During the fall semester, students in Kumi Matsui’s middle school advanced Japanese class got to play dress-up for their Supermodel Project. Taking place over two weeks in October, the endeavor let students pretend to be celebrities who were interviewed by other students posing as TV reporters.

Interviews were conducted entirely in Japanese, and the students-as-stars were asked such questions as where they lived, what type of car they owned, and whether they were married or had a significant other. “The students can answer to them as a celebrity, so the answers don’t have to be real. They can live in Hollywood, own a Lamborghini and have Megan Fox as a girlfriend,” Matsui said.

In addition to being great fun for the students, the project functioned as a method to learn and practice how to talk about fashion choices and physical features. Students were required to use at least five verbs in Japanese to describe their wardrobes.