2023 Movie Making Day
The 9th Annual JLTASA Year 10 Movie Making Day was held for the first time at two different locations on the same day: St John’s Grammar School in the South and Roma Mitchell Secondary College in the North. With high demand for this event over the last few years, the JLTASA committee were pleased to be able to offer this event to even more schools and students. Thank you to Catherine at St John’s and Melissa at Roma Mitchell for generously hosting this event at their sites. At both events, students were shown Japanese commercials for inspiration and then given several hours to create their own for a Japanese item chosen from those provided. This was an excellent opportunity for students to use their languages skills in an authentic way as they tried to persuade the audience to buy their product using innovation and entrepreneurial skills. Students also enjoyed collaborating with others who are also studying Japanese at schools across Adelaide. Congratulations to the combined St John’s and Immanuel team for taking out the People’s Choice award and the team from Sacred Heart and Seaview who were awarded overall winners at the Southern event. Congratulations also…
Student-Based Advocacy Grant: Hallet Cove South Primary School
On Tuesday the 28th February Hallett Cove South Primary School was very fortunate to have Fe Gilbey come and show students a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The students were all able to whisk their own tea and try it with a mochi cake. Fe taught the students new vocabulary and the proper way they conduct a tea ceremony in Japan. The students had a wonderful time and were very excited to something new even though not all enjoyed the bitter taste. The sweet mochi cake was definitely a hit though.
2022 NSJLE Reports
JLTASA were pleased to provide five grants for members to attend the 2022 NSJLE. We are also very proud of our SA presenters, Tom Dawson, Mel Watt, Kate Satomura, Ilana Nicolle and Simon Carey. You can read all the reports here: NSJLE 2022 Reports – All.
2022 Southern Hiragana Competition
Our Southern Area Hub Group’s Annual Hiragana Reading Competition was held for the 18th year on Wednesday September 14th. This year we had 22 teams of 4 entered which is a total of 88 students! We started by dividing into 2 groups in a round robin playoff. Teams played off, competing in 4 rounds each. This round had students reading the single 46 hiragana characters. From here the top 4 teams from both groups went on to take part in the finals. The top 8 teams had to read words consisting of 2 characters in the first final round, then 3 character words and then for the 1st through to 4th place positions teams had to read 4 character words. The competition was fierce! It came down to the wire in many cases and the judges had a very difficult job. It goes to show that our students are working really hard and enjoying the challenge of their Japanese learning. Woodend PS took out 1st and 2nd place, with Glenelg PS coming 3rd. Schools participating this year were Woodend PS, Sheidow Park PS, Woodcoft PS, Blackwood PS, Calvary PS, Hallett Cove East PS, Seacliff PS, Warradale PS, Reynella East College,…
2022 Western Hiragana Competition
Hiragana Contest JLTASA Report 7/9/22 It was with great excitement that the Western Primary Schools’ Hiragana Contest was held after a 2 year hiatus at Kidman Park Primary School. Year 5/6 students from Flinders Park PS, Kidman Park PS, North Haven PS, West Beach PS and Westport PS entered the competition. In teams of 4, students participated in a heated round robin competition to determine the Western Suburbs champion school. Students competed at reading both individual Hiragana and 2 character words. After 12 rounds, Flinders Park’s Nihongo Hoshi took home the trophy with Flinders Park Hiragana Tatsu 2 coming in second place and West Beach Sakura Dragons coming in third. A great day was had by all and thanks to a grant from JLTASA every student went home with a prize they could tell their classmates about when they returned to their schools. “It was really fun. Everyone had lots of turns and improved as the day went on.” Tyla “I liked the prizes.” Jack “Yummy pocky!” Evan “All the teams showed great sportsmanship and were encouraging, even when you made a mistake.” Nate “Some of the other kids were as fast as lightning.” Imogen
Kaiwa no Hi
On Thursday 7th October, the JLTASA hosted the annual Stage 2 Kaiwa no Hi at Nazareth Catholic College. More than 20 SACE Stage 2 Beginners and Continuers students from 8 different schools attended the event. Students participated in a variety of station activities with small groups of students from a mix of different schools. Students also practiced their conversation skills with different teachers throughout the morning. This was an excellent opportunity for our senior students to practice their Japanese speaking and listening skills ahead of their final exams as well as meet other like-minded students. The JLTASA Committee would like to sincerely thank the teachers and volunteers who kindly came in during the school holidays to support the students. We could not run events such as these without their generous support.
Resource Donations
It is not an understatement to say that Hiroshi Haga (1946-2018) was a shining beacon of light to the Japanese teachers of South Australia. As one of the founding members of the JLTASA nearly 50 years ago, and through his teaching at Northfield and Norwood Morialta High Schools (amongst others) and his position as a Languages Advisor with the Department of Education, Hiroshi touched the lives and hearts of literally thousands of South Australians. He played a pivotal role on the JLTASA Committee for many years from 1973 to 2018, both as President and Committee member, even after his retirement from teaching. In 2000, he was chosen as the inaugural Life Member of the JLTASA. Hiroshi’s generosity has made it possible to share his impressive collection of resources with many schools in the past. We are grateful to Hiroyuki Yamamoto and Coromandel Valley Primary School for the care and stewardship of the resources in recent years. Earlier this year the JLTASA was tasked with finding an alternative way for these resources to be appreciated and we are delighted to be able to further Hiroshi’s legacy in donating these resources to the following schools: Aldinga Beach B-7 School Birdwood Primary School…
Grant for School Based Advocacy
Justine Talbot of Rivergum Christian College recently received a JLTASA Grant for a School Based Advocacy Project. “The school has offered Japanese as a subject for a long time, but there has never been a Japanese classroom until 2021. Previously, the Japanese teacher went from class to class. I would like to set the room up with a tatami style mat. If funds allow, I would also like to add some low tables, screens (to hide the wet area at the back) and cushions. My classroom needs to cater for foundation to year 10 level, so it will need some work to get it set up accordingly.”
Year 8 Recital Competition 2021
This year we had students from eight schools enter the recital from Blackfriar’s Priory School, Golden Grove High School, Immanuel College, King’s Baptist Grammar School, Mount Carmel College, Parafield Gardens High School, Rivergum Christian College, and St John’s Grammar School. As always, judges had a challenging time deliberating on the results due to students’ high efforts. First Place awarded to Mount Carmel College Second Place awarded to Mount Carmel College Third Place awarded to Immanuel College Students from King’s Baptist, Mount Carmel, Blackfriar’s, Golden Grove, St John’s and Immanuel placed in the Top Ten. We congratulate all students whom have participated. Student certificates and prizes have been posted and should arrive at your school very soon!
Year 10 Japanese Commercial Making Day 2021
On Tuesday last week, the JLTASA hosted the annual Year 10 Japanese Commercial Making Day at St John’s Grammar School. This was the 6th year that we have hosted this event for our Year 10 students. 70 students and 10 teachers from 8 schools attended the event. Students were put into 14 teams made up of at least 2 different schools. We started with having some time to get to know each other through Japanese conversation and fun Katakana and Kanji team games. Then we watched a few Japanese commercials to start to understand the themes genres and language used in the wild, crazy and heart-warming Japanese commercials. From here students were given Japanese products, and challenged to create an authentic Japanese style commercials in a set timeframe. As always, the final products were of a high standard and tapped into student’s language and cultural understanding along with collaboration and entrepreneurial skills. The winning commercial as voted by the judges included students from Unity College St John’s Grammar School and is attached here for you to see. The people’s choice award was given to a group of students from Immanuel and Westminster. Well done and thank you to everybody involved. With…