Japan Foundation Supports Stromness Academy Students Learning Japanese

Over the past six months, high school students in Orkney have been learning about Japan, its language and its culture with support from the Japan Foundation. The project was the brainchild of Stromness Academy’s Deputy Head Teacher Mark Colson, with help from Bilingualism Matters support Ruta Noreika (who divides her time between Edinburgh and Orkney) and Yuka Johnston (an Orkney resident, originally from Tokyo).

stromness academy students study Japanese language and culture The project began in response to a visit by Japanese students from Kamaishi, on Japan’s East coast, to Orkney last August. Following the visit, a group of S4, S5 and S5 students at Stromness Academy took part in Japanese language and culture sessions from October 2014 until the end of March 2015. They have learnt simple greetings, how to introduce themselves, a bit about the politeness system, basic numbers and counting, how to describe their families (you can’t just say my brother or sister, you have to say whether they are older or younger) and of course how to say please and thank you.

The student have learnt how their names look and sound in Japanese – a language where you normally need to put a vowel in between every consonant, and which doesn’t make a distinction between “R” and “L”. They have also learned to eat with chopsticks (and have tried some Japanese food), written new year’s greetings (this is the Year of the Sheep), watched some Japanese films, and asked lots of excellent questions which have steered some of the topics covered over the course of the project.

All of this means that when the Kamaishi students make a return visit to Orkney this year, many of the Stromness Academy students will be able to welcome them in Japanese, and with a much better understanding of the culture of Japan.

The Stromness Japanese project started with the simple idea that students all over the world are able to communicate, regardless of language barriers; but that taking some of those barriers down would make communication easier and allow more friendships to form. The hope is that it might be possible to build on this year’s pilot project and eventually offer a course in Japanese language and culture to a qualification level at Stromness Academy.

The teaching staff on this language and culture course were generously funded by the Japan Foundation, which has also helped the school to develop a small library of Japanese language textbooks, grammars and dictionaries – as well as some DVDs and books about Japanese culture, society, literature, film, and martial arts for the students to borrow.

The Japan Foundation is Japan’s principal organisation for promoting international cultural exchange. The Foundation provides financial support for a range of international cultural exchange programmes and works principally in the fields of Arts and Culture, in Japanese language education and in Japanese studies. Japan Foundation London is the centre for all UK activities, and was one of the first overseas offices to be set up, opening in 1972. The Foundation now has offices and cultural centres in over 20 countries outside of Japan, and headquarters in Tokyo.

The Stromness project has now finished for the year, but all involved agree that they have “only scratched the surface” and are developing lots of ideas for what to do next. As part of this next stage, the team are looking to help strengthen the links and friendships between Orkney and Japan more generally. They would like to invite any Orcadians who have lived or worked in Japan to meet with the Stromness students and share their experiences – if interested, please contact Ruta Noreika through the school (admin.sa@glow.orkneyschools.org.uk).

But for now, it is a big DOOMO ARIGATOO GOZAIMASHITA (thank you) to all who helped, and a GAMBATTE NE! (keep up the good work) to the students, especially the S6’s who have exams.