Japanese at their old schools for a short period of time. I always tell new students not to worry about having no experience of studying Japanese at all and encourage them to have a go without worrying about making mistakes. As I have written in one of the newsletters this year, it is very easy to pronounce Japanese since the five vowel sounds; A, I, U, E, O, are always pronounced exactly the same no matter what consonants come before them. Every time I explain this to new students, they immediately relax a little and have a smile on their faces and say, ‘that’s good to know’ or ‘better than English!’ Also, comparing to most of the European languages, I think Japanese is a logical language (Japan as a nation is very logical too, in my opinion!). Therefore, once you remember 1 to 10, you can count up to 99 easily. Once you know 100, you can count up to 999 easily too.

Digital Dialects has basic Japanese in Romaji. Romaji is the romanization Japanese words into English letters. You can click on the headphone icons and listen to the actual sounds before playing language games on this site.  Numbers, colours and phrases are good to start with. There are 40 languages altogether to learn on this site. Why not having a go with these language games at home, even your children are not one of the new students. Try speaking in Japanese with your family members. Try counting in Japanese in front of your dog and see what it says!

If you like doing origami, have a look at Origami Club website

Leilani and Alexie from 6WS made an origami stegosaurus in class!

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart"

Nelson Mandela Former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Year 6 students wearing sumo suits on Day for Daniel

Ms Sands, can we have a goat?

Year 6 students have so many terrific opportunities - but the most amazing of the lot is the chance to travel to Tokyo in October and stay with a Japanese family and attend school there for a week. It is the excursion to end all excursions - and I love it.

For four years I've accompanied a group of bright eyed and bushytailed youngsters, many on their first international travel experience. And this year's group of seven boys and girls were no exception.

We had a fabulous week of fun and learning and making new friends. The trip included visits to Seioji Temple, Asakusa, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku Street, Mirikan, and the Monster Cafe. School days consisted of Lego Mindstorms, Music, English lessons, technology, art and science as well as calligraphy classes and tea ceremony.

All children formed strong bonds with their homestay families and embarked on a few excursions of their own - DisneyLand, Tokyo Sky Tree, Tokyo Tower, and just playing with Japanese kids in the streets.

I love listening to the children during the week as they reflect on their experience and recount funny and unusual stories - some want to go back to live, some are hooked on seeing the rest of the world, some have made friends for life, some have fallen in love with the food, some love the shopping, all are bug eyed at the culture and the friendliness of the people.

But the star of the show is really Vanilla, Sagami Women's University Elementary School's pet goat. She sat out on the oval during the day getting patted and munching on Autumn leave and the kids were besotted with her.

Every year there's someone who says 'Ms Sands, can we get a goat?'

I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so...

These lyrics sung by British band, The Vapours, in the 1980s were classic. Kids still know them even if they've never heard the whole song!

This might be an odd title for a blog post but over the last few weeks the lyrics keep going through my head - of course, we are not turning Japanese - but we are about to welcome the first Japanese Study Tour Group to our school. Seventeen 10-15 year olds and their teacher from West Japan will spend a week with us, learning English in the mornings, joining classes in the afternoons, and staying with their excited host families at night.

What a marvellous opportunity for all of us to learn something about this unique and surprising country and its people - and maybe even make some lifelong friends in the process.

Of course, we're not 'turning Japanese' at all. It's the last thing our visitors would want - they are coming to experience our Australian culture and to improve their English, that is, they want to develop their intercultural skills and understandings. And in the process of their visit, there is much we can learn too.

Intercultural competence is an important set of skills - it's about more than enjoying the food, geography and arts of a culture. It's more about understanding how a group of people think about the world and their place in it. Our children's future will be about the ability to engage with Asia in ways beyond simply visiting its glorious beaches and amazing cities for the summer holidays. This is not about 'turning Japanese' but about becoming more understanding, developing relationships, sustaining dialogue, and ultimately, its about economic growth, prosperity and international security.

So lets open our arms in that friendly Australian way, and open our minds at the same time. Spending time with our Japanese friends will be an opportunity not to be missed.