Japanese Success

The conquerings of QMC’s Japanese students

Trivia Quiz winners – Tanishka Raina, Sophia Gittings, Lexie Johnston and Tianyi Mathur

Our Japanese students have excelled in competition in 2021. From claiming the top prize in a national quiz to flexing their speaking abilities in speech competitions, 2021 has been a year to remember.

Sensei Hidemi Fuke has been understandably giddy when reporting on the successes of her talented Japanese students in 2021. They have claimed an unprecedented amount of silverware thanks to their passion and commitment to learning one of the more challenging languages.

At the end of Term 2, QMC entered the New Zealand Secondary Schools Japanese Trivia Championship. This annual quiz takes place simultaneously at different venues around Aotearoa. Participants are tasked with answering questions covering Japanese history, culture, sport, food, festivals and several other topics. Essentially, it challenges students to demonstrate how much they have absorbed through their language and cultural study years. The QMC team, consisting of Tanishka Raina, Sophia Gittings, Lexie Johnston and Tianyi Mathur, were thrilled to learn they had scored the top mark at the Wellington Regional Championship. However, not only was their score the top for the region, but they also topped more than 100 other schools that participated around the country.

This success was followed by more great news in Term 3 as five students participated in the 11th annual Wellington Regional Japanese Speech Competition on 13 August (just days before the Alert Level 4 lockdown).

The competition was organised by the Wellington Association of Japanese Language Teachers, and participants spoke eloquently about personal topics, including families and hobbies, while others provided their own perspectives on different subjects.

Tessa Burnett claimed first place in the Year 12 category, while Imogen Kennedy-Smith was a close second. In Year 10, Tianyi Mathur took second prize, while Sophia Gittings came in third. Faith Lim (Year 13) also spoke superbly about the tradition of Japanese tea parties.

Tianyi was also awarded the Ambassadors Prize – an award that acknowledges previous winners with named ribbons that commemorate the year they won. Several Old Girls’ names feature, including Emma Power and Alexandra King.

Well done to our students and Ms Hidemi Fuke on a remarkable year of achievements.