News location:

Canberra Today 19°/21° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Students greet Nara delegates with Japanese songs

Kaleen choristers at the airport with teacher Mari Kitasaka
JAPANESE and English versions of “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “I still call Australia Home” greeted a delegation from Nara when they arrived at Canberra Airport today (October 25) for the 25th anniversary of the sister city arrangement between Canberra and Nara.

Kaleen Primary School’s bilingual choir, made up of excited pupils from Years 2 to 5, also sang the theme song of a Japanese anime film, “Totoro” and “Zui Zui Zukkorobashi” (similar to “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe”) to the delighted visitors before they presented the Mayor of Nara with a bunch of Australian flowers and a toy kangaroo.

ACT Commissioner for International Engagement, Brendan Smyth, was there with Narelle Hargreaves, chair of the Nara-Canberra sister city Committee, who said that in her view, cultural relations were at the centre of the sister city connection.

Flowers and kangaroo for the Mayor of Nara
Coordinator of the choir and language teacher, Mari Kitasaka, told “CityNews” that Japanese had been taught at Kaleen Primary School for over 20 years to students from preschool to Year 6.

A Japanese Choir which she formed three years ago now includes over 30 auditioned choristers. The choir rehearses twice a week and regularly performs at major local events such as Canberra Nara Candle Festival, Floriade, Singfest and the Japanese Autumn Festival.

“Language studies give the students more insight into the world and it’s not much more difficult than other languages,” Mari said, adding that these days, following a huge surge in Japanese studies during the 1980s, it had become the most popular language taught in Australian schools, with many pupils going on to further their studies in high school.

The Mayoral delegates will be in Canberra until the weekend, enjoying a round of official engagements.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews