Studying Japanese this year we have four Year 7 classes (7 Violet, 7 Green, 7 Red and 7 Yellow), four Year 8 classes ( 8 Indigo, 8 Yellow, 8 Green and 8 White) and one Year 12 Beginners class. All the Year 7 students have learnt how to ask someone's name and respond to the question. They were also taught how to write their own names in Japanese and enjoyed collecting other student's names, exchanging their Japanese names. Some students can also recognise a few Hiragana letters (basic Japanese script) and have started reading simple words which consist of some of the learnt letters. This is a fantastic effort as they have studied the language for only four weeks or less.

Taking advantage of the visit of Korean students to our school, we organised a lesson to learn about their country and culture. Three Korean students made a presentation in 7 Green class on Wednesday, 19^th February. After one of the students' Tae kwon do demonstration four 7 Green boy students joined in and learnt how to do the basic Tae kwon do actions. Some of students showed strong interest in their life and culture and kept asking a number of questions. One of our students made a compliment to the Korean students about the progress in English they made during the stay. It was a great opportunity to learn from each other. The time passed very quickly.

Some of our Year 12 Japanese students are keen to learn and participate in extra learning after school on Friday. I strongly hope their hard work will pay off in the end.

Next term we will welcome a group of Mikawa Junior High School students from Japan. If you are interested in hosting a Japanese student, please contact Mrs. Bishop.