Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
MITSUMORI Yu

In September 2014, I took up a post in Bulgaria, which is famous for yoghurt and roses; it’s already been more than two and a half years since then. This is my third year in Bulgaria, and my time here will soon come to an end, so I’ll tell you about the work I’ve been focusing on until now.

The Work at My Dispatched Location

Working Across Bulgaria and in Neighboring Countries (Advisory Work and Building a Network)

As I said above, Specialists give day-to-day lessons in Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” where we have been dispatched, but it is equally important that we work to support Japanese-language education across Bulgaria. One major event in the Bulgarian world of Japanese-language education is the Japanese speech contest held in April each year. The Japanese speech contest held in April 2017 was the 23rd time this event has taken place. In the 2016 and 2017 speech contests, the speeches were also streamed live on the Internet.

In the past, there was an association of Japanese-language teachers in Bulgaria, but this was disbanded in January 2012, so in 2014, when I took up my post, there wasn’t any kind of network linking Japanese-language teachers in Bulgaria. After I started working here, I wanted to rebuild the network somehow, and so in 2016 and 2017 I sent out a call to teachers involved in Japanese-language education in Sofia and in other regions of Bulgaria, and we held a seminar about Japanese-language education in Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.” The seminar included lectures on Japanese-language education, status reports from different institutions, and meetings between the people involved, and we spoke about sharing information by creating a Facebook group and implementing study meetings throughout the year. In Bulgaria, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and Veliko Tarnovo University “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” (hereinafter “Veliko Tarnovo University”), which is located in the ancient capital of the region, are currently members of the JF Nihongo Network. Veliko Tarnovo University became a new member in 2016. In September 2017, we also held a seminar on Japanese-language education at Veliko Tarnovo University. It's been gradual, but since taking up my post, I’ve made progress on my work “connecting” Bulgarian teachers through these activities.

The participants of the camp gathered in a “flash mob”

I’ve also built up a network with neighboring countries as well as in Bulgaria. Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” runs the “Japanese Language and Culture Summer Camp in the Balkan Peninsula” each year in a regional town or city on the Black Sea in June or July, and has done so for more than five years. This camp also invites participants from Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Turkey, and attendees study Japanese language and culture. In 2016, we ran a camp that aimed to create a “flash mob” based on the yosakoi dance in front of the City Hall in Burgas, a regional city. All the students who participated in the camp boldly introduced Japanese culture in front of the local people. From 2017, these camps have also started inviting participants from Bosnia & Herzegovina.

What I Hoped to Convey as a Japanese-Language Specialist

I’ve talked simply about the details of my work above, and finally I’d like to tell you about what I hoped to convey in Bulgaria now that the end of my time here is in sight.

Technology such as ICT has developed in recent years, and we will likely obtain means for people to communicate without learning a foreign language in the near future. If that is the case, I think this will create a ground-breaking environment in which the scope of people’s interactions will widen. However, I also think that learning and using a foreign language is useful for communicating our feelings and thoughts more directly, and so will continue. Plus, the experience and knowledge of a country’s culture that we gain through learning a foreign language is a huge asset. I have carried out my work with a desire to teach the Japanese learners here “Japanese” as a means of communication that uses their “voices,” and that opens the door to the culture of a different country. I would be delighted if everyone who is involved with Japanese in Bulgaria could continue to use their own “voices” to contribute a little to a future in which we build links between people and countries.