Students at Manly West State School learn Japanese from Prep to Year 6 as part of their engagement with the Languages Curriculum, a key learning area of the Australian Curriculum. Students participate in weekly lessons to learn the language and culture of Japan, one of Australia’s largest trading partners. They engage in a variety of speaking and listening tasks, and begin to communicate in writing using hiragana, katakana and kanji. Over the past few years, our students have also been able to practice these new skills and form friendships with visiting Japanese students to our school.
While there are many obvious personal, travel and economic benefits in learning Japanese, students also gain an increased awareness and understanding of their first language, as well as a deeper insight into different cultural perspectives. In addition, language study is also known to be able to help improve problem-solving skills, multitasking ability and creativity.