Languages

Year 8 Japanese In Year 8 Japanese we investigate both the culture and language of Japan. Some examples are learning about Japanese food, celebrations and film, in which we watched an awesome Japanese movie for the Melbourne International Film Festival. Although we may have not been able to experience the Taiko drums or cooking yakisoba due to lockdowns, we still had the opportunity to make origami. I definitely plan to continue Japanese and you should continue your language too! Mathai Manavalan and Louis Pham (Year 8)

Year 9 Japanese Bonica Sensei has taught us many key grammar patterns and sentence structures that can help us interact using Japanese. Our restaurant role play allowed us to use a variety of grammar patterns and that made the whole assessment fun to act out and plan. For the Melbourne International Film Festival, we watched “It’s a Summer Film”, which is about a high schooler who wants to make her own samurai movie, with elements of drama, science fiction, comedy and romance. Japanese in Year 9 has been a challenging yet rewarding experience. Ethan Nguyen (Year 9)

Year 10 Japanese Since we were unable to host a student, we started an online conversation exchange program in 2020 with students from Meiji Gakuen University in Yokohama, Japan, to create an authentic atmosphere for conversation in our target language. Our Year 10 and VCE students met Komiya-senpai from Yokohama online to chat. Komiya-senpai has dedicated many Monday lunchtimes to this program and we appreciate her dedication.

Year 11 Japanese The Year 11 and 12 Japanese classes ran a yakisoba stall. Reflecting on my experience, I’m definitely glad that I helped as it allowed me to get along and work with my friends while still supporting the work of the Oblates. Cooking over a grill for the entire day was tiring, but we were all satisfied that we were able to feed not only the students at Mazenod but also contribute to the Missions and help the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. Kevin Tran (Year 11)

Year 8 Italian This year in Italian, we were able to experience making a tiramisu and the comedy festival “Venice in Love”. Commedia dell’Arte was an extremely entertaining festival role playing the events of the famous Carnival in the city of Venice. Joshua Ciamarra and Christian Barthelot (Year 8)

Year 9 Italian Throughout the year we improved our reading comprehension and listening skills with weekly activities. At the start of Term 3, a number of students participated in the annual Dante Alighieri Poetry Competition. This competition built upon our speaking, comprehension and memory skills, with each of us tasked with reciting a particular poem. The process of comprehending Dante Alighieri’s outstanding utilisation of old Italian was an exhilarating journey and certainly one not to be forgotten. Roberto and Antonio Di Giovine (Year 9)

Year 12 Italian Our class communicated with students from Rovereto in Trentino through speech and in writing. We learnt about each other’s hobbies and their personal world, communicating through Zoom, then writing letters to each other through email.This was a great learning experience as we strengthened our speaking and writing skills and learned about the lives of young people in Italy. We also had other rewarding experiences such as the opportunity to watch the Federico Fellini film classic, Amarcord, as well as listening to the experiences of Sarah, a Polish Holocaust survivor. These both helped us to be exposed to European culture and history, allowing us to incorporate this knowledge into the rest of our learning. Luca Marziale and Daniel Plowman (Year 12)

Year 9 Chinese Even though Chinese is hard, it is good fun and every week, we learn lots of new characters and sentences. We listen to good Chinese music, TFBoys and Zhang Yi Xing are very good. We watch Chinese programs and China’s cities are very beautiful. I love Chinese class! Nathanael Kuek (Year 9)

Year 10 Chinese Although Chinese is hard and takes time to learn, it is my most rewarding subject. This year we have been focusing on China’s tradition and culture, looking at the infamous Spring Festival. We did Chinese calligraphy, making auspicious spring couplets. I cannot wait to continue Chinese in Year 11. Michael Ebejer (Year 10)

Year 11 Chinese We spend time developing our speaking skills, which I really enjoy. We do role playing, such as introducing our girlfriend to our family, booking

tickets to China at a travel agency and ordering food in restaurants. Admittedly, it is hard, but these scenarios are always practical and fun, so we find that speaking Chinese is getting easier. Nathanial Louey (Year 11)

Year 12 Chinese We spent much of our time studying ancient Chinese philosophies, composed by renowned academicians such as Confucius. We observed how their principles have remained relevant throughout the course of history, being applicable to the lives of the ancient Chinese as well as the business etiquette of Chinese corporate executives of the 21st century. As expected, a significant portion of our class time was also devoted to improving our Chinese language skills through speaking, listening and reading exercises. With the patience of Mao Laoshi, Jiang Laoshi and Yu Laoshi, we collectively improved our verbal fluency, motivated by the importance of proficiency in a second language. Brennan Ewe (Year 12)