Past Events

On Tuesday the 5th of April, JLTASA held its annual Year Eight Speech Recital Competition. Students who enter in to this event are required to recite a specific passage in Japanese, and are graded on the pronunciation, fluency, intonation, memorisation and presentation. This kind of event is chosen so that it is accessible for all students, whether they are new to Japanese that year, or have been studying it throughout primary school. English recital competitions are also a popular activity in Japanese schools. This year we had 35 students attend the event from eight different schools, including for the first time, video entries from a country school, Mount Gambier High School. It was a fantastic turn out, which included high schools from all three sectors, and all areas of Adelaide. The quality of the recitals was excellent. One of the lines the students had to recite was 日本語が大好きです！ and it was so wonderful to hear so many students recite it with such enthusiasm. Another wonderful aspect of this event was the parent support on the night. Many students were accompanied by parents, siblings and even grandparents, all of whom spoke very highly about how hard their child had worked at…

Below is a reflection of the 2015 Annual Conference in pictures:

This project was partially funded by a Hub Group Grant provided by the JLTASA. On 21st October, Open Access College hosted the North East Hiragana Competition. 32 students from 8 schools in the North East of Adelaide participated in a competition to recognise the 46 characters of the hiragana alphabet, including more complex characters and reading words. Schools that participated with their Japanese teachers cheering them on were: Tea Tree Gully (Elin Gubbin), East Para (Eunkyoung Kim), One Tree Hill (Carmen Kowalski), Keithcot Farm (Lou Hanna and Jodie Wallace), Redwood Park (Jenny Liivamagi), Greenwith (Kym Toomey) and Open Access College (Kazuko Glass, Christina Challinger and Casey Hall). Students also participated in alphabet games and activities between competition rounds. Students wore hachimaki and were treated to a sushi morning tea to celebrate. Congratulations to all that participated; as always, scores were very close. Redwood Park placed 1st with 36 points and took home the impressive perpetual trophy. One Tree Hill came in 2nd place with 30 points, and Keithcot Farm came 3rd on 27 points. As in previous years, the students and teachers put in a lot of their own time to practice, and showed an impressive mastery of the hiragana…

On Thursday August 14th around 50 students from five southern suburb schools competed in the 11th annual Hiragana challenge. This year’s challenge was held at Woodend PS and students really enjoyed the morning. Congratulations to Woodend PS on winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd places! This event was funded with a Hub Group Grant provided by the JLTASA.

Below is a reflection of the 2014 Annual Conference in photos.