The lecture series on teaching Japanese to foreigners has started. This series is held every two years and will be held on Zoom following FY2020 due to the new Coronavirus infection. (No.22-19)
Date & Time: October 8th(Sat), 2022 14:00～16:00
Venue: Abiko Civic Plaza Meeting Room #1
Instructor: Mr. NISHIKAWA Hiroyuki (Associate Professor of Meikai University, Department of Japanese, Faculty of Foreign Language) Specialty: Japanese Language, Japanese Education
Participants: 7 students (2 absentees), 2 AIRA staff members
Eighteen lectures are going to be conducted on every Saturday from October 8th, 2022 to March 25th, 2023. The first lecture was held face to face with preventive measures against COVID-19. Following an opening short speech and the introduction of the instructor by AIRA President Kitajima, the lecture started.
Mr. Nishikawa talked about Japanese teaching and volunteer activities in Japanese classes referring to his own experiences. He emphasized the importance of considering the students’ feelings in teaching.
Teaching language does not mean conveying knowledge but increasing what students can do. The instructor should teach through practices; that is to make the students understand through examples shown by the teacher, and then explain. It is a taboo to ask “Do you understand?”
It is essential for teachers to be persons whom students can turn to when they want to ask or confirm about the usage of Japanese language. If students feel they are members of a community of the Japanese class, then they will keep studying in the class, since the class has become a comfortable place for them. Then, the class will become a place for international exchange where people having a common interest study Japanese together.
Mr. Nishikawa said that the purpose of this lecture is to learn how to receive foreigners warmly and also indicated key points for Japanese teaching such as increasing what students can do and making them confident of their abilities.
He also explained how to use Zoom since online lectures will be held from next time. This time 3 students from Abiko and 6 from other cities (Kashiwa, Nagareyama and Ryugasaki) participated. It is an advantage of online lessons that more students from remote cities can join.
(Translated by NAKAJIMA Katsumi)
