FRENCH, German and Spanish lessons are fairly commonplace in Kirklees primary schools.

But Netherthong Primary School is taking languages to another level.

Children as young as nine are learning Japanese.

Or as they say ‘Nihon-go ga suki desu’ – which means ‘We enjoy learning Japanese’.

And in a few weeks, the nine-strong group, taught by linguist Martin Clayton, will be taking exams in the subject.

Martin, who worked in freight and shipping before entering the teaching profession, speaks seven languages.

And after he started working at Netherthong two years ago he is passing on some of his skills.

Now phrases like “Ohayo” (Good morning) and “Kannichiwa” (good afternoon) are commonplace in the classroom.

“This is something different which has completely captured the children’s imagination,” said Martin.

“I set them homework and I am astonished by what comes back.

“It’s quite amazing how the children soak up all the information.”

The children will take a speaking test at the end of March for the Breakthrough in Japanese qualification. They will then take reading, listening and writing tests in April and May.

The children have been learning how to introduce themselves, say how old they are and how to buy food and drink.

They have also been learning Japanese culture and customs.

“Two of the children have families living in Tokyo, so their parents have been learning from them as well,” said Martin.

Japanese language facts:

Japanese has three different alphabets.

The Japanese language is phonetic like Spanish, so individual letters are pronounced the same wherever they are in a word.

It is spoken by 130 million people.

It has an extensive grammatical structure for politeness and formality.