King Saud University
YONEDA Akihisa

Fostering Saudi Arabian Teachers

When you hear the words “Saudi Arabian Japanese teacher,” what kind of teacher do you imagine? If you try to think about English-language education in Japan, I believe several teachers will come to mind, but it’s likely that lots of people will initially recall Japanese English-language teachers and native English teachers.

King Saud University (hereinafter “KSU”) is the only educational institution in Saudi Arabia where people can learn Japanese. There are two Japanese faculty members and two Egyptian faculty members in the Japanese language major. There are no Saudi Arabian teaching staff. This state of affairs has continued for 25 years, ever since the Japanese language major was established. In other words, KSU’s Japanese-language education is carried out by non-Saudi Arabian teachers. Successive Japanese-Language Specialists dispatched from the Japan Foundation have aimed to foster Saudi Arabian teaching staff, and beyond that, to make the Japanese language major independent.

At the moment, three graduates of KSU’s Japanese language major who were acting as assistants are studying in Japan to gain their doctorates. Once they obtain their degrees and return to the university, the long-desired Saudi Arabian teaching staff will come into being. This is a huge step forward in Saudi Arabian Japanese-language education. Plus, the number of new students in the Japanese language major is increasing each year, and we are also starting to need teaching staff who are not Saudi Arabian.

A social gathering hosted by the students

To Ensure that Women Can Also Learn

This is my fourth year since coming to Saudi Arabia, but I have never taught any female Japanese learners. This doesn’t mean that there aren't any female Japanese learners in Saudi Arabia; it’s because it’s not desirable for a man to teach women in the same classroom in Saudi Arabia’s cultural context. Almost all of the other classes in the University are also fundamentally taught by teaching staff of the same gender as the learners. Even the campus is split into male and female sections.

As I wrote above, KSU is the only Japanese-language educational institution in Saudi Arabia, but in the current circumstances, only men can study Japanese here. Unfortunately, there are still no educational institutions in which women can learn Japanese. However, when I go to Japanese cultural events, I often meet women who speak Japanese. When I ask them how they studied Japanese, many of them say they formed a circle in university to study it, or studied independently from anime and manga. At KSU, I’m often asked, “I want to study Japanese—how and where should I do it?”

Women gathering at the Japanese booth at a book fair

There are people who want to learn, but there are few teachers and educational institutions: this is the current state of affairs of Japanese-language education in Saudi Arabia. Recently, websites and tools for autonomous learners have increased in number, making it a very good time for learners in environments like Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, there is a need, as people want to study Japanese at an educational institution, and I feel that the needs of women in particular are growing each year. As a result, I now often hear people saying that they want to create a private Japanese language school. However, they are not able to accomplish this since there are not enough staff members gathered to create a school.

Right now, society in Saudi Arabia is undergoing major changes. As it was featured in the news in Japan, the ban has been lifted on cinemas, which were forbidden for years, and women are now permitted to obtain driving licenses. With women’s social progress advancing more than it has done before, foreign languages are attracting attention as both an interest and a work skill for women. I think that interest in the Japanese language is also part of this.

I believe that Japanese-language education in Saudi Arabia is entering a period in which it needs a lot of teachers due to an increase in learners. I hope that, in the near future, a day will come when there is an increased number of people, male and female, involved in Japanese-language education in Saudi Arabia—not just Saudi Arabian teachers, but also teachers from the Arabic-speaking world and Japanese teachers. Until that day, fostering talents in Saudi Arabia and supporting its existing Japanese-language learners are the challenges that I face.