Japanese

Foundation

This month in Foundation we have been building on what we learned last month, practising new songs to help us remember big 大(おお)きい ‘ookii’ and small 小(ちい)さい  ‘chiisai’.  

In Japanese there are three scripts of writing which are the pictorial kanji characters originating from China such as 大 for big, a basic alphabet of sounds called hiragana such asき　for the ‘ki’ sound a further one for writing foreign words call katakana for instance for names such as ジェームス for James.

Level 1 and 2

Level 1 and 2 students are practising introducing themselves, in a simple format such as

“Hello, my name is ___ .  I am seven years old.  I like soccer” etc.  This is a very useful set of sentences and I encourage you to practise this with your child at home.  

Level 3 and 4

The level 3 and 4 students have been learning several new hiragana symbols, by writing and reading them, and rehearsing them in sections of a very catchy popular song Baby Shark, sung in its Japanese version. It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3l1SW6sctw&t=6s

On a final note November is the month when children and their parents celebrate 七五三or ‘Shichi- go-san’, a traditional celebration for all three and seven year old girls and five year old boys.  This photo shows children in their traditional kimono’s as they head out to celebrate.

Deanna Wegman

Specialist Teacher Japanese