Japanese Language Lessons for Indonesian High School Students

Japanese Language Lessons for Indonesian High School Students

On October 29 and 30, I had the opportunity to introduce Japanese culture, customs and language to nine high school students who had come to Japan from Indonesia.　　The opportunity arose from an unexpected email I received in early October. The sender wrote:　”I will be visiting Tokyo with several students and would like to know whether you could teach them some Japanese culture and language in one or two lessons.”

As a Japanese-language teacher, I wanted to do my best to accommodate such a request. I consulted with the committee chair, the committee members, and our president.  All of them responded very positively.  So we were able to make these lessons a reality.

The students came to Japan to visit universities as part of their plans for future study. Although the lessons lasted only one and a half hours per day over two days, I introduced various aspects of Japanese life, including daily customs, the school system, and common manners, using photo slides. For the language component, I focused on basic Japanese phrases that would be useful during their stay in Japan. What impressed me most was how widely Japanese culture has spread in Indonesia. For example, I prepared some dorayaki—the favorite snack of Doraemon—for the students to try. To my surprise, they told me, “We have dorayaki in Indonesia, too!” I also learned that all of them had already studied a little Japanese at school.

Although girls wore hijabs, they were typical teenagers.  They were very outgoing and asked many questions whenever something caught their interest. During the final lesson, I introduced how to make origami shuriken (paper ninja stars).  Everyone enjoyed folding them together.

Because the preparation time was short, I spent many hours intensively, creating teaching materials specifically focused on them and covering as many topics as possible. However, once the lessons began, the two days passed in the blink of an eye.  I hope this experience will lead to regular classes in the future for young people who visit Japan on a short-term basis.

Regrettably, wars continue to occur in various parts of the world, I am afraid these conflicts arose from the minds of a handful of greedy leaders.  Therefore, it is all the more important for all of us to construct the defences of peace within our own minds, I sincerely hope that the students I met during the two days will return to Japan in the future and become bridges connecting Japan and Indonesia.

(Written by TAGAWA Junko, Standing Director, and translated by TANAHASHI S., the PR & Internet Committee)