Japanese 

Konnichi wa!

こんにちは

Welcome back to Japanese for 2024! This year we celebrate the Year of the Dragon (tatsu doshi 辰年   たつどし) in Japanese as part of the juunishi 十二支 (or Japanese zodiac) celebrations. 

If you were born in 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000 or 2012, you are a Dragon! That means that most of our Grade 6 students are Dragons! People born in the Year of the Dragon tend to be associated with qualities of being persistent, ambitious, courageous, unique, leaders, energetic, confident, independent and adventurous. 

At the beginning of Term 1, students in Grade 1 - 6 participated in some activities to assist their understanding of the juunishi 十二支 (Japanese zodiac). They watched some clips to learn about the 12 animals of the zodiac and learnt the animal of the year they were born in. They also completed some craft activities to assist their learning. They also had the opportunity to write the word for dragon in hiragana (tatsu たつ), as well as set some goals for themselves. 

Preps

We welcome this year our new Prep students into Japanese! In Term 1, the Prep students have been learning some simple greetings and instructions in Japanese:

Good Morning                         おはよう (ohayou)

Good Afternoon (hello)           こんにちわ (konnichiwa)

Goodbye                                 さようなら (sayounara)

Stand Up                                 たって (tatte)

Sit Down                                 すわって (suwatte)

Students have also been learning to count from 1-10 in Japanese and correctly match the kanji (Japanese & Chinese characters) to the numbers. 

1.       一               いち (ichI)

2.       二               に (ni)

3.       三               さん (san)

4.       四               よん (yon)

5.       五               ご (go)

6.       六               ろく (roku)

7.       七               なな (nana)

8.       八               はち (hachi)

9.       九               きゅう (kyuu)

10.   十      じゅう (juu)

Grade One

Students in Grade One have been revising over one-stroke hiragana, which is one of the writing systems in Japan:

く(ku)、し(shi)、そ(so)、つ(tsu)、て(te)、の(no)、ひ(hi)、へ(he)、る(ru)、ろ(ro) and ん(n)

They also been starting to learn some two-stroke hiragana:

い(i)、う(u)、え(e)、こ(ko)、す(su)、ち(chi)、と(to)、ぬ(nu)、ね(ne)、み(mi)、め(me)、ゆ(yu)、よ(yo)、ら(ra)、り(ri)、れ(re) and わ(wa)

Grade Two

This term, students in Grade Two have been revising over two-stroke hiragana:

い(i)、う(u)、え(e)、こ(ko)、す(su)、ち(chi)、と(to)、ぬ(nu)、ね(ne)、み(mi)、め(me)、ゆ(yu)、よ(yo)、ら(ra)、り(ri)、れ(re) and わ(wa)

They have also been starting to learn some three-stroke and four-stroke hiragana:

あ (a)、お (o)、か (ka)、け (ke)、さ (sa)、せ (se)、に (ni) 、は (ha) 、ま(ma)、む(mu) 、も(mo) 、や(ya) 、を(wo) 、き(ki)、た(ta) 、な(na)、ふ(fu) and ほ(ho)

Grade Three & Four

Students in Grade Three and Four have been learning to read and say the time in Japanese through our unit based on the popular game, ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf?’. In Japanese this translates to ‘ookami san, nan ji desu ka?’ (おおかみ さん 何時 です か。)

Students have been learning that the kanji ‘ji’ (時) can be added to the end of a number to make it into an o’clock time. e.g. 一時 is 1 o’clock!

Grade Five

Grade Five students have been learning weather words in Japanese. The word used for weather in Japanese is ‘tenki’ 天気. Students will be using these weather words later this term to create a weather report in Japanese.

Sunny - ha-re はれ

Rainy - a-me 雨

Windy - kah-ze かぜ

Cloudy - ku-mo-ri くもり

Snow - yu-ki 雪

Storm - a-ra-shi あらし

Grade Six

Grade Six students this term have been studying Japanese version of the picture story book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, which translates to ‘harapeko aomushi’ (はらぺこ  あおむし)

Students will learn the words for the fruits and other food, the days of the week, and the counters of objects so that they can rewrite and tell the story in Japanese to some younger grades. 

Brown Sensei

Until next time, 

Sayounara

さようなら