Japanese Language Navigation29/11/2011
 |
A big thank you to everyone who visited the Japan Foundation’s stand at the Language Show Live on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd October. Held once a year, the Language Show is the UK's biggest event for language learners, teachers, linguists and anyone with a passion for languages. This year’s show, held in Olympia, was attended by over 9,000 people across the three days. The Japan Foundation’s stand gave visitors a chance to experience Japanese language and culture, including writing their name in Japanese, trying Japanese alphabet jigsaw, and making an origami samurai hat! Our Japanese Language Taster sessions, held by Japan Foundation’s Japanese Language Advisor, Hiroko Tanaka, was attended by a huge crowd of enthusiastic language learners of all ages, We would also like to thank all our Japanese Taster for Schools volunteers who generously donated their time and Japanese language expertise to help at the stand. Domo arigato gozaimashita! Additionally, we held a Japan Quiz, which over 500 people entered. Out of those who answered the quiz correctly, we picked five at random to send our Japan Foundation Goody Bag. The answers to the quiz were as follows: 1. Which of these activities is the most widely practiced in Japan? a) Tea ceremony b) Golf c) Karaoke Answer = c) Karaoke is considered to be the most widely practiced cultural activity in Japan.
2. Which of these is most commonly recognised as the national flower of Japan? a) Lotus b) Wisteria c) Cherry blossom Answer = c) The cherry blossom is commonly recognised as Japan’s national flower (as well as the chrysanthemum).
3. Japan’s geography consists mainly of... a) Cities b) Mountains c) Rice fields Answer = b) Mountains cover over 70% of Japan’s terrain!
4. The character 日 means “sun” and the character 青 means “blue.” What do you think their combination, 晴, means? a) Clear skies b) Moon c) Sadness Answer = a) The character 晴, which is pronounced “hare” or “sei,” means clear skies or sunny weather.
5. Which of these cartoon characters does NOT originate from Japan? a) Hello Kitty b) The Powerpuff Girls c) Super Mario Answer b) = While Hello Kitty were created by Japanese companies (Sanrio and Nintendo, respectively), the Powerpuff Girls were made by American animators. Their style, however, imitates popular animation styles from Japan. Congratulations to Selvi Saroinsong, Jonathan Collins, Rebecca Patterson, Franchon Wright and Sara Lounes who were selected at random from all those who got all the answers right to win our goody bag! Japan Foundation will also be attending the Language Show in 2012, on October 19th , 20th and 21st at the Olympia, London. We hope to see you there! |
The Japan Foundation, London