This term the Tanken Centre is offering online group speaking sessions for Year 11 students.

There are speaking sessions available on the following dates:
 18, 21, 31 August
 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18 September.

The 40 minute online group sessions are to assist students with their speaking practice. Sessions will take place during school hours using Zoom. Students will be divided into 3 breakout rooms and the Tanken Centre staff and class teacher will spend 10 minutes with a set of questions in each room. Staff will rotate through the rooms to ensure students have the opportunity to practise with 3 different speakers.

After the speaking rotations are complete, the groups will come back together in the main room and students will be given feedback.

​These sessions are free of charge. At this stage, sessions are only available to NSW public schools.
​
If you are interested in booking a session for your students, please email the Tanken Centre with the following details:
- the course (Beginners or Continuers)
- preferred dates and times (please provide at least 2 options)
- name list of attending students.
 
Bookings will be made on a first-come first-served basis. As there is a high chance that you will not be able to get your first preference, please send several preferred dates with times. Please note that your session is not confirmed until you receive a confirmation email. 

In response to teacher feedback, we have updated our sample speaking questions for Japanese Continuers. The questions we originally published were adapted from the old HSC Online site, and feedback indicated that the types of questions asked during the oral examination have changed since HSC Online was first published.

​You can access the updated questions from our Stage 6 Japanese Continuers page.

Excursions
Excursion bookings for Term 4 are filling quickly. Currently the following dates are available:
30 October
9, 11, 14, 15 December.

If you are interested in booking any of these dates, please contact the Tanken Centre.
If you have a tentative booking with the Tanken Centre for Term 4, please send through the booking form to secure your date. Should you no longer require the date you have booked, please let us know so that we can release the date to another school. In relation to COVID-19, we will advise you closer to the date if the excursion needs to be cancelled or if there are any changes to excursion procedures. 

Online group speaking sessions for Year 12
There are speaking sessions available on the following dates:
 4, 7, 14, 21, 25, 27 August
 2, 4, 8 September.

Please note that these sessions are offered to NSW public schools only. If you are interested in booking a session for your students, please contact the Tanken Centre with the following details:
- the course (Beginners or Continuers)
- preferred dates and times (please provide at least 2 options)
- name list of attending students.

​Bookings will be made on a first-come first-served basis. As there is a high chance that you will not be able to get your first preference, please send several preferred dates with times. Please note that your session is not confirmed until you receive a confirmation email. Priority goes to schools which did not participate in a speaking session in Term 2. Schools which participated in Term 2 will be placed on waiting list. These sessions are currently for Year 12 students only. Sessions for Year 11 students will run later in the term and information will be posted about these in the coming weeks. 

The Cross-sectoral Japanese Language Teachers’ Conference 2021 will be held on Friday 12 February 2021 in Sydney, and we are now seeking presenters.

Focus areas for presenters are:​
- assessment, reporting and feedback – K-10
- Stage 6 assessment strategies [Japanese Beginners and Continuers]
- innovative and effective teaching and learning strategies
- engaging resources and activities
- visible thinking techniques
- engaging your school community with Japanese
- other.

Session brief:
- workshop sessions are 60 minutes
- TeachMeet sessions are 7 minutes to 15 minutes
- teachers may submit a joint EOI to present together.

All applications require the signature of the applicant’s current principal. Please complete the EOI form below, and email as a PDF to coreena.allen@det.nsw.edu.au by 5pm on Friday 14 August  2020.

This EOI form is for teachers from all sectors. 

Successful applicants will be notified by email by Friday 28 August 2020.
​
For further information, please contact Coreena Allen or Shanelle Ingram. 

What's your J-Talent?
The Japan Foundation is holding an online talent contest titled What’s your J-Talent? Entries are open until 16 September. The contest is free to enter. There are great prizes on offer including local Japan-related experiences such as Japanese-style accommodation, and restaurant and shopping vouchers.

The contest complements the annual short film contest for students but engages with a broader audience.  Contest categories include Japanese language, pop culture, lifestyle, arts and culture.

Entries from individuals, family or small groups are welcome. Please ensure social distancing regulations are adhered to. Further information and entry requirements are available on the Japan Foundation website.

Professional learning – creating reading materials from authentic resources 
An online session for senior secondary and tertiary teachers showcasing how to use online news articles to create educational materials tailored to class levels will be held next month. There is a maximum of 60 participants for the session.  Registration is now open.

Date: 7 August 2020
Time: 4-5:10pm AEST
Session language: Japanese (simple level)
Presenter: Shunsuke Hirakawa, Language Consultant, The Japan Foundation, Sydney.
Admission: Free
Further information and registration links are available on the Japan Foundation website.  

Online elementary Japanese course
An elementary level tutor-supported course through the Minato online e-learning platform is being offered. The Marugoto A2-2 course is perfect for those who have studied beginner Japanese and want to take their Japanese to the next level, or those who just want to brush up on their reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills. A level check test is available on the Marugoto website. The course will cover the following topics: Eating outdoors, business trips, staying healthy and celebrations. The course will run from 21 August to 6 December.
For more details on communication objectives and sentence structures covered in each topic, please refer to the A2 can-do checklist. Applications for the course are online via the Minato website.

JTAN examination kits were available from the end of last term. We thank JTAN members for their patience during the technical difficulties experienced in accessing the examinations. An errata has been provided below to help members track changes made to the papers.

Preliminary Beginners – missing audio track 10 (question 8). The file has now been uploaded and members should re-download the audio zip file via the JTAN website.

HSC Trial Continuers – reading part A texts typing errors. The kanji 部屋 now has furigana for へ and 人ずう is now correct with the ten-ten. Please access the amended file (v2 file name) via the JTAN website.

Please note, difficulty of vocabulary should be at the discretion of the individual teacher. Please check the suitability of the papers for your student context.

Late examination orders are still available but must be processed manually and will take 2-3 days to complete. Please order examinations via the JTAN website.

The Consulate-General of Japan in Sydney is holding the 2020 Australia-Japan relations essay contest. The contest aims to encourage and develop an enhanced understanding of Australia-Japan relations among secondary school students in New South Wales. The contest is open to all high school students. Submissions close on Wednesday 9 September 2020 and must arrive at the Consulate-General of Japan in Sydney by this date.
​
Entry guidelines and essay cover sheets are available on the consulate website.

The Tanken Centre is again offering 40 minute online group sessions to assist Year 12 students with their speaking practice. Sessions will take place during school hours using Zoom. Students will be divided into 3 breakout rooms and the Tanken Centre staff and class teacher will spend 10 minutes with a set of questions in each room. Staff will rotate through the rooms to ensure students have the opportunity to practise with 3 different speakers.

After the speaking rotations are complete, the groups will come back together in the main room and students will be given feedback. These sessions are free.
​
Please choose the dates for this session below:
- 24, 28, 30 July
- 3, 5, 11, 14, 20, 21, 25, 27 August
- 8, 10 September.

Please kindly note that these sessions are offered to the NSW public schools only.

If you are interested in booking a session for your students, please contact the Tanken Centre via email, including:
- the course (Beginners or Continuers)
- preferred dates and times (please provide at least 2 options)
- name list of attending students.
 
Bookings will be made on a first-come first-served basis.

There is a high chance that you will not be able to get your first preference. Please put several preferred dates with times. As we expect a large volume of inquiries, please make sure you include the above information in your email. Your session is not confirmed until we send you a confirmation email.
 
Priority goes to schools which have not participated in this session in Term 2. Schools which participated in Term 2 will be placed on waiting list.
 
We are looking forward to hearing from you.
 
Kind regards,
Tanken Centre
nihongo.tanken@det.nsw.edu.au​

Dear teachers of Japanese,
Following the department's advice of 17 July 2020, we will need to cancel all face-to-face excursions to the centre until further notice.
We were advised in June that excursions could proceed in Term 3, however the advice has been updated due to the changing COVID-19 situation.
We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause you, your students and your school.
If you wish to change the excursion date to Term 4, please contact us.
In the meantime, we will continue to offer online sessions and new resources to support your students’ learning.
Kind regards,
Mieko and Taka