Jagiellonian University
AONUMA Kunio

“Are you Japanese? I love Japan. I’m studying Japanese at the moment.” That was what a cashier said to me when I was shopping in a supermarket.

In Krakow, a former capital of Poland that stands in the south of the country, it’s not just university students that study Japanese—upper secondary school students and working adults do too. Japanese people aren’t really aware that Polish people love Japan, but a considerable number of Polish people will give a beaming smile and a greeting once they realize someone is Japanese. Nine months have passed since I came to Poland, and I want to tell you about the kindness of the Polish people, to which I had been blind, and the events that touched my heart when I took up this post, as well as about my activities.

1. Classes at Jagiellonian University

The students are brimming with intellectual curiosity. “It's fine if it’s difficult, I just want to take interesting and intriguing classes”—that was the hope of a student in their first class of the first year of their master’s course. The University’s classes are based on a format that involves students reading literature on topics such as “the modernization of Japan,” “post-war recovery,” and “the issue of migrants and refugees in Europe,” and then debating them. In composition classes for third year undergraduate students, when asked to write about their thoughts on the University, one student wrote, “The academic level is high. My studies are difficult and strenuous, but I am satisfied. Both the students and the teachers are kind, and help students who are in trouble. The atmosphere is good. It’s like a big family.”

The Japanese Studies classes offer “literature,” “translation,” and “language” streams, and Japanese-Language Specialists (hereinafter “Specialists”) are responsible for linguistics and Japanese language studies, plus a subject called “Practical Japanese,” which fosters Japanese language skills. “Conversation” and “composition” in particular are the main parts of this. It’s not enough to use normal textbooks, so we create supplementary teaching materials as we run the classes. The normal textbooks are also getting old, and the teaching staff have an opportunity to reconsider adopting a textbook and instead create a new one; this is being considered at the moment.

A statue of Copernicus that stands next to the main part of the University—Copernicus studied at Jagiellonian University.

2. Nihongo Salon

At Jagiellonian University, Specialists organize an extracurricular activity known as “Nihongo Salon.” It has been passed down from my predecessors, and this semester we have created opportunities for Japanese Studies students to talk to Japanese people approximately once a month. We invite Japanese people who are staying here and they converse in Japanese. Past conversation themes include “ideas to enhance university life,” “future dreams,” “ways of learning a foreign language,” and “day-to-day doubts and familiar questions.” Nihongo Salon is held in a world café style, enabling students to gather around small tables and talk in a relaxed, coffee shop-like atmosphere. Students move around the tables two or three times so they can speak to different people, and afterwards share the details with everyone. They also write memos when talking to people and a summary of their final impressions, which are posted online. On March 3, we held a “Nihonshoku Salon” rather than a Nihongo Salon: with the cooperation of Japanese students studying here, students attended a talk about the Hina-matsuri (the Doll Festival) while eating chirashizushi, and sang “Ohana wo Agemasho, Bonborini” together. The atmosphere was different to usual, and the students immersed themselves in Japanese culture.

Nihongo Salon: Jagiellonian University students and Japanese students studying here gather together

3. Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology

Japanese-Language Assistants from the Japan Foundation (hereinafter the “Foundation”) are sent to the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, where they support classes and administration. Specialists then support the Japanese-Language Assistants. During the last academic year, the curriculum was revised, and this academic year those changes were put into effect. This semester, we have observed approximately twice the number of practical scenarios: people with lots of experience, young people, and excellent teaching staff have come together, and the students have enthusiastically focused on their studies. We can likely expect further developments.

4. Support for All Kinds of Events

4-1. Activities to Support the Polskie Stowarzyszenie Nauczycieli Języka Japońskiego (Poland’s Japanese Teachers Network)

The Teachers Network holds two seminars on Japanese-language education each year. In December, it also held a lecture entitled “Growth as Japanese-language teachers.”

The Japanese speech contest is held in March, and the Network set the judging criteria and supervised the judging. The upper secondary school students and university students who participated gave speeches that contained high-level content and expression, and charmed the venue. It was such a close contest that it was extremely challenging to judge.

4-2 Study Meetings in Krakow

These refer to study meetings for Japanese-language teachers who are active in the city of Krakow or nearby. These meetings were set up by my predecessor. We gathered together again in January this year and confirmed the continuation of the study meetings, which are now held every other month. In the first meeting, I gave a lecture on the theme of “How to teach Japanese grammar for language acquisition,” which participants then discussed. In March, lecturers from Jagiellonian University created practical reports on the topic of “Presentation-based classes,” and in May a Japanese-Language Assistant ran a study meeting entitled, “Is This Okay? Intermediate and Advanced Levels.” These study meetings contained a wealth of content, making them effective. In the future, we hope to increase the number of participants and ensure that the meetings will be fulfilling.