BAYFIELD HIGH SCHOOL
International Languages Week is a celebration of language, but also of culture, food, the arts, sports – all the aspects that make up the society where the people who speak that language live.
At Bayfield High School we use International Languages Week as a vehicle to promote multiculturalism and acceptance of all cultures through experiencing and enjoying different languages, food, and cultural experiences.
This year we were fortunate in receiving a grant from the Sasakawa Fellowship Fund to help us fund the Japanese Activities in our very busy programme. This grant allowed us to achieve two of our primary goals for International Languages Week - the promotion of the cultures associated with the languages that we teach, and fundraising to support our students heading off on exchanges.
Monday, which was Chinese Day, kicked off with a karaoke competition. I borrowed a Singstar set and a PS2 (available at Video Ezy), and had senior Japanese students set up and run the show. The songs were in English to allow for non-Japanese speaking participants, but it was made clear that the karaoke was in celebration of the Japanese language and culture. It was great fun watching the kids throw themselves into their performances.
We put forward a challenge to the whole school by setting up a board in a common area and invited staff and students to write up as many greetings in as many languages as possible. We ended up with dozens of examples in languages as varied as Serbian, Dutch and Vietnamese.
Wednesday was a big day, with both the croissants on sale at interval,
and a kendo demonstration in the hall. We invited Tatsuya Fukuda, a 5th
dan kendo athlete, coach and instructor to come to Bayfield and
demonstrate his sport, and teach our students how to do kendo. We used
Sasakawa funds to pay for Fukuda-sensei and his associates travel
expenses from Invercargill, as they wouldn’t accept money seeing as it
was for a good cause. Our boys in particular were fascinated with the
kendo display, and couldn’t wait to try their hand with the shinai!
On Thursday we ran an internationally themed mufti day, which resulted in some very inspired costume choices. (see below)
We also used Sasakawa funds to purchase a selection of Japanese food, which was used to promote Japanese Day in a number of ways.
My Year Ten class, who have just been learning to conjugate the past tense, were allowed to sample a range of Japanese food including wasabi flavoured snacks and Pocky, and reviewed it in Japanese. They were surprised and delighted to find that Japanese food wasn’t at all scary, and enjoyed the lesson immensely. They’re all looking forward to trying more Japanese food in the future.
All week long we’d been running ‘Greet the teacher’ competitions, where the first student during the day to greet each Languages teacher in the language of the day was awarded a prize – with a few special prizes for especially enthusiastic efforts. It is always brilliant to see our school transformed into an even more multilingual environment.
We are appreciative of the support from Sasakawa, who have helped us to make our Languages Week enjoyable and memorable.
ほんとう に ありがとう ございました。
Trudi Wigg
TiC Japanese
Bayfield High School