Languages

Education Perfect Languages Championships

This year’s Education Perfect Languages Championships concluded at 4.00pm on 15 March. The Languages' students enthusiastically participated in the week-long competition to achieve the global ranking of 39th place for our College!

The 36 students attained scores above 1,000 points in the competition, to earn awards at Bronze, Silver, Gold, Emerald and Elite levels!

Our top four students who reached the Elite level of 10,000+ points were:

• Sarah Bloomer (Year 11) – 29,251 points (4th place in Global ranking)
• Emily Smith (Year 10) – 29,007 points (5th place in Global ranking)
• Sophie Bloomer (Year 11) - 11,111 points
• Hannah Young (Year 10) – 10,299 points

Other awards gained were two Emerald, six Gold, two Silver and 18 Bronze. All participating students who reached points above 1000 points will be receiving a medal or trophy, as well as a certificate of achievement from Education Perfect. Credit certificates will also be awarded to students who attained 500 – 999 points. 

In Victoria, our College also achieved:

• 1st place - Japanese
• 9th place - Italian
• 21th place – French

We also came 1st in Victoria for the 501-1000 students category.

Wonderful results for the College and our Languages students! Congratulations!

The Languages Team

Hinamatsuri 

Some of you might have seen the paper cup dolls at the front office at the beginning of March. You might have thought, “What are they?”. They are called 'Hina Dolls'. In Japan they celebrate young girls and pray for their growth, health and happiness on March 3 and the day is called ‘Hinamatsuri’, which means the ‘Doll Festival’ or the ‘Girls’ Day’.  

Families who have a daughter(s), display 'Hina Dolls' and Peach Blossoms at their house and eat special food on that day. The ‘Hina Dolls’ represent a ‘Heian’ period (794 to 1185) imperial wedding. The origin came from a Chinese event but they are not sure when exactly it was introduced in Japan. The original ‘dolls’ were made of paper and straw for throwing into rivers. Japanese people wish(ed) bad luck would go away from their daughters by throwing the paper and straw dolls into the river. 'Hina Dolls' became more expensive as time passed and changed to display items instead of things to throw into rivers. However, some regional areas still follow this tradition with paper and straw 'Hina Dolls'.

In our Year 7 and Year 8 Japanese classes, the students made paper cup ‘Hina Dolls’ and coloured them creatively and beautifully.  The students could experience and learn about Japanese culture by making their own ‘Hina Doll’ on ‘Girls Day’.

Hideaki Sakurai

Japanese Teacher

Year 12 Language Leaders

Hi, my name is Claire, and I am the Language Leader for Italian in 2022. 

I had previously studied Japanese for eight years. However, now I am starting my 6th year learning Italian. I think learning a language is something everyone should try, especially since nowadays there are so many free learning tools out there! 

Knowing another language is so beneficial to other areas of learning and it opens many opportunities. I think it's really cool to know that you could travel to the other side of the world and have a conversation with people. My favourite parts of learning a language are the day-to-day experiences, such as overhearing Italian conversations in the street, at restaurants or on TV and being able to understand them.

I am very excited for what the year ahead holds! I hope that Georgina and I can encourage a passion for language learning throughout our College and that we can grow our cohort of language learners.

Claire Jansz

Languages Leader:

Italian

I have been learning Japanese since primary school and it has always been one of my favourite subjects.  Since joining Kilbreda in 2017, I have participated in the Education Perfect Language Championships every year, and it is something which I really enjoy taking part in (even though I can get very carried away with earning points).

This year, I am so excited to have been chosen as the Language Leader: Japanese alongside Claire who is the Languages Leader: Italian. Languages have always been an interesting topic to me as there is so much to learn about a country such as their language and culture. I believe that it is important to know another language than your own native one, even if it is the bare basics.

As one of two Language Leaders this year, my plans are to continue the Language Club on a regular basis and encourage more people to join, even if they are not currently undertaking a language at school. I also plan to bring fun games and ideas which may occur in the Languages Week later in the year. Hopefully, these games will allow other students to take a look into the different cultures and languages taught at Kilbreda.

Georgina Heath

Languages Leader:

Japanese