Japanese Language and Culture 2016-17

In 2016, Educationista Foundation was very fortunate to obtain a grant from the Japan Foundation with a view to establishing Japanese lessons for home-education children in the area.

Following a successful “taster” session, regular weekly Japanese Language and Culture lessons have taken place.  Over the past few months, Educationista Foundation every Thursday morning to around 18 students across the three different age groups below have benefitted.

• Age 4-7yrs
• Age 8-11yrs
• Age 12-16yrs

This aim was to introducing them to the language and culture of Japan.  We identified a local person of Japanese origin to deliver the lessons.  These were supplemented with textbooks, workbooks and teaching resources.  We have also been able to establish a small pool of resources for reference and to continue to support Japanese lessons in the immediate future.

The eventual aim is for young people to study for a GCSE Japanese qualification.

In addition to language, some of aspects of Japanese culture that have been covered include:

• Traditional dress (kimono)
• Tea Ceremony
• Coming of Age Day
• Japanese homes
• Origami

The general structure of the sessions followed a pattern of introduction, recap, cultural topic, Japanese language.

Some comments from the children and their parents:

“L and A both really enjoy the lessons (enough to be worth getting up early and driving for an hour each way 😉 ) and find S to be a really nice teacher. A especially likes learning about the culture of Japan, singing songs and writing hiragana. L is fascinated by the culture (so good to have a teacher who really knows what she’s talking about there) and is enjoying learning new words and language.”

“I really like how Sami brings in real Japanese things for us to see and use, like money”

“E said the teacher was very nice and she liked learning about the culture as well as the language. She also loves the songs “

“L says her favourite things about Japanese class have been learning vocabulary and doing origami”

“F and S enjoyed the origami, and S liked the sushi roll making session.”

This project was supported during 2016-17 by a grant from the Japan Foundation.

We plan to continue once Sami has finished her maternity leave.

Should any other home-education group wish to make an application to the Japanese Foundation for a similar project, please do get in touch.  We would be happy to discuss our project in further detail and support any other home-education group to make an application in their own right.

We would like to thank the Japan Foundation for this fantastic opportunity.