Assignment: Its Time to Learn about Japanese culture and language

Learning a foreign language is an interesting thing to do. Mastering a foreign language will provide positive benefits in various aspects of life. Not only understanding information, but also having potential abilities, such as interacting with friends from various countries, getting to know their culture and traditions better, and increasing confidence in building self-potential. This has been implemented in quality schools in the education curriculum to prepare the next generation of the nation, especially to be able to compete in the international arena. On this occasion, a webinar was held on 8 December 2022 by Santo Carolus High School which was attended by representatives of students and students of Santo Yosef Junior High School grade 9. The theme was "Time to learn Japanese".

Japan is one of the developed countries and has very significant developments in the world, such as in terms of technology, education, culture, and social. Of course, this webinar became very interesting, because it was brought by a host who was very experienced in Japanese. At that time, Mrs Nika (Nika Sensei) was assisted by Santo Carolus High School seniors to make this webinar a success. In the webinar, Japanese culture, language and how to write Japanese characters were introduced. This became very interactive, because various questions were asked by the webinar participants. The participants' desire to master the Japanese language was very evident during the session on writing Japanese characters, because the way of writing is very different and requires precision. 

The session introducing Japanese culture was also the centre of attention of the participants, where there was a demonstration of the use of "Kimono". Kimono is a traditional Japanese dress with a very enchanting design and motif. This is an added attraction for participants to get to know more about the purpose of using kimono (women and men), when to use it and what to use it for. In the last session of the webinar, Kak Alex and Kak Selvi (Students of SMA Santo Carolus) gave testimonials while attending SMA Carolus. They explained about school activities and programmes at SMA Santo Carolus. In addition, Kak Farel (alumni student of SD, SMP Santo Yosef and SMA Santo Carolus) also provided experiences while attending SMA Santo Carolus, where currently Kak Farel acts as an Airlangga University Ambassador. Before the webinar ended, the webinar participants had a group photo session and were given a traditional Japanese food, namely Takoyaki, provided by SMA Santo Carolus. 

This webinar activity is one of the potential school activities, especially during the question and answer session and understanding the content of the webinar theme, namely Japanese language learning. In this case, a potential point can be taken, that mastering a foreign language will open our thoughts and understanding of other countries, so that we will not be like frogs in a shell. In addition, we can also look ahead, how should I prepare myself to compete in the international arena and future careers, especially to make the nation proud. Gracia Rigel Belladona