This years Japanese Day workshop attracted over 350 secondary students from 15 Canterbury schools.
Students had a chance to participate in intensive language sessions, Tuakana-Teina sessions, and the annual dance-video project.
The result is an energised, collaborative dance-off to Japanese hit song Paprika. Check out the 2021 video here.
The Japanese Day workshop is a joint collaboration by the UC Japanese programme and the Canterbury Network of Teachers of Japanese and is the largest of its kind on Japanese language education in Oceania.
The day started with a warm welcome by Associate Professor Alistair Swale and greetings by Mr Masaya Tanigawa, the Director of the Consular Office of Japan, and was followed by a special talk by Ms Gabrielle Gibb-Faumuina, the 2018 JSANZ Speech Contest 2nd Place Winner and 2020 International Kokorozashi Presentation Contest Finalist, on her encounters and experiences with Japan and Japanese.
Secondary school students participated in a lucky dip, with prizes donated by the Consular Office of Japan and Education Perfect, and then took part in three intensive language sessions joined by 25 UC students acting as teaching assistants and mentors.
This was followed by a special Tuakana–Teina session where secondary students interviewed the UC students on their motivation and strategies for learning Japanese in Japanese.
The workshops promote interactions between secondary schools, and with the UC Japanese programme, with the aim to enhance and strengthen the Japanese learning community.
There was an overwhelmingly positive feedback from both the students and staff.
