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).
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. [Read more…]