Who has the Harry Potter game? Definitely not me.
Why not? Because my mum, and iPad games…
Pearl, do you want to come to my place? You can try it.
No. John Webster is my name. I’m the principal
at Wellers Hill State School. We’ve commenced the bilingual program at
Wellers Hill in 2014 after a year of intensive research.
My name is Sarah Prescott and I’m a parent of Eliza.
And she has been in the bilingual program since 2014.
When I speak Japanese I think it’s easy. But, when I’m learning new words it’s
a bit difficult - but once I’ve got those words, it’s easy.
All the research indicates that children who are bilingual have better prospects in life,
have better health outcomes… There are various advantages for native bilingualism.
But I … Universal Studios Japan, Hogwarts and the Hogwarts ride…
Because my eyes… You didn’t go!
I did. But, if you do this with your eyes…
I had my eyes… Just like this…
People who are native bilinguals, they actually get their dementia 4.5 years later than if
they were monolinguals. When you’re natively bilingual, and let’s
say there is a construction noise while you are giving a lecture, you are more likely
to be able to concentrate on your point. So this has to do with auditory concentration.
Next, does anybody remember what we get when we add a circle to the 'hi' character?
If you are natively bilingual, if you speak two languages as your mother tongues, you
are actually more clever than yourself as a monolingual.
Over 90 per cent of these children have never experienced Japanese before year one.
What kind of fruit do you like Riley? Kiwifruit.
So, say, "I like kiwifruit." I like kiwifruit.
I’m Kristina and I’ve got two kids at Wellers Hill doing the bilingual program.
My oldest daughter Natalie was in the first year that the program started and it was terrifying
- it was exciting. But it was also terrifying when it first started
because we had no idea, really, what to expect. My name’s Courtney Czechowski.
I’m a parent at Wellers Hill State School. I certainly know for my daughter, at about
this time last year when she started, she made the comment that she really liked Japanese
but it was probably better that she went to a school where they spoke English.
So it’s great to see a year on that that’s her favourite subject and she’s just passionate
about speaking Japanese and learning Japanese and practicing.
The class has two teachers - a Japanese teacher and an English teacher.
They alternate every half a day. I have an English partner teacher.
So she’s the one teaching all Australian curriculum in English.
And I’m teaching Japanese literacy, maths, science and geography in Japanese.
There are some words that have been introduced in English, but we can’t directly translate
that into Japanese because it’s not an age-appropriate word in Japanese.
So we have to reword into the similar range of words in Japanese and that’s the challenge
that we have every term. The unique things we’re finding are that
the way that Japanese mathematics is taught is really enhancing the way we’re now teaching
mathematics on the English side of the program as well.
The soroban is the word for abacus in Japanese. In my class we use soroban a lot.
That helps to develop their abstract thinking. Starting afresh: six yen, one yen, eight yen,
four yen, six yen, two yen, two yen, nine yen and nine yen makes?
Was the last one nine? Yes, Eliza?
It’s forty-seven yen. So they can say, for example, 565 divided
by five. They can do that in five seconds.
It’s about a year-and-a-half into the program, probably at that time point, I think I was
just standing by lining up with the kids for the class for the morning and Eliza started
to talk Japanese to her teachers. And I went, “wow, that’s unbelievable,”
because, in contrast to my experience as a language learner, I’d never gotten to the
point where I’d been conversationally fluent in Japanese.
When you walk around the school now you can see pockets, and hear pockets, of students
speaking Japanese and students speaking in English.
If the kids approach one of their Japanese teachers they will convert directly back to
Japanese and speak to them. And then if I’m walking past they’ll switch
straight back to English. My name is Kanon.
I’m doing a homestay at Eliza’s house. Your turn.
That was fast. Stormrider is my favourite ride.
What’s that? Water? Yes, the one with water - it’s high.
So we went to Japan for two weeks, which was essentially a visit to different cities and
then the kids were able to go on a three-day homestay.
My homestay was a lot of fun because we played a lot of interesting games.
Natalie had the opportunity to do a homestay when she was in Japan and she had this amazing
time with her family who really welcomed her into their home - but she got this snapshot
into their life. And she got to bathe in a traditional Japanese
house, she slept on a futon in a shared bedroom, she sat around the table on the tatami [straw
matting] eating the meal with the family. And, for her, she just came back speaking
about it like it was this amazing experience. My homestay family had a father, a mother,
an older brother, an older sister, a younger brother.
I ate a lot of curry and rice balls during my homestay.
I’ve done lots of different things, but this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever
introduced in a school. Because you can see the joy that the children
are getting out of the program, the joy that the parents are getting out of the program,
the positive impact that teaching Japanese in a bilingual fashion has had on our English
study component - which is amazing. But I think, certainly, understanding another
culture and another country is something that’s really nice to see happening so early.
So, embedded within the curriculum for the children are these cultural experiences, which
I think has such great value in terms of our global environment today.
And I just think that that has been so valuable for the children.
I think that will really help them for the rest of their lives.
The bilingual program at Wellers Hill will change the lives of these children for the
better till they retire and beyond. It’s an amazing thing.
I probably won’t work in Japan, but I’ll go to Japan a lot.
If you can do half of your school year in grade one and beyond in another language,
you can do anything.