This has been an exciting and busy year for languages at Logan Park High School. 

In April Dr Lin Zeng took a Chinese culture and language trip school trip to China, which gave Cushla Melville, Angus Mclean and Magnus Campbell a rich, fascinating and enjoyable opportunity to learn more Chinese and to make some great friends. Chinese language week.

The Kapa Haka group and Matua Tip have been busy this year with many welcomes for visiting groups such as the Indonesian puppet show, Wakamatsu High School, new groups of international students the Turfmaster international welcome at the stadium, and performances for the Celtic Lodge, at Mana Pounamu and at the farewell for Ms Johnson. Ahi Kaitai-Mullane won the Senior Korimako section of the Nga Manu Korero competition. Our top student Pasifika awards went to Emma Samuels (senior) and Amber-lee Tione (junior), and the Manu Pounamu awards were won by Ahi-Kaitai-Mullane (senior) and Ziggi Kaitai-Martin (junior).

In Latin Year 9 and 10 students competed in the Junior Classics Competition hosted each year by the University of Otago Classics Department in which school teams up to Year 10 compete to answer questions on Roman and Greek culture and knowledge of the ancient world. Competition is fierce and the top places are usually only a point or two apart.

This has been our second year of the ALLiS contract which is a Ministry of Education initiative to encourage Asian languages in school, and in this time we have seen the expansion of teaching in Korean, Japanese and Chinese, including outreach to years 7 and 8.

It has been another very busy year as Korean continues to expand. We offer Korean to both Logan Park students and to on-line students nation wide via NetNZ. A highlight of the year was Korean day, Korean Day was held on the 30th of September in Dunedin, it was an extended activity to celebrate the New Zealand Korean Language Week. (25th September ~ 1st October). Korean Day was mainly showcased Korean language and culture, but it has also been a great occasion for everyone in general to raise awareness for Asian cultures.

The event was a day full of different activities, performances, and food to promote the Korean language and culture in the Dunedin community. The event was greatly successful and about 2000 people from the community turned up for the event and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate and experience Korean culture.

Special thanks to The Overseas Koreans Foundation, Asia NZ Foundation and NetNZ who supported and gave great sponsorship to hold this event.

There have also had some great lunchtime activities in both Korean and Japanese such as Fear Factor challenges with Korean Food, Masterchef Competition, K-pop club.

Sadly we have farewelled Dr Lin Zeng at the end of term 2 as she travelled to Auckland to take up a full time permanent teaching position there, however she has not completely left us as she has continued and will continue to teach her Years 12 and 13 students by distance learning. We welcomed her replacement Ms Wei Mao, who is based at Otago University and has taught Years 9-11 Chinese through distance learning(NetNZ), and will continue with this next year. Next year in April 2018.

Ms Barbara Fitzsimons, Ms Cheryll Walsh and Mrs McDonald (Bayfield) will take 24 Logan Park and Bayfield students of French on a language immersion trip to New Caledonia for ten days, so there are a lot of preparations and fundraising happening this year.

As the time draws closer it becomes more and more exciting! We are all looking forward to 2018!