LESSONS IN JAPANESE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31375, 22 May 1967, Page 3

LESSONS IN JAPANESE

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 21

Three secondary schools had established an extension class for teaching the Japanese language, said the Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella).

Also, a course in Japanese would be started at the Christchurch Girls’ High School.

The classes were for sixth form pupils and held outside normal school hours. They were experimental and would give teachers and the Department of Education an insight into the problems of teaching Asian languages, said Mr Kinsella.

The experiment was under the supervision of the department’s curriculum unit, 'which was also supervising other Asian study courses. Mr Kinsella said that at Selwyn College in Auckland, a Japanese graduate of Tokyo University taught Japanese to 25 pupils. The classes were held for one hour twice a week.

A similar class, with 26 pupils, was being taught at the Hamilton Girls’ High School by another Japanese. A course in Japanese at the Freyberg High School in Palmerston North was attended by 20 people, including some members of the staff. The tutor was a Japanese law graduate. Various textbooks were being used, including 30 copies of a booklet supplied by the Japanese Embassy entitled “Japanese Language in Everyday Use.” “New Zealand will have closer economic and cultural ties with Asian countries,” said Mr Kinsella. “We should be able to communicate with the people of these countries in their own languages, and learn more about their cultures.”