The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur
MIURA Takashi,KONDO Maiko

According to the Survey on Japanese-Language Education Abroad 2015, there are more than 33,000 Japanese-language learners in Malaysia. There are more than 3,000 learners studying the Japanese language at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (hereinafter “UiTM”) in the town of Shah Alam near Kuala Lumpur, which means that nearly 10% of all Japanese-language learners in Malaysia are studying here at UiTM. Of course, UiTM also boasts the largest number of learners in a Japanese-language learning institution in Malaysia. It was decided that, from the new semester starting in September 2019, the Japan Foundation's official course book, "Marugoto: Japanese Language and Culture,"(hereinafter “Marugoto”) would be adopted as the primary teaching material for UiTM's Japanese courses.

Most of the learners studying at Malaysian higher educational institutions, including here at UiTM, are studying the Japanese language as one of their elective courses. Many of them studying Japanese language for a single semester, but even the longest period of study, three semesters, is short. One semester is approximately 25 hours of study time, so, no matter how many semesters a learner takes, it will only be about 80 hours at most.

Because of this, teachers at higher educational institutions often say things like "Because the study time is so short, no matter which textbook I use, we get halfway through it and the students don't know what we're doing" and "I want to make the course satisfying for the students, even if it's just for a short period of time, but I don't know what to do."

In "Marugoto," the goals for each lesson are specified in a "Can-do" form, so it is easy for students to understand what they will be able to do from that day's lesson. I think that this is a very suitable teaching material for learners who only study for a short period of time, such as many learners in Malaysia. Therefore, in cooperation with higher educational institution teachers who are already using "Marugoto," I visited a variety of educational institutions and worked to introduce and explain "Marugoto." As for the results, I think that there has been an increase in the number of people who understand the goodness of this teaching material.

However, this time there were some quite urgent voices saying things like "'Marugoto' is attractive, but it is expensive and unrealistic." In that case, if we can publish "Marugoto" in Malaysia and make it affordable to learners, then surely it will be easier to use at schools that want to use it. Fortunately, many people in Malaysia can use English, so we were able to publish the English-language Japan edition with almost no changes. I immediately began looking for a publisher, and, nine months after starting the project, the Malaysia editions of "Marugoto Starter (A1) Katsudoo and Rikai" were published, and the price was reduced to approximately half the price of importing and buying the English-language Japan edition.

Malaysia editions of "Marugoto Japanese Language and Culture Starter (A1)"

With the new textbook, we held a total of nine introductory seminars at seven locations throughout Malaysia and Singapore, and, as a favor from the publisher, we donated free Malaysia editions of "Marugoto" to the teachers who participated in the seminars. As a result of these steady public relations efforts, 15 institutions, including two institutions in Singapore, have now adopted "Marugoto" as a teaching material, and, one year after publication, the first run of 3,000 copies sold out and it had to be reprinted.

Many teachers gathered at a seminar introducing the Malaysia edition of "Marugoto"

UiTM, which was introduced at the beginning of this report, is Malaysia's largest Japanese-language learning institution, with more than 3,000 learners. There are also nearly 20 teachers who teach Japanese. We talked to the teachers at UiTM many times, and, when requested, we also went to Shah Alam and held a "Marugoto" seminar for all of the teachers. It has been almost three years since Japanese-Language Specialists first went to UiTM and explained "Marugoto," and, because of our continued and untiring efforts to explain this teaching material within the institution, UiTM teachers are now finally about to realize the big task of changing their primary teaching materials.

After that, the teachers who had used "Marugoto" gave us feedback, and, currently, we are working on creating a Malaysia edition of "Marugoto Elementary 1 (A2) Katsudoo and Rikai." We are aiming to publish it around June 2019, and, when it is completed, we hope to introduce it to teachers all over the country.

"Marugoto" is a distinctive teaching material, but I don't at all think that it is the absolute best teaching material. However, I do believe that it is suitable for students with less learning time, so I am continuing my activities and I will be very glad if those activities bear fruit and people say that "Marugoto is good."