Global trade, cultural, tourism and technological connections will require today’s students to operate in a range of languages and cultural spheres, and to value the associated economic, human and cognitive impacts of each.
At Girls Grammar, language learners develop communication skills that enhance their capacity for problem solving and divergent thinking, and learn to appreciate and empathise with varying viewpoints. Five languages are offered in the Girls Grammar curriculum—French, German, Japanese, Chinese and Latin.
Year 10 Japanese
In Year 10 Japanese, the focus of Term 1 was ‘Health and Wellbeing,’ in which we investigated the lifestyles of Australian and Japanese secondary school students. Before moving on to our next unit, we had the delight of making kyaraben.
Kyaraben is a type of Japanese lunch where healthy, portioned food is arranged to have various appearances—normally cute characters or animals. Making kyaraben is not just a way to have an appetising, healthy lunch, but has also become so popular in Japan that there are competitions where people aim to make the best arrangements. As a class, we enjoyed immersing ourselves in Japanese culture and eating the delicious food that came with the experience.
Anna Mikli (10H) and Charis Tran (10H)
Year 7 German
Guten Tag, Ich heiße Sarah! As part of Year 7 German, we were asked to test our skills and make a one-minute video blog introducing ourselves with our newfound German knowledge. We spoke about our names, age, and birthday among other things. When I started the task, it was a challenge, but after many, many attempts, it was worth the benefits. It helped me develop my German writing, comprehension, and pronunciation skills while still being a simple and easy task. One of the highlights was watching our classmates’ blogs and getting to know them better.
Sarah Shakeel (7G)
