On Wednesday, 3rd May, we had the pleasure of taking part in a Japanese Immersion Day at the Sunshine Coast University. Throughout the day, grade 10, 11 & 12 students from around the Sunshine Coast who study Japanese at school had the opportunity to take part in various Japanese language and cultural activities.

In total we taught four groups of about 60 students per group (240 students altogether).

I gave each group a short introduction about who we were and what we were going to cover in the session, using my best Japanese. For those who weren’t keeping up, I followed with an English version of the same information. I there were are few people who were very grateful that I did that, but quite surprisingly, most of the students seemed to be following what I was saying quite well.

After the introductions were out of the way, students entered our temporary outdoor dojo and we began the class. Students practiced some kihons, did a few partner exercises and then Senpai David and I did a few short demonstrations. And finally we wrapped up each session with a short Q & A session.

I have to say I was very impressed with how well all of the students participated and jumped in to make the most of the opportunity.

I’d like to say a big thank you to one of our adult students, Miyuki Power, who helped make the introduction to the event organiser. And also a big thank you to Selina Strazarri for taking photos.  (View photos at SCK Facebook Page)

All in all it was a lot of fun and we hope that we might be able to participate in similar events in the future.