Happy New Year! Welcome to Term 1 and the JLTAV Summer Newsletter. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday break and you are refreshed and energised to start the new school year.
In 2024, we have a range of exciting events planned for teachers and students. We will promote our events through the JLTAV website, JLTAV member email list, Nihongo Victoria email group, the JLTAV and Japanese Language Teachers of Australia Facebook pages, as well as through the Department of Education and Training’s Access, Resource, Collaborate (ARC).
Calligraphy Competition Results
Thank you to the students and schools who supported our 2023 Calligraphy Competition. The ability for students to draw the Japanese scripts in both the brush and pencil categories is most impressive. Please click here for the results of this competition.
In 2023 we had the following number of entries:
Brush: 193 in total
Primary – 93
Secondary – 100
Pencil: 162 in total
Primary – 119
Secondary – 43
Please click here for the winning entries from last year’s competition.
3-Day Japanese Language Immersion Seminar
Our 2024 Japanese Language Immersion Seminar was held from Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 January at the Foothills Conference Centre in Mooroolbark. Many thanks to the 21 teachers who registered for this professional learning event. Participants worked in small groups according to their level of Japanese: beginner, intermediate or advanced. Many thanks to our amazing mentors who led each group: Kaori Deguchi, Yuichi Degichi, Takanori Hayakawa and Masae Uekusa, and to Nicole Struthers and Jessica Winstone for organising this event.
2024 JLTAV Annual Conference
We look forward to welcoming colleagues to our 2024 Annual Conference to be held on Friday 15 Saturday 16 March at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) in South Wharf. Please find here the program for the conference and the registration form here. Many thanks to our amazing colleagues for offering to present sessions at the conference. Through the generosity of our colleagues we have been able to put together another exciting program for the two days.
Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Friday 15 March from 4.30pm to 5.00pm at the MCEC. We encourage members to nominate themselves to join the JLTAV committee in 2024. One gains a lot of satisfaction from being involved in the Association and ensuring Japanese Language Education continues to flourish in Victoria. Please contact me at nlane@mackillopsh.vic.edu.au if you would like further information or you would like to join the committee in 2024.
Sincere thanks to the Department of Education and Training (DET) for their great support and for providing a yearly grant to enable us to organise student events and professional learning for teachers. We look forward to the ongoing support from the DET in 2024.
In 2020, we saw a new format for the external examinations for Year 12 Japanese Second Language. To support VCE teachers, the JLTAV produced practice exams from 2020 to 2023. These practice exams are still available for purchase. Please click on the information in this newsletter to place an order. We will be creating and selling practice exams for 2024, and will let colleagues know when orders are open. Later in the year we will also update our Year 12 Morning resources and make these available to JLTAV members. We wish all our VCE students great success in their Japanese studies in 2024.
On behalf of the committee I thank you all for your support of the JLTAV throughout 2023. We wish everyone all the very best for the start of the 2024 school year. Take care and stay safe.
Nathan Lane
President
JLTAV Inc. (Reg. No. A0024691U)