JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE VISITS
Restaurant
GOAL
The goal of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to use skills they already have in simulated, but realistic situations with Japanese speakers. They will need to rely on their own language skills to succeed. The lesson is designed to be challenging, but fun and confidence building. Students will work together and may speak to each other in English, but as would be the case if they were on a visit to Japan, none of the “restaurant staff” (presenters) will speak in English, or understand their English. The atmosphere will be very supportive and encouraging.
SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE NEEDED
- How to read hiragana, katakana, and basic kanji.
- How to exchange greetings
- How to invite someone to do something with you
- How to talk about time
- Asking questions
FORMAT
- Volunteers will introduce themselves to the class, and the students can introduce themselves as well. For smaller classes they can say their name, age, what grade they are in etc. and for larger classes they can say はじめまして、their name, and よろしくおねがいします。
- Presenters will then begin a PowerPoint presentation, first discussing what it’s like eating out in Japan, and then going over the 5 scenarios and the language that will be used in the roleplay. The areas to be covered are:
1) Call a restaurant and ask a few questions – よやくをしたいのですが。 なんじまであいていますか。2) Call friends and invite them to go to the restaurant - いっしょに レストラン__に 行きませんか?3) Visit the restaurant and order the meal-じゃあ、わたしピザにします。 じゃあ、ピザをひとつください
4) Talk about the meal-おいしい! あまい!からい!
5) Ask for the check and pay-おかんじょう を おねがいします。
- Two presenters will demo each scenario’s conversation in full, then teach each line in call and response form to the class, and finally the students will practice in pairs. When we reach the section on ordering in the restaurant, we will use the restaurant materials and roleplay.
Logistics
Please separate the students into 4 groups and have desks and chairs set for students to sit facing each other. They will become the tables and chairs of the restaurants. We will have 4 “restaurants” in a classroom.
Please prepare one or two extra desks and three chairs in front of the classroom so that presenters can use them for the demonstration. After demonstration, the desk will become the ‘kitchen’ where the ‘waitress’ keeps menus, trays, cups and plates.
The presenters will give a brief explanation in English at the beginning of the lesson, but will speak only in Japanese from then on. It will help if the teacher could brief the students ahead of time as to what will happen in the lesson and prepare some necessary vocabulary.
Presentation Powerpoint for Teachers’ Reference: Restaurant Presentation