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LOTE WEEK 2016

SJC’s first LOTE Week took place 1 - 5 August celebrating languages and cultures from around the world. Lunchtime activities were organised for all students including Chinese and Italian movies, soccer competitions between Italian and Chinese students, Italian card games and food vans. Year 7s had the opportunity to learn about Chinese and Italian culture by viewing a live performances. Italian students watched Commedia dell’arte and Chinese students learnt about the Chinese Lion dance and had an opportunity to perform it. A Language Perfect competition was also run, open to all LOTE students. 7H earned the most points during the week. We look forward to a bigger and better LOTE Week in 2017.

YEAR 10

Students had the opportunity to develop their appreciation of both cultures and languages through not only classwork but also excursions and incursions. Year 10 Italian students attended LOTE camp with Sacred Heart College. At LOTE camp students spent 2½ days practising their oral, aural, reading and writing skills. During LOTE Week Year 10 students had the opportunity to participate in a language incursion day, Italian students with St Ignatius College and Chinese students with Geelong College. At both language incursions students completed cultural and language based activities, to help improve their skills and confidence.

YEAR 9

LOTE students at Westcourt were also very busy. Chinese students completed Community Service in Melbourne at an aged care facility, which houses elderly people with a Chinese background. Students organised and ran activities in Chinese for the residents. Italian students took part in the ‘Italian Urban Experience’ for a second year in a row. Students participated in both cultural and language based activities in Geelong, Melbourne and Daylesford over the course of three days in Term 4. Some of the activities completed during the Urban Experience included students visiting Holy Spirit Primary Schools and assisting the teacher as well as organising activities for the class. Students also visited the Old Macaroni Factory and Lavandula Farm in Daylesford. In Melbourne students took part in a ‘foodie tour’ of Lygon Street and visited the Motorclassica exhibition. Year 9 Chinese students had the opportunity to partake in ‘The Victorian Young Leaders to China Program’, an intensive 6 week language course completed in China during Semester 1.

Students spent three weeks at a school in Nanjing as well as three weeks travelling around China.

THE STUDY TOUR OF ITALY

At the end of last year, a group of 22 students in Years 10 & 11 from St Joseph’s and Sacred Heart took part in the study tour of Italy. The students had the opportunity to attend an Italian high school for a week in Milan. Following their homestay the group travelled around Italy for the remaining two weeks. Students were able to immerse themselves in the language and culture of Italy and had the opportunity to visit important Italian cities like Venice, Verona, Florence, Rome, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast to name a few. In July St Joseph’s College hosted seven Italian exchange students from two of our sister schools in Milan.The study tour of Italy is run every two years, current Year 9 and Year 10 students of Italian that continue with their language studies in 2017 will have the opportunity to attend the next LOTE Week – coffee trip.

THE CHINA TRIP

This year during the September school holidays a group of 36 people, including teachers, parents and students attended the cultural trip to China. The group travelled around China for two weeks and saw the sights and learnt about the culture of a few Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Luoyang, Shaolin, Kaifeng, Tong Li and Xi’an. The next Chinese cultural trip will run in 2018, this trip is offered to Year 10 Language incursion - St Ignatius all students and parents interested in experiencing Chinese culture. I would like to thank my colleagues of the LOTE Faculty for your continued hard work and support.

Caterina Giacomazzo – LOTE Coordinator STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCE

Year 11 Chinese students have enjoyed a successful year in our acquisition of the language. We have furthered our language abilities in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening, while also continuing to learn about the rich and diverse Chinese culture. We have worked hard each week to build our vocabulary, reading detailed passages

Year 7 Chinese on various topics and practising complex character writing. Furthermore, the opportunity for students to attend the Chinese Conversation Lounge at Deakin University each week ensured that each boy was able to improve his speaking and listening skills by conversing with native-born Chinese students from Deakin. We have also been very fortunate to travel on cultural excursions, such as attending the Australian Centre for Moving Image to watch a Chinese film festival. – Liam Jelley, Year 11 Chinese

Year 10 Language incursion - St Ignatius incursion - St Ignatius Year 7 Italian Performance Year 7 Italian Performance Year 7 Chinese lion dance

As I reflect through my journey of experiencing and embracing the Chinese language, Year 10 has been different to previous years. Whether it was to do with Mr Zhang teaching us his engaging lessons, to the various information about Chinese history and values, every lesson was interesting. As the year progressed, I was lucky enough to travel to China, which was extremely life changing and provided me with valuable memories that will stay with me for a lifetime.

-Domenico Lecchino, Year 10 Chinese

2016 started well as we learnt about new tenses, rules and extended our vocabulary. We have been lucky enough to do many extra activities that have been a highlight. A day at St. Ignatius College and Language Camp were very entertaining and have provided many memories that will stay with us all. Language camp was a particular highlight, it was helpful to have two nights and three days to improve all aspects of our language learning. Thank you Ms Giacomazzo, your help is greatly appreciated.

-Tom Mahon, Year 10 Italian

Year 10 Chinese has been extremely enjoyable. We have been hard at work, learning so many new Chinese characters and complex sentence structures. This has helped us to expand our knowledge and our understanding of China’s culture. This year, some students were lucky enough to travel to China. During the trip we had the opportunity to meet the locals and put our Chinese skills to the test! Some students also took the opportunity to join the Deakin Conversation Lounge, this helped us to expand our vocabulary and improve our pronunciation skills. Year 10 Chinese has been a really exciting year, and I’m looking forward to 2017!

-Matthew Dementiev, Year 10 Chinese 2016 CHINA TRIP

On 16 September some brave students, teachers and parents joined Chinese tour guide, Michael Du, and embarked on the trip of a lifetime. Upon arrival to Beijing Capital International Airport we were met with imposing masses of buildings lined with shops and cafes, a monorail to transport tired passengers between terminals that travelled faster than the fastest of V-line trains. This was to be a small reminder of the completely different culture we had cast ourselves into. Beijing itself was a sprawling metropolis, not even the grey skies could diminish its grandeur. Traffic was bumper to bumper and police struggled to control the masses of motorcycles determined to get past the stagnant cars. Only a short bus trip away from the city was the Great Wall of China - high in the mountains, full of majesty and beauty. Buddhist temples, ancient walls and traditional performances

were incomparable to anything to be found at home. From Beijing we travelled to Xi’an, Luoyang and Kaifeng. Near Kaifeng we stopped at the Shaolin Temple (the heart of Kung Fu) and some of us even attempted some of these martial arts moves! We ended our trip in Shanghai, one of the most modern cities in the world. Skyscrapers towered above us and the night-time skyline of the city was one of the most breathtaking things any of us had ever seen. It’s quite hard to decide what was better, the views or the food! We are indebted to Mr Taylor and Mr Zhang for such a wonderful experience. -

Joshua Spork,Year 10 VICTORIAN YOUNG LEADERS TO CHINA

The VYLC consisted of fifteen selected boys studying Chinese, we had the opportunity to travel to immerse ourselves in the life of a Chinese student. During the first two weeks of the six week trip, we spent time taking classes and living at BFSU (Beijing Foreign Studies University). This gave us time to consider the opportunities for studying abroad. The days in BFSU consisted of Chinese class for four hours in the morning followed by either a lecture in the afternoon or an excursion to significant Chinese landmarks such as; The Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. For the second part of the trip, we were accommodated in Nanjing Senior High School where we spent four hours a day doing intensive language classes followed up in the afternoon by culture classes where different aspects of Chinese culture were demonstrated to us. These classes included things like tea ceremonies, Chinese calligraphy and tai chi. Following the culture classes, we got the opportunity to indulge in silent self-study for an hour and a half to catch up on homework, study for tests and speeches throughout the trip. Despite being language and learning based we managed to have a lot of fun, and were all disappointed to only have three days left. The three days in Shanghai were arguably the most packed, Visiting past SJC teacher Kylie Pretty teacher Kylie Pretty in China a different resturaunt for every meal and a new place to go to between like the Shanghai Tower, The Yanghzei River along with various markets. The VYLC trip was an incredible experience for everyone involved and has left lifelong memories that will stay with me forever. This extraordinary experience enhanced the language skills, leadership and confidence for all who attended, this has been evident in the months following the trip. I would recommend for future Year 8 students to apply. During a trip like this you look around and realize how lucky we are. - Jackson Bourke, 9K

VYLC in Tianmen Square in VYLC in Tianmen Square in Beijing China Trip at The Bund - Shanghai China Trip at The Bund - Shanghai VYLC