Why learn Japanese?
If New Zealand is to participate successfully in diplomacy, education, trade, technology, tourism, and cultural exchanges, and take on humanitarian responsibilities, we will need people who are fluent in certain languages. Our education system needs to provide our young people with opportunities for learning more languages.
Japanese is a particularly significant language for New Zealand because of the important economic and cultural ties this country is developing with Japan. As a Pacific country, New Zealand has increasing contact with this major trading partner. The rapid increase in tourism in both countries provides many opportunities for personal contact and communication.
In addition, students find it interesting and enriching to study a language and writing system so different from English and to learn about a culture so different from New Zealand's main cultures. Speakers of Māori and Pacific Islands languages often find it easy to reproduce Japanese orally because the vowel sounds are similar to their own.
By learning Japanese, New Zealanders can:
- broaden their knowledge beyond cultural stereotypes and national boundaries, and promote tolerance and positive attitudes between people of different linguistic, cultural, and national backgrounds
- come to understand how Japanese people act and think, and develop an appreciation of Japanese language and culture
- communicate more effectively with Japanese people and develop and maintain relationships with them
- become confident in communicating with native Japanese speakers in the contexts of trade, travel, or tourism and in other professional, educational, or social situations
- develop the skills, understandings, and attitudes that facilitate the learning of other languages
- broaden their employment options, both in New Zealand and internationally
- develop an awareness of the interdependence of all people.
Japanese in the New Zealand Curriculum is intended to make the Japanese language more accessible to a larger number of learners and to raise awareness of the importance of the language. It is designed to be used to develop Japanese-language learning programmes and to increase the effectiveness of existing programmes at both primary and secondary schools.
