Language Studies

Year 10 Japanese

On June 9th 2020, our Year 10 Japanese class reconnected with our sister school Akemi High School in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan. We were using Google Meet. 

The class has been interacting with Akemi High School for just over a year now.  It has greatly improved our learning opportunities and given us good conversation experience in Japanese. Conversing with our international friends is like a breath of fresh air! 

During this month’s conference one of the Japanese students asked the class “Do you have to wear masks to school?” The situation in Hokkaido is fairly serious and the entirety of the Japanese class was wearing masks, although we weren’t. 

There was also some epic back and forth banter. The question  “What is the most popular anime in Australia?” was rebutted with “Yugioh, Pokemon and Beyblades”. This promptly enticed one of the Japanese students to pull out and show us his amazing collection of Yugioh cards! Many laughs were shared and it had a positive reception. 

Some of the opinions and comments from our class about the intercontinental lesson include: 

• It was really fun; I was nervous at first but they were very easy to get along with - Annika Cann
• Their English was very impressive, they were very sweet and nice - Bella McCarthy Wilke
• They were really organised and had interesting questions for us to answer - Jetsun Choden Dorji
• It was fun! - Emily Stainton
• They were very pretty - Lily Robinson

The class was very sad to see the camera turn off and the connection but, they are eagerly awaiting the day where oceans are crossed and a connection is made once again. 

Finnigan Thomson & Charlotte Bush

(Year 10 Japanese)