A “Ponte” to Support Japanese-Language Education
The Japan Cultural Institute in Rome
OTANI Hideki
The word “Ponte” in Italian means a beautiful bridge over a canal, but there is also another important meaning by which Italians use the word. The Italians, who are masters at taking holidays, have a custom to “bridge” (Ponte) the gaps around the Easter holiday to create a longer vacation for themselves by adding normal weekdays that are not part of the holiday.
As a Japanese-Language Specialist, I have the twofold job of serving as both a Japanese-Language Chief Advisor and as the manager of operating Japanese-language courses, so I myself can be said to serve as a “bridge” (Ponte). In my role as an Advisor, I help deepen the connections between Japanese-language teachers via the Japanese-language teachers training program, while as the Course manager, I focus on helping the students connect the classroom experience with the real world through their Japanese-language studies.
Cultural Japanese-Language Course "Japanese for Travel”
The “Japanese for Travel" class scene
Incidentally, not only the students in Japanese-language courses but many Italians in general are also interested in Japan and Japanese culture, and the various events and tours of the Institute’s garden are always bustling and packed with visitors. According to a 2015 survey by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of Italian tourists who visited Japan was approximately 100,000 people, with an annual growth rate between 10% and 20% for the past several years. Furthermore, the Japan Tourism Agency’s "Consumption Trends of International Visitors to Japan Survey (2016 Annual Report)" suggests that one characteristic of Italian tourists is that the majority are first time visitors. Given that the number of Italian tourists to Japan is expected to continue to rise considerably, the JNTO opened their long-awaited Rome office in 2017.
To date, “Japanese for Travel” has been held in Japanese-language courses as “cultural Japanese-language courses” during the spring and summer travel season to introduce students to tourism destinations throughout Japan and convenient Japanese phrases for sightseeing. We intend to continue to work with the JNTO in a variety of ways to host “Mini-Japanese-language courses” not only for existing students, but for the presumably large number of potential Italian visitors to Japan in order to reach the wider audience beyond the classes.
Connecting with Japanese Learners Throughout the World
Italy's first "Japan Bowl"
The city of Milan, located in the state of Lombardy, has a particularly large population of Japanese-language learners at the lower secondary school level. Accordingly, Italy’s very first Japan Bowl® for upper secondary school students was held in the city in March. The Japan Bowl® tournament has been held in the US since 1992 with sponsorship by the Japan-America Society of Washington DC. I myself was involved in the tournament held in Italy in several capacities, such as creating quiz problems and serving as a judge on the day of the tournament. The Japan Bowl® tournament has also recently been held for the first time in other countries in Europe, including Poland, the UK, and Serbia. Scenes from the tournaments are posted to social media, such as Facebook, where there has been a rise in interaction between Japanese-language learners.
The questions at the Japan Bowl® include topics such as Japanese history, sports, and culture in addition to those on the language itself, so participants must gather information from a wide variety of sources, not only the information from their classes at school. My sincere hope is that both teachers and students can expand their network through these learning activities, both in and out of school, and have fun doing so.
Supporting Japanese-Language Learning as an Opportunity for Connecting
Moving forward, we intend to establish a new Autonomous Learning Support Class for free to support the ability of students to continue learning on their own outside of class. Students of the class will prepare their own study plan for each class, and then review their studies after the class, to place the focus on helping students find their own pace and approach to study. Accordingly, the role of instructors (Japanese-Language Specialists and Japanese-Language Assistants) will be to support learning rather than to teach.
By establishing the new class, I hope to support potential students who we had been unable to reach previously in Japanese-language courses by possibly solving such student concerns as the need to prepare for or review classwork, the inability to attend classes due to schedule constraints, and a lack of more advanced classes for continued study.
I hope to try other similar measures to continue to support the local Japanese-language education as a Japanese-Language Specialist.
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