Class Report: Japanese Culture

Third graders from Ms. Tsuruta’s class wrote up short reports in English about Japanese culture.

 
That’s about half of all my third graders, here are a few of my favorites:

Tsukasa wrote about Osaka Castle.  Naturally, even armed with an Japanese to English dictionary, there are a few grammar mistakes.  I didn’t correct these, and honestly I’m pleasantly surprised with how well they came out considering how far outside most of my kid’s comfort zones this type of writing falls.  Case in point, notice how Tsukasa, for the most part, succeeds in using the right tense when talking about the castle now and talking about Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life.

 
Bushi and anime: two aspects of Japanese culture I imagine many living back in the states are familiar with.  I like the “very cool!” written up by the picture of Kenshin.  Plus, this student has taught me how to say professional killer, not that it’s a very useful phrase, but interesting nonetheless.

This is probably only amusing to me because this particular student talks about Haruhi Suzumiya all the time.  He knows I’ve seen and enjoyed the anime and even used his knowledge to “cheat” during a game in which the students asked me if I had ever done something.  All that aside, however, this is a pretty good synopsis of the series and even mentions the different media it’s been adapted to.  Good use of punctuation too.  Most students place names of books, movies, etc. into quotes like this「」and capitalize the entire thing.

 
Kana not only wrote a lot, but I can tell she was trying to use some of the grammar they had recently learned, such as saying her mother’s tempura is “more delicious” than hers.  I also really like the line “Like a fried potato for Americans.”  It may be a fragment, but the fact that she used a simile is really impressive.  What’s more, it seems to be aimed at her audience (i.e. people who can read English) by using an example from America.

I hope you enjoyed some of the writings of my kids.  These are some of my strongest seniors and these papers in particular are some of the most creative and varied that I have seen.  Almost all of them have continued to come in for lessons over the break as well and I look forward to seeing what they are truly capable of once school starts up again.