Japan 2nd Grade Lesson – Working in Groups

This group of Japanese second grade elementary school students is receiving a lesson designed to help them learn to work in groups. With this exercise the teacher begins by discussing with her class various common phrases such as hello, thank you and goodnight. The teacher then breaks the class into groups who are to work together to determine the proper way to say “ohayo gozaimasu” (good morning). Several groups present their rehearsed delivery to the class and then the entire class breaks up to walk about the room and say good morning to all of the assembled parents. You will hear many children simply saying “ohayo” (sounds like “Ohio”) which is a shorter, less formal version of ohayo gozaimasu and is roughly equivalent to simply saying “morning” when greeting friends and family. You will see some adults (including the teacher) making a gesture of a giant “O” by circling their arms above their heads. This gesture is used to indicate approval and literally means “OK”. Near the end of the lesson the teacher draws a flower-like symbol around the number 36. This flower is called “hanamaru” (flower circle) in Japanese and is commonly used by teachers to indicate approval when marking scores on student papers. The 36 is simply the number of students in this class.
Video Rating: 4 / 5