Ain Shams University
MORIBAYASHI Ken

Deserted corridors at university 1

Immediately after dispatched in Egypt in December 2019, I was involved in a variety of tasks, including confirming and correcting the content for the end-of-semester examinations and then making preparations for the new semester and working as a class teacher. Among these tasks, I would like to introduce one thing that made a particular impression on me in the “thesis supervisions” for fourth-year students, with some of the comments made by the students after completing their theses (produced here in their original format with permission).

Graduation theses at the Department of Japanese at Ain Shams University are all written in the Japanese language. When “thesis supervisions” first commenced, students were receiving from 90 to 120 minutes of guidance each week. I held classroom-based seminar-style discussions with the four students I was supervising, talking about narrowing down the themes for their theses and the appropriateness of the research objectives and methodologies.

However, the global COVID-19 pandemic inevitably spread to Egypt and Cairo, and from the middle of March 2020, the university was closed. Usual classes were converted to an e-learning format and “thesis supervision” was to be done via e-mail. Although the internet in Cairo has always faced issues relating to connection speed and stability, these issues became even more severe as the city went into lockdown in response to the pandemic.

When we first started exchanging information about graduation theses via e-mail, I was keenly reminded of the difficulties of communicating in writing alone. In face-to-face classes, I had been limited to approximately 30 minutes of one-on-one discussion time with each of my students each week, but we had been able to see each other and communicate our intentions not just through words, but also through facial expressions and hand gestures. In face-to-face and oral communication, it is possible to instantly see, hear and understand each other’s doubts, ideas and intentions. However, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort for students to communicate conceptual topics via e-mail, the same goes for the Japanese-Language Specialist responding to those mails.

Over the course of several months, the four students found themselves frustrated by the difficulty they faced in conveying nuances in their writing, but even so, they all never gave up and continued to rewrite their theses right up until the very last minute of the submission date.

In my interactions with the students after they had submitted their theses, among the positive comments I heard, one of the common responses was how relieved they were to have submitted their thesis, and how they felt a sense of accomplishment and pride at having worked so hard right up to the end. I think that this experience is one that will be very useful in their future lives.

In terms of recollections of challenging aspects about thesis writing, in addition to comments about identifying a research theme and reference materials, one student had the following to say, “The impact of the pandemic caused the university to close and as we were unable to attend classes, we could no longer meet our teacher directly, forcing us to explain by e-mail what we wanted to do. However, it was a very difficult time because we couldn’t convey our ideas properly.” (Student E) If the students had been supervised by an Egyptian teacher, they could have used their native Arabic to communicate in writing, meaning that the burden of communication would probably not have been so great.

On the other hand, another student (Student A) had this to say, “In the course of consulting with a Japanese person in my thesis supervisions, it was enjoyable to be able to talk in Japanese.”

Deserted corridors at university 2

The four themes of my four students were as follows: “The necessity of compound verbs,” “Problems in acquiring katakana words,” “Survey on student attitudes regarding conversation,” and “Textbook issues in Egyptian primary schools.” As to why each student had chosen their particular theme, it was both deeply interesting and impressive for me to gradually come to see through our discussions how the themes they had chosen were based on each individual’s own perceptions and awareness of the issues involved in learning the Japanese language. As the submission deadline neared the number of our interactions increased significantly, without regard for weekends or the time of day, and I think I interacted with each student on several dozen occasions. Looking back now, I think it was because I could sense the strong determination of each student to achieve a better thesis that I was able to continue working with them until the end.

Finally, I would like to introduce the comment I received from Student N after submission of their thesis.

“Thank you for your guidance over six months. I am delighted to have been able to safely submit my graduation thesis. When the university was closed, I initially thought that it would be impossible to write and then correct my thesis at home, but now, when I look back, I realize that it was easier than I had initially thought. We had sufficient time to write our theses and you always sent comments. What is more, as we didn’t have to go to university, there was no need to get up early in the morning, meaning that there were some positive aspects to the impact of COVID-19.

Even so, there were also various negative aspects. Every year, there is a “photo day” event held for graduating students, when we get together with our friends to take photographs and create memories. Sadly, this event, as well as our graduation ceremony and cultural experience day were all cancelled due to the pandemic. At the moment, I am concerned because we still don’t clearly know whether our exams in July will be held at the university or online. When our final semester began, I was determined to create lots of good memories as the semester was going to be the final part of my student life. I never imagined that we would end up facing such a terrible situation. Even so, as I am due to graduate very soon, the only thing for me to do now is work hard right to the very end. Thank for your help supervising my graduation thesis. The weather is getting very hot these days, so please be sure to drink enough and take care of yourself.”

Through these “thesis supervision” activities, I have seen at first-hand and realized the energy of young people in Egypt and their attitude towards learning the Japanese language and fSacing their own challenges. This is a valuable experience that could only have been gained by being involved in Japanese-language education.