Bonjour, Konnichiwa, Ciao!
From Year 9
Bonjour, Konnichiwa, Ciao! Celebrating Year 9 Languages
Our Year 9 students continue to embrace the opportunity to extend their skills in French, Japanese, and Italian this year. Through engaging lessons, cultural activities, and language immersion experiences, students are developing greater confidence in communication while deepening their appreciation of global cultures. We are proud of the enthusiasm and curiosity they continue to bring to their language learning at St Aloysius College.
In Japanese, our last topic was on different languages and nationalities, along with talking about how someone studies. During this, we had the opportunity to go to the Melbourne Museum with the Japanese exchange students from Kyoto Seibo Gakuin. This allowed us to extend our learning from the classroom with Japanese students, helping to improve our Japanese speaking skills. We've recently started our new topic of food which includes reading a Japanese Burger Menu. Ultimately, Japanese has been going smoothly, and I look forward to continuing to learn about the different words for foods.
Holly Trang, 9C
This year studying Japanese has been a fun and challenging experience. I've enjoyed the culture as well as the language. It's been interesting to learn about customs and traditions that seem so different from what we are used to. One of the highlights of the year was hanging out with the Japanese students! It was a great chance to practice what we'd learned and make new friends while experiencing the culture firsthand. It's very exciting to meet some different people from a whole different country. Overall, the language is difficult as the grammar and kanji were tricky, but as a class we have done a great job at supporting each other. We have learnt about how we say different countries, talking about where we grew up and saying where we were born.
Dean Barravecchio, 9B and Marcus Ng, 9A
This year in Italian, we have been learning about Italian fashion. We have learnt the differences between Australian fashion compared to Italian fashion and have learnt how to use Italian vocabulary to communicate. Around halfway through the year, we were introduced to the Italian Poetry Competition where we memorised famous poems and recited them in front of a judge at Melbourne University. We got to have a day off campus in Carlton, and once we individually all spoke, we were allowed to go off in groups to get lunch.
Gabriella Roberts, 9F
In Italian this term, we have been working on fashion, such as designers but moreover the vocabulary relating to clothing. We have been learning about how 'trendy' fashion is different in Italy compared to Australia. We learned about the dovere, bere, venire and uscire verbs! We learnt how to talk on the telephone, write blogs among other similar topics.
Sebastian Hall, 9B
Most recently in Year 9 French we have been working on online pamphlets for families visiting from France. We are using them to share information about our home city to them. We have been making pamphlets online including things that they could possibly see and do whilst here such as going to the AFL, the city, or night and day events that are held here. We had to include photos but as well as mercy values and social justice issues that people from France may not know about. This task has helped us expand our French vocabulary, put correct accents onto words and write and speak fluently in French and be able to learn to introduce ourselves and things we enjoy doing around Melbourne. It has also helped us to learn to explain where we live to people visiting. I enjoyed this task because it was a fun way to use the French language in a real-life context by being able to share my personal knowledge of the city and expand on my French vocabulary.
Hannah Travers, 9F
Emma Turner
Year 9 Leader
In Year 9 French, students are currently creating a welcome poster that will be displayed on a website for French families immigrating to Melbourne. They are sharing their personal best tips on living in Melbourne. This is a wonderful opportunity to put their French into practise, show hospitality value, and know their poster is going to be seen by French people.
Thank you to Gregory from 9E for writing a reflection on the latest in French:
Throughout this year in French, I participated in multiple of the oportunities provided to us to participate in extra-curricular activities such as French Trivia, the Berth Mouchette Poem Competition, a written exam, and a dictation challenge. French Trivia was fun, we went to Sacre Cœur School in Glen Iris and were paired up with some of the girls there. We had trivia on many different topics regarding French culture, such as food, geography, art, and history. Everything there was in French, including the questions and possible answers, so it was a great experience to learn French or to be in a French-foccused environment. The poem and exam were hard, we had practised weeks prior, but it was a success. Later in the term, we had a dication challenge. This a new experience for me, as I had to actively practise listening and writing in a new language. Just recently, we had a group of three musicians come in and teach us about African dancing and drumming. We all were given djembes and had fun making and practising French music together.
Alizee Bourgault
French Teacher