Curriculum

Japanese

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Curriculum Handbook 2022
Information Handbook 2022

All year 8 students study Japanese. Generally, Year 8 students have the same teacher for English, Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) and Japanese. This enables teachers to integrate the learning of Japanese with other areas, such as world history, studies of Asia, literature and the Arts.

After Year 9 Japanese becomes a choice subject.

Japanese is used as often as possible in the classroom because language is learnt when it is used.

Japanese is seen by many people as being totally different from English, because it uses a combination of pictorial characters adopted from Chinese (kanji), and phonetic scripts called hiragana and katakana.

The three scripts of written Japanese offer a challenge which makes learning them both fascinating and highly rewarding.

What is not widely known is that many words used in Japanese have been borrowed from English and other European languages. This has occurred because of the need for modern concepts and names, e.g. konpyuutaa (computer).

Seaton's Japanese program is strengthened and enriched through:

• a Japanese exchange teacher program. Teachers from Japan may be placed in our school for up to 2 years. These teachers team teach with our own teachers of Japanese, provide intensive Japanese conversation practice for our students and they contribute to the general culture of the school.
• an annual study tour for a group of Japanese students from Koishikawa High School, Tokyo. The students spend two weeks in our school. This provides the opportunity for our students to exchange ideas, practise their Japanese and make friends with Japanese young people. It also provides our students with the opportunity to host a Japanese student for two weeks.
• a Language Centre where students can learn in a space which facilitates group work, conversation practice in 'break out' rooms and the integration of technology into language learning.
• a two week trip to Japan for Seaton students. This is offered every two years. An important part of the trip is spending some time in a Japanese school and a short Home Stay experience with a Japanese family.

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