On Saturday 9th July a group of Japanese teachers were fortunate enough to experience a full day of Japanese language immersion in Dunedin. We met at John McGlashan College and spent the morning experiencing a Mizuhiki accessory workshop. Midori Brown from ‘Wafu Art Jewellery’ in New Plymouth kindly and very patiently showed us how she makes some of her gorgeous jewellery. I think we were all quite daunted at first, as all of the pieces looked so intricate and beautifully made. However, with encouragement and perseverance, we all managed to create our own pieces of jewellery. In Japan, Mizuhiki is used for special occasions, and Midori’s pieces are all made in Aotearoa using Mizuhiki paper from Japan. We were all provided with some mizuhiki paper and instructions on how to make our selected jewellery. As it says on the ‘Wafu Art Jewellery’s website ‘Mizuhiki knot is associated with the Japanese word ‘musubu’ meaning ‘connection’ or ‘tying’. Making Mizuhiki knots conveys warmth, connection and togetherness.’ There was certainly a lot of laughter and fun had by all as we tried to replicate Midori’s creations.
I made a hairclip, while others made earrings or other trinkets. Kaori Fukazawa, our Japanese National Language Advisor, participated via zoom from Japan and also created some impressive pieces of jewellery. We were all very proud of what we made and felt inspired to take what we had learned back to our students.
After lunch we departed for a guided tour of Olveston Historic Home. We were fortunate to not only be able to explore this historic home, but also to experience the whole tour in Japanese. There were so many interesting Japanese items, such as the Netsuke and Ramma panels. David Theomin had furnished his home with fine art and furniture from his travels around the world and clearly had a fascination or admiration for Japanese art. I particularly liked the swords stored in the entrance vestibule. We were a bit reluctant to leave as there was so much to see, but we had to head back to the College, as transport was proving a bit challenging due to the All Blacks game being held that night in Dunedin.
We were all very grateful for the help of Belinda Sydenham, Paula Kasper, Kaori Fukazawa and our special guests. I would highly recommend these sort of immersion days to all language teachers. It was a great way to be immersed in the language, have a lot of fun and network and make connections with other language teachers. After the past few years of feeling quite isolated through lack of travel and meeting up, it was a very welcome change.
Photos, L- R: Left and middle photo: Petra Kent with her creations from the Mizuhiki Accessory Workshop. Right: Teacher making a Mizuhiki knot.
Article by Petra Kent, Takapuna Grammar School
Upcoming Workshops
Preparation for the Tadoku (extensive reading) online workshop series is underway in cooperation with Dr. Mitsue Tabata-Sandom (Massay University, Auckland). In this online workshop series, she will talk about the effects of Tadoku and guide us on how to write graded texts (texts that are lexically and grammatically graded). During the workshop, each participant will try to create at least one story in the digital format and the outcomes will be shared on the “Yomimono Ippai (Lots of Stories)” site, the founder of which is Dr. Mitsue Tabata-Sandom. There are more than 100 stories created by many supportive Japanese teachers and their students on the website but why don’t we add our masterpieces to its collection? Especially stories with New Zealand flavours are welcome so that they can be used by Japanese teachers in NZ.
Profile of Mitsue Tabata-Sandom: I have been promoting extensive reading for more than a decade. Do you know New Zealand's great applied linguist, Paul Nation (Emeritus Professor of Victoria University of Wellington)? He asserts in many of his books that extensive reading is one of the best remedies for problematic language curricula. Mitsue has seen a flame of motivation in many reluctant learners' eyes when they are given a chance to do extensive reading. She hopes she can can explain more details during one of her workshops. She looks forward to seeing you all and is excited to see many books created by her fellow New Zealand Japanese teachers on 読み物いっぱい. みんなでがんばりましょう！よろしくおねがいします。光恵（みつえ）
These workshops will be held during Term 4.
Date: 26 October, 9 November, and 16 November 2022
Time: 4:00pm-5.30pm
This series consists of 3 workshops. You are welcome to attend one or two of these, however we recommend attending them all.
We will send out an e-mail to register, so keep an eye out on your emails!
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2022 - Japanese - Term 3 Newsletter Articles
Japanese Immersion Day, Review by Petra Kent
On Saturday 9th July a group of Japanese teachers were fortunate enough to experience a full day of Japanese language immersion in Dunedin. We met at John McGlashan College and spent the morning experiencing a Mizuhiki accessory workshop. Midori Brown from ‘Wafu Art Jewellery’ in New Plymouth kindly and very patiently showed us how she makes some of her gorgeous jewellery. I think we were all quite daunted at first, as all of the pieces looked so intricate and beautifully made. However, with encouragement and perseverance, we all managed to create our own pieces of jewellery. In Japan, Mizuhiki is used for special occasions, and Midori’s pieces are all made in Aotearoa using Mizuhiki paper from Japan. We were all provided with some mizuhiki paper and instructions on how to make our selected jewellery. As it says on the ‘Wafu Art Jewellery’s website ‘Mizuhiki knot is associated with the Japanese word ‘musubu’ meaning ‘connection’ or ‘tying’. Making Mizuhiki knots conveys warmth, connection and togetherness.’ There was certainly a lot of laughter and fun had by all as we tried to replicate Midori’s creations.
I made a hairclip, while others made earrings or other trinkets. Kaori Fukazawa, our Japanese National Language Advisor, participated via zoom from Japan and also created some impressive pieces of jewellery. We were all very proud of what we made and felt inspired to take what we had learned back to our students.
After lunch we departed for a guided tour of Olveston Historic Home. We were fortunate to not only be able to explore this historic home, but also to experience the whole tour in Japanese. There were so many interesting Japanese items, such as the Netsuke and Ramma panels. David Theomin had furnished his home with fine art and furniture from his travels around the world and clearly had a fascination or admiration for Japanese art. I particularly liked the swords stored in the entrance vestibule. We were a bit reluctant to leave as there was so much to see, but we had to head back to the College, as transport was proving a bit challenging due to the All Blacks game being held that night in Dunedin.
We were all very grateful for the help of Belinda Sydenham, Paula Kasper, Kaori Fukazawa and our special guests. I would highly recommend these sort of immersion days to all language teachers. It was a great way to be immersed in the language, have a lot of fun and network and make connections with other language teachers. After the past few years of feeling quite isolated through lack of travel and meeting up, it was a very welcome change.
Photos, L- R: Left and middle photo: Petra Kent with her creations from the Mizuhiki Accessory Workshop. Right: Teacher making a Mizuhiki knot.
Article by Petra Kent, Takapuna Grammar School
Upcoming Workshops
Preparation for the Tadoku (extensive reading) online workshop series is underway in cooperation with Dr. Mitsue Tabata-Sandom (Massay University, Auckland). In this online workshop series, she will talk about the effects of Tadoku and guide us on how to write graded texts (texts that are lexically and grammatically graded). During the workshop, each participant will try to create at least one story in the digital format and the outcomes will be shared on the “Yomimono Ippai (Lots of Stories)” site, the founder of which is Dr. Mitsue Tabata-Sandom. There are more than 100 stories created by many supportive Japanese teachers and their students on the website but why don’t we add our masterpieces to its collection? Especially stories with New Zealand flavours are welcome so that they can be used by Japanese teachers in NZ.
Profile of Mitsue Tabata-Sandom: I have been promoting extensive reading for more than a decade. Do you know New Zealand's great applied linguist, Paul Nation (Emeritus Professor of Victoria University of Wellington)? He asserts in many of his books that extensive reading is one of the best remedies for problematic language curricula. Mitsue has seen a flame of motivation in many reluctant learners' eyes when they are given a chance to do extensive reading. She hopes she can can explain more details during one of her workshops. She looks forward to seeing you all and is excited to see many books created by her fellow New Zealand Japanese teachers on 読み物いっぱい. みんなでがんばりましょう！よろしくおねがいします。光恵（みつえ）
These workshops will be held during Term 4.
Date: 26 October, 9 November, and 16 November 2022
Time: 4:00pm-5.30pm
This series consists of 3 workshops. You are welcome to attend one or two of these, however we recommend attending them all.
We will send out an e-mail to register, so keep an eye out on your emails!
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