In Stage 4: Moving Between Cultures, one of the outcomes is: “A student demonstrates knowledge of key features of the culture of Japanese speaking communities”. Students learn about “representations of the culture of Japanese speaking
communities in text, film and mass media” and students learn to “identify generalisations about people and culture, e.g. questioning stereotypes”.
Japan and Australia have clashed on the issue of whaling. The following is an article that gives an opinion about why Japan should dismantle its whaling industry. This would be an interesting topic to bring up during a class that discusses how Japan is represented in the mass media. I would guess that many Australian children have an opinion about the ethics involved in the whaling issue. It would be interesting to see how that opinion has coloured the students’ views about Japan and led them to make (potentially incorrect) generalisations about Japanese people and culture.
Link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Its-time-to-hang-up-the-harpoons-30211505.html
