On February 10^th 2012, 23 people attended our Training Day for volunteers of our Japanese Taster for Schools (JTS) Programme, in which native and fluent Japanese speakers conduct free Japanese taster sessions in UK schools.

As well as providing new members with basic information about the programme, this month’s JTS Training Day featured reports from two volunteers who had visited schools – one delivered in Japanese by a native Japanese speaker, and the other by a non-native Japanese speaker in English.  This was followed by workshops by Hiroko Tanaka (Japanese Language Advisor and co-ordinator of JTS at the Japan Foundation), demonstrating enjoyable ways of introducing Japanese language and culture at taster sessions through songs, games and story-telling.  Several of these ideas and resources came from Japan Foundation’s own resources, including our JFL Japanese Scheme of Work for Key Stage 2, Nihongo e-na and Ready Steady NihonGO.

Noriko Inman, a new member, commented:

「パワーポイント、動画、音楽、体操などを交えて、教材を紹介して下さって、驚くとともに特に楽しく勉強になりました。」

(“Combining the introduction of teaching resources with PowerPoint presentations, animation, songs and dance enabled me to learn new techniques in fun and surprising ways.”)

Another new volunteer, Emma Gallagher, said:

“It was useful to hear about the experiences of other volunteers. I picked up lots of hits and tips. It was good to have the opportunity to chat to other volunteers over lunch... Enjoyable and useful afternoon.”

We would like to thank all volunteers for coming to the Training Day, and hope they will have the chance to hold a Japanese Taster Session at a school soon!

If you speak native level or fluent Japanese and are interested in becoming a JTS volunteer, please click here for more information.

If you are a school teacher and are interested in holding a Japanese language taster at your school, please click here to find out more.