Japanese

Japanese language and culture lessons in March

こんにちは pronounced konnichiwa means ‘hello to you all…’

This month the Foundation children have been practising greetings like that above – maybe ask them to practise what they have learned at home – this can come in handy when you travel to Japan or meet a Japanese person here in Melbourne…  We also traced the Japanese script characters for one, two and three – it is not difficult to work out which is which when I list them out of order?

三　一　二

Students in Level 1 reviewed numbers one to ten, and wrote the numbers, maybe at home ask your child to tell you what the numbers listed in random are?

一　四　三　五　七　九　二　六　十　 八　

Level 2 students are learning to recognise and read the Japanese hiragana script for instructions like ‘stand’, ‘sit’, ‘look’ , ‘see ‘and ‘be quiet please’ – I have jumbled them up below – but these words may come in handy at home also!

すわって　　みて　　しずかにして　　たって　　ください (please)

Students are also learning to sing a Japanese song following a video to the tune of ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ to learn all about the face – as the monkey in the video wore a nappy, some students wanted to have fun and wear one too!

Level 3 and 4 students are also revising numbers, and furthermore learn to say their birthday month in Japanese, this is where the numbers one to twelve come in very handy, can you spot 11 and 12 for November and December (the clues can be found above)?

二月　四月　五月　七月　一月　六月　十一月　三月　八月　十二月　九月　十月

Students in Level 5 are learning about shopping in Japan – from ordering a hamburger in a fast food restaurant – by how to ask ikura desu ka ‘how much is it?’ and reply with an amount in Japanese yen, for a hanbaagaa or hamburger say sambyaku en or ‘three hundred yen’

いくらですか　　　三百円です

De wa mata raigetsu or ‘till next month!’  では　また　来月

Ms Deanna Wegman, Ms Specialist Teacher - Japanese