There was a competitive spirit at Our Lady Help of Christians as pupils tested their speed and Japanese skills in the annual Ballarat Catholic Primary Schools Karuta tournament.
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Almost 100 children from eight schools tested their Kurata skills in four-member teams in the hotly-contested competition.
"It's a Japanese card game that is a way of children celebrating their learning," one teacher said.
Karuta is a card game that is similar to memory but involves Japanese word recognition.
A central assistant reads out a word and teams compete to find that word on a card and snap it up before their opponents.
"They are encouraged to use Japanese; they have learned a few phrases they need to know for the game, they interact with basic respect and manners and the cards are called out in Japanese."
Ninety-six pupils from Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School, St Patrick's Primary School from Gordon, Creswick's St Augustine's Primary School, St Alipius Primary School, St Columba's Primary School, St Francis Xavier Primary School, St Thomas More Primary School and Emmaus Primary School took part in the annual Karuta day, which has been running for the past four years.
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Each school fielded three teams of four students, with places on the teams hotly contested in each school.
Older students from St Patrick's College and Loreto College, many of whom competed in the primary school competition when they were younger, helped umpire the tournament and act as the central assistant for each game.
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