A big thank you to everyone who visited the Japan Foundation’s stand at the Language Show Live on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th October at Olympia.

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.  The Japan Foundation’s stand gave visitors a chance to experience Japanese language and culture, including writing their name in Japanese and taking a purikura-style photo using Japan Foundation’s Erin’s Challenge! I Can Speak Japanese website (you can find the purikura game here).

On Friday morning, for the first time, the Japan Foundation held a seminar on Non-European languages in Primary and Secondary education: A case study of Japanese. Using Japanese as an example, the seminar aimed to give ideas to teachers of less well taught languages about how to go about introducing them into schools, and what support is available.

On Sunday morning, we held a Japanese Language Taster session led by the Japan Foundation’s Japanese Language Advisor, Hiroko Tanaka. It was attended by enthusiastic language learners of all ages, who learned basic Japanese greetings and the writing system.

At the close of the show on Sunday afternoon, Japan Foundation were delighted to welcome back Tamashii Daiko for a performance Japanese taiko drumming and a taiko workshop. Tamashii’s exhilarating drumming drew an enormous crowd, and many audience members were delighted to get the change to try taiko themselves.

Additionally, we held a Japan Quiz, which approximately 700 people entered.  Out of those who answered the quiz correctly, we picked five at random to send our Japan Foundation Goody Bag. Congratulations to Maysoun Cesarato-Adel from London, Caroline Moses from London, Jeanette Shipp from Surrey, Kristin Barrett from Essex and John Parry from Shropshire, who have all been sent Goody Bags!

The answers to the quiz were as follows:

1. Japan is often known as “The Land of the Rising...”a) Sun b) Moon c) Ninjas
Answer: a) Sun. The Japanese word for Japan, Nihon (日本), means “sun’s origin.”

2. Japan’s tallest mountain was recently awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. But what is this mountain’s name? a) Mount Kilimanjaro b) Mount Everest c) Mount Fuji
Answer:  c) Mount Fuji. Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, and Everest is in the Himalayas.

3. Which of these kanji (Japanese characters) means “tree”? (Hint – look at the shape!) a) 日b) 山c) 木
Answer: c) 木(ki). 日(hi) means “sun” or “day,” while  山 (yama) means “mountain.”

4. Which of the following is a traditional Japanese performing art? a) Belly Dance b) Kabuki c) Peking Opera
Answer: b) Kabuki. Belly dance is from the Middle East, and Peking Opera is from China.

We would like to thank Tamashii Daiko and all our Japanese Taster for Schools volunteers who generously donated their time and expertise for the show.  Domo arigato gozaimashita!

If you missed us, you will also have the opportunity to see the Japan Foundation exhibit and present seminars at Experience Japan Exhibition 2013 on November 16th.

Japan Foundation will also be attending the Language Show in 2014, on October 17^th, 18^th and 19^th  at the Olympia, London. We hope to see you there!