Earlier this week, Lisa Masoni’s grade 6 Latin students celebrated Rome’s 2,771st birthday (which fell on April 21) by preparing and sampling various foods from ancient Rome, including dates dipped in honey, sesame candy, meatballs and libum (Roman cheesecake). Students also had their first taste of garum, a fish sauce used by ancient Romans as a condiment. Sixth grader Ronald Cartee’s take on garum was that it would be “popular for a taste-test challenge,” Masoni said. Sensing a rare photo opportunity, Masoni had several students make faces that approximated their reactions to tasting garum for the first time, with varied (and very amusing) results.
On April 16, students in Kumi Matsui’s Japanese 2M class went on a special field trip to learn more about Japanese culture and customs, starting with a visit to Japanese restaurant Tomisushi.
“They ordered dishes using Japanese expressions they have been practicing in class and enjoyed a tasty, authentic, Japanese lunch,” Matsui said. “The students benefited from practicing Japanese outside the classroom while learning Japanese food culture.”
Later, the students visited the Hakone Gardens in Saratoga to observe a tea ceremony, “a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn about the choreographic movement of this special Japanese ritual,” Matsui added. To finish the trip, the students toured the gardens, enjoying the beautiful scenery and feeding fish in its koi pond.
Over a two-week period in late July and early August, 16 middle school students traveled to Costa Rica for the annual summer Spanish immersion trip. After arriving in the Costa Rican capital city of San José, the students visited Nuevo Milenio, a private school, where they enjoyed dance performances and student poetry recitals. Over the next several days, they learned how to make local cuisine in Grecia, volunteered at a school located in the neighborhood of La Carpio (made up primarily of poor Nicaraguan refugees), gazed at the country’s native flora and fauna, went ziplining over the lush forestry and participated in a day-long scavenger hunt through downtown Grecia. The memorable journey was capped off with a hearty dinner at a local eatery, where the travelers were entertained by local musicians and costumed dancers, known as máscaradas.
Over a two-week period in late July and early August, 16 middle school students traveled to Costa Rica for the annual summer Spanish immersion trip. After arriving in the Costa Rican capital city of San José, the students visited Nuevo Milenio, a private school, where they enjoyed dance performances and student poetry recitals. Over the next several days, they learned how to make local cuisine in Grecia, volunteered at a school located in the neighborhood of La Carpio (made up primarily of poor Nicaraguan refugees), gazed at the country’s native flora and fauna, went ziplining over the lush forestry and participated in a day-long scavenger hunt through downtown Grecia. The memorable journey was capped off with a hearty dinner at a local eatery, where the travelers were entertained by local musicians and costumed dancers, known as máscaradas.
Over a two-week period in late July and early August, 16 middle school students traveled to Costa Rica for the annual summer Spanish immersion trip. After arriving in the Costa Rican capital city of San José, the students visited Nuevo Milenio, a private school, where they enjoyed dance performances and student poetry recitals. Over the next several days, they learned how to make local cuisine in Grecia, volunteered at a school located in the neighborhood of La Carpio (made up primarily of poor Nicaraguan refugees), gazed at the country’s native flora and fauna, went ziplining over the lush forestry and participated in a day-long scavenger hunt through downtown Grecia. The memorable journey was capped off with a hearty dinner at a local eatery, where the travelers were entertained by local musicians and costumed dancers, known as máscaradas.
Upper school Japanese language students received a special visit from musician Baisho Matsumoto on May 17. Wearing a black kimono, Matsumoto played a series of musical pieces on the shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument resembling a guitar, and the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese flute.
“We learned a lot of interesting information on these instruments,” said Japanese language teacher Yumiko Aridomi. “For example, shamisen has been played for about 800 years in Japan, and tsugaru shamisen artists are expected to play their original pieces of music for their customers.”
Matsumoto played traditional Japanese folk, pop and jazz music, among other styles.
“It was really fun watching the shamisen player play different instruments that you do not get to see in the United States,” said Scout McNealy, grade 10.
“It was an interesting aspect of Japanese culture that I never took the time to investigate before,” added junior Liana Wang. “I have heard of the shamisen before, but I didn’t know it was such a complex instrument. I was quite impressed.”
On April 11, Kumi Matsui’s Japanese language students embarked on a field trip to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, where they put their Japanese skills into practice and learned more about Japanese culture.
The first stop on the trip was a local Japanese eatery called Tomi Sushi. “The staff of this restaurant usually speaks native Japanese and they serve authentic Japanese dishes,” said Matsui. “The students had the opportunity to order dishes only in Japanese.”
Upon reaching Hakone Gardens, the students took an opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture by participating in a tea ceremony, after which they enjoyed a walk through the famously lush gardens, stopping for a moment at a pond to feed fish and turtles.
Late last month, several middle school Latin students went to work at the campus’ new innovation lab, creating clothing similar to that worn in ancient Rome. Started by Scott Kley-Contini, director of learning, innovation and design at the middle school, the innovation lab provides students and teachers with a large selection of tools and resources for creative projects, “from crafting supplies to 3-D printers,” said Lisa Masoni, middle school Latin teacher. “Using the lab gave them a wealth of resources to produce some item of Roman clothing, either full-size or small, to increase their understanding of this cultural topic.”
In September, Raji Swaminathan’s grade 7 science students used the innovation lab’s resources to craft paper airplanes.
The final unit of study for upper school Spanish 1 students is learning language related to food and restaurants. Upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss tries to expose her students to cuisine from Spanish-speaking countries other than Mexico, which is already very popular in California. In previous years, her students have enjoyed lunch at local Peruvian, Salvadoran and Cuban restaurants to learn about Hispanic cuisine in an authentic setting.
This year during parent conferences, Moss learned that Harker parent Ivette Meissner (Anthony, grade 9) was born in Cuba and was raised learning to cook traditional Cuban cuisine by her grandmother. After years of experience, she now has her own cooking business (www.cookingbyivette.com) and offered to prepare a luncheon for the Spanish 1 students featuring a variety of Cuban dishes.
On May 11, Meissner hosted all 28 students at her home in Willow Glen, where she prepared ropa vieja (shredded beef in a savory tomato sauce), roast pork, arroz con gris (black beans cooked in white rice), croquetas de jamón (ham croquettes), tostones (fried plantains) and pasteles (pastries of guava and coconut) along with non-alcoholic mojitos. She also shared with students the story of how her father ended up working in sugar cane fields in Cuba when the government had him fired because he wanted to come to the U.S. He eventually was able to immigrate to the U.S. when Ivette was 11 months old.
The students greatly enjoyed their off-campus outing, but even more the opportunity to experience a new cuisine and learn about Cuban culture.
Study of Music and Spanish students came together to attend a special community concert celebrating Día de los Muertos on Saturday, Nov. 7, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The San Francisco Symphony performed with Grammy winning Mexican-American singer-songwriter Lila Downs, and the show triggered thoughtful reactions from students who attended.
“I thought the concert was a great blend of classical and cultural music to please everyone of all ages and backgrounds,” said Jessica Zhu, grade 12. “ Lila Downs’ voice was powerful and soulful, as she told different stories and conveyed different feelings with each song.”
Vineet Kosaraju, grade 12, said the show complemented his classroom learning. “Before the concert, because I had never been to one before, I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” he said. “However, as soon as the concert started, I was immediately wowed by the powerful combination of music and culture, and I really enjoyed each of the pieces. As I had taken Spanish in the past, it was nice to relate the theoretical information about the celebration I learned in class to seeing the festive tradition in person.”
Other students also expressed positive reactions to the show. “I enjoyed how the music was adapted for an orchestra, which blended together Latin American and more traditional styles,” said Alex Yu, grade 9.
While Lawrence Li, grade 12, noted he “thought that the first half of the concert was mysterious, enchanting, but powerful at the same time,” Logan Bhamidipaty, grade 9, said he “found that Lila Downs’ voice in the second half reinvigorated the performance with a fresh, modern twist on classical Latin American music.” Great crossover outing!