King Saud University
YONEDA Akihisa

On this page for the 2020 academic year, I wrote that the 11th Japanese Speech Contest had been postponed due to the corona crisis, and that educational institutions in Saudi Arabia had started remote classes. One year has passed since then, and remote classes are still continuing in King Saud University in May 2021. Initially, there were many firsts, as well as confusion, but now it seems to me that this has become normal for both teaching staff and students.

We have also faced unprecedented difficulties. We give remote Japanese language classes using a video conferencing system, but almost all of the students participate without video. In other words, the teaching staff teach classes to computer screens on which they can't see the students’ faces. It’s become harder to know how the students are reacting. In some cases, the reason the students aren't using their video is because of Internet connection issues, but in Saudi Arabia, it seems that cultural circumstances also play a big part. There are a lot of students who do not think it is appropriate for their family to be visible and so they keep their video off; there are also students who mute their microphones if their family’s voices are coming through. Despite this situation, when it comes to the students that I have taught face-to-face, for the past year or so, I have somehow been able to imagine what is going on from the tones of their voices, and the students understand each other, so the lessons have been progressing with an atmosphere similar to a classroom.

A class with only the teaching staff showing their faces

The newly enrolled students, who entered the University after we started remote classes, had the most difficulties. I had never seen the faces of these students—and they hadn’t seen each other, either. This being the case, it took longer for everyone to figure out what kind of people are in the class than it would have when we held face-to-face lessons. It was difficult for us to learn about each other in the time outside of class, so in a real sense, it was necessary for the students to give “self-introductions” and “talk about their lives,” which is often done in beginner-level classes; the classes served as settings to use more realistic Japanese language, and opportunities to get to know each other.

However, it has been over a year since we began living like this, and both the teaching staff and the students seem to be wondering if we can return to face-to-face classes soon. According to the results of a survey on remote classes taken by 77 of the students in the Japanese-language major, almost 80% of students hope for “face-to-face classes.” During the second semester of the 2020 academic year, only the mid-term exams were taken place on the University campus. Normally, after an exam, there are a lot of students who go home quickly to prepare for their exams the following day, but I saw students wearing masks and enjoying chatting with friends they hadn't met for a while all over campus.

A mid-term exam with distancing

On the topic of the postponed 11th Japanese Speech Contest: the format is different to what was initially planned, but some of the participants’ speeches have been posted in “A Special Commemorative Page on the Occasion of Emperor’s Birthday” on the website of the Embassy of Japan in Saudi Arabia.
https://www.ksa.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_00056.html#anchor5

The content is characteristic and very interesting, and, on top of this, female participants are also shown on this page, symbolizing the social changes in Saudi Arabia over the last few years. While there are no educational institutions in which women can study the Japanese language in Saudi Arabia, the women state how they became interested in Japan and how they studied the Japanese language.

The male students say they want to return to face-to-face classes; the female learners studied the Japanese language independently using online tools before the coronavirus crisis. I think this really represents the status quo of Japanese-language education in Saudi Arabia. Looking at both of these, it’s not that they chose which of the two (face-to-face or remote/online) is better—people who want to learn will create an environment so that they can study the Japanese language in a form that suits them, and I have realized that this is an important point in the development of Japanese-language education in Saudi Arabia.