I enjoyed Sam as well. The origins of Japan are quite interesting, and I liked how he presented the information as puzzles. I think students would love to learn about the Japanese castles. They would be fascinated and really do enjoy learning about other cultures.

I had a successful day during the 1/2 day before Xmas break. I teach Geometry. One of the challenges of Geometry is simply for the students to recognize what all the symbols mean: congruent, therefore, less than, parallel, etc. To approach symbols from a different perspective, I showed students logos such as Nike, Toyota, Chevy, etc and they were mostly able to recognize each of them. Then, I showed them some math symbols and they got most of those also. Lastly, I showed them some Chinese Characters.

Then, I had them write their names in Greek, Korean, Farsi, and Hebrew. Lastly, I gave them a worksheet and information sheet on Hiragana and Katakana. While they filled it out, we watched Spirited Away in Japanese. Good day. (a)

What a wonderful way to bridge different subjects. Math truly is a "foreign" language to some of our students, and it must have been fun for them to experience the discerning of those symbols as a game. I teach both math and social studies. In my social studies class, I do give the students an opportunity to write their name in cuneiform, hieroglyphics, & Greek. Hiragana & katakana would work here well, but we don't study Japan. I think it would be very difficult to do it in Chinese, but if there is a phonetic translation and anyone would be kind enough to give it to me, I would love to give it a try. The kids have a great time experiencing the different languages and also realizing how difficult some are. In our China unit, I usually allow the students to try to do introductory brush calligraphy and write "China". It gives them a new experience with different writing utensils and an appreciation for the difficulty. For my more advance students, I encourage them to use the brush & strokes correctly to also appreciate more of the beauty and art of the writing as well.

Malynn