08 Jun Japan Day at Whitley Academy
Written by Michelle, Ava and Keeley – Year 7 student reporters
Friday 18th May 2018 was a school day with a difference for our Year 8 pupils. It was Japan Day, and all the lessons circulated around Japan – its culture, history, geography, cuisine, art and fashion to name but a few. More specifically, the action-packed day included sumo wrestling, origami, manga art, a fashion parade and Japanese cooking.
We, the Year 7 student reporters, were the lucky ones who were given special access to all of the Year 8 classes to report on the events.
In the lesson about Japanese language, we were taken on a short journey about how Japanese is commonly spoken and written. We found it fascinating to learn that; when talking, the Japanese use their language depending on who you are talking to, and the familiarity and the relationship amongst each other!
At our next stop in a Japanese fashion classroom, we were told that the Japanese are a passionately traditional people, who want to celebrate their past. Japanese fashions that fell out of everyday wear in the 19th century are regularly brought around for holidays, ceremonies, festivals and cultural activities. Wow!
In the Japan Quiz session, we learned some basic Geographical facts of Japan…
- Do you know that…parts of central Tokyo has the highest population density in the world?
- Japan has received the most Science Nobel prizes in Asia.
- Japan is the world’s leading manufacturer and consumer of robots. About half of the world’s robots are made and used in Japan!
- Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Sharp, Nintendo and Toshiba are among the best-known Japanese electronics companies.
Reflecting
“Baseball was the most exciting thing we did today. It’s the second most popular sport in Japan” – Kieran, Year 8 pupil.
“It was interesting to learn some Japanese and facts about Japan such as sushi was created by mistake as the creators were trying to preserve fish and found it delicious!” – Holly, Year 8 pupil.
This is the reflection of Mr Haxby – our Teacher of Modern Foreign Languages and the organiser of the whole day’s events:
“In May, we organise Japan Day, a breakout day for Year 8 where they take part in Japan-themed lessons. Where possible, these lessons take advantage of the expertise of the teachers leading them, such as in the Japanese History, Japanese ICT and Japanese Food lessons that have been taught in the past, and every student has a Japanese Language lesson, led by one of the MFL teachers. We also usually have an assembly to explain the reason why we have a Japan Day, namely thanks to our partner school in Hiroshima, which visits every year”.
We want to thank our teachers for working so hard to give us a day with such a difference. We love our school days! Hopefully, in the future, children will not be taught by the most complex AI (Artificial Intelligence) robot teachers.
We hope you enjoyed our blog as much as we enjoyed our Japan Day!
