AIRA Japanese Language Teaching Course is held every two years for the people who want to teach Japanese to foreigners. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all the lectures after the second time will be given online. (No.20-8)

Date & Time : September 26th (Sat), 2020 13:30～15:30
Venue: Abiko Civic Plaza Meeting Room No.1
Lecturer: Associate Professor (AP) Hiroyuki Nishikawa (Meikai University, Department of Japanese, Faculty of Foreign Language)
Attendants: 14 students and 3 AIRA members (Vice President Ms.Kitajima and 2 staff members in charge)

The first lecture of the course was emceed by Ms.Komiyama, an AIRA staff member who is in charge of this course. The outline of the upcoming lectures and the usage of Zoom, an on-line meeting tool, were explained in the meeting room of Abiko Civic Plaza. All the students were directed to take seats with social distance after having received a temperature check at the entrance.

AIRA’s Vice President Ms. Kitajima made a speech, in which she said that support and assistance for foreigners through teaching Japanese were required in the COVID-19 pandemic. Following her speech, Mr. Nishikawa was introduced as the lecturer.

Firstly, Mr. Nishikawa gave a lecture titled “The Role of Supporters for Japanese Learning -- Their Real Image” He spoke as follows from his experiences in Japanese education in Osaka and Tokyo.

“Foreigners are not only studying Japanese in classrooms, but also seeking for places where they belong. It will be difficult for volunteer teachers to continue for a long time unless they also feel teaching as places where they belong. They contribute their time to helping others. If the volunteer work becomes pleasant for them, they will work long. Knowing what they can do and what they want to do will lead them to noticing their own pleasures. Harmonious atmosphere among teachers will make the students happy as well as the teachers themselves.

After that, the attendants enjoyed communication games and experienced getting to know each other through communication. And then, Mr. Nishikawa talked about what teachers should recognize in teaching Japanese as below;
In order to teach Japanese,
1. The teachers should have sufficient knowledge of Japanese.
2. They should be model persons capable of selecting appropriate words depending on various circumstances such as pecking order, generation, degree of intimacy and so on.
3. They should act as coaches to evaluate Japanese spoken by foreigners and give necessary advice to them.
4. Also, it is important to for them to practice Japanese conversation together with the students.

Following the lecture, the students practiced using Zoom. 12 students out of 14 had experiences of using Zoom already. On-line lessons will become one of the efficient methods of teaching even after COVID-19. Out of the 14 students, 2 people were from out of the city. People from the International Relations Associations of Kashiwa, Nagareyama and Toride have joined this time, and one attendant was a company employee who is working with foreigners. This would be because this lecture was given on Saturday and the lectures afterwards are going to be given online. Total of 18 lectures are scheduled till February 6th, 2021.

(Translated by Katsumi Nakajima)