Japanese Classes Cultural Exchange

Real-Time Japanese speaking and Cultural Exchange sessions

Over the past few weeks, our Japanese classes had the opportunity to Zoom with students from our sister school, Yamada High School, in Nagoya. There were four sessions. The first session was for Year 12 class to introduce each school in Japanese and discuss similarities and differences in Australian and Japanese school life. Our students were so brave to speak in Japanese to the class of 28 students in Nagoya. 

The second session was for Stage 5 class. They were divided into small groups to interact with each other using Japanese, collaboratively creating Japanese sentences to communicate, with lots of gestures and laughing! 

The final two sessions were held on last Monday and Tuesday for our Year 11 and 12 Japanese classes. Yamada High School had their sports tournament 球技大会, which are days where students from Years 10 to 12 play various games with each other. 

Via Zoom, some Japanese students took our Japanese classes on a small tour of their school, showing us many sporting activities that were happening in REAL-TIME. Our students were cheering on players via Zoom as well as talking about common interests in both English and Japanese. Students who participated in the BMGS Japan School tour in 2019 recognised Yamada High School’s entrance with shoe boxes, classrooms and Sports Centre, reminiscing about their experiences and already yearning to go back to Japan!

Here are some of our students’ reflections about the valuable and fabulous sessions:

We were able to see the Japanese students playing volleyball, ultimate Frisbee and rugby within their school grounds. It was an awesome experience as it felt like we were able to join the fun and immerse ourselves in this sporting day. 

Not only were we shown the activities, but we also had the opportunity to practise our speaking skills by talking to the Yamada High School students in Japanese. In addition, the Japanese students were also able to practise their speaking skills by talking to us in English. 

It was a lot of fun interacting with others our age, talking about school lifestyle, future plans and different cultures. We learnt a lot and are excited to zoom again with our friends at Yamada High School. 山田高校のみなさんに、またズームで会える日が楽しみ！(We look forward to our next Zoom with them!).

Eliza Huckel

Year 12