Secondary school students in the Island are learning one of the world’s most difficult languages.

Students from Ballakermeen High School and St Ninian’s High School are joining together to learn Japanese in an initiative supported by the Japan Foundation in London. The foundation promotes international cultural exchange.

A ?3,000 grant from the foundation has purchased learning materials and paid for books for the library at Ballakermeen, which hosts the lessons.

Rob Teare, Head of the Department of Education and Children’s Manx Language Unit and fluent Japanese speaker, delivers the lessons voluntarily.

He said: ‘The Island has long-standing connections with Japan through the TT and some of our manufacturing companies have business ties to Japan.

‘For most pupils taking lessons, however, the principal attraction is Japanese pop culture such as anime (cartoons), music and fashion.

‘Our own Beckii Cruel is a celebrity in Japan. There are several Manx-themed restaurants in Japan, and a folk group in Tokyo that plays Manx music.’

Japanese uses three writing systems as well as the Roman alphabet. One of these systems, alone, has 1,945 characters. Often, a sentence comprises all three systems.

Mr Teare said the 14 students in Key Stages 3 and 4 were making good progress and some will sit a GCSE in Japanese this summer.

‘Learning a language you are interested in gives you great confidence and experience,’ Mr Teare said.

‘In the Isle of Man, pupils are lucky as linguistic diversity is celebrated by our inclusive and ambitious education system. We have many bilingual pupils and our own traditional language is experiencing a phenomenal revival.

‘It’s fantastic that our pupils have access to fascinating and diverse languages such as Manx, French, German, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese.

‘For me, learning a language is a voyage of adventure and I hope my pupils acquire my own love of languages.’

Last year, the Japan Foundation gave a grant of ?1,000 to Queen Elizabeth II High School to support a Japanese language after-school club.

The foundation offers Mr Teare a fee to deliver the latest lessons but he is donating this to the Island’s participation in the International Linguistics Olympiad. In 2015, a team of four secondary school students qualified for the event in Bulgaria and it’s hoped to send a team to India this summer.

Photo -  The students learning Japanese.