Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
TAKAHASHI Tomoya

Traditionally, there is a friendship between Japan and Bulgaria. When they hear “Bulgaria,” I’m sure that a lot of people will imagine a peaceful country with rich greenery. On the other hand, in Bulgaria, the common impression of Japan is a nation with cutting-edge technology and old traditions.

Japanese-Language Specialists (hereinafter “Specialists”) sent by the Japan Foundation (hereinafter the “JF”) are dispatched to Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" (hereinafter “Sofia University”); Sofia University’s Japanese Studies Department is a representative Japanese-language educational institution in Bulgaria. Each year, excellent students with an extraordinary passion for “Japan” enroll here—from neighboring countries as well as from Bulgaria itself.

The JF began dispatching people to Sofia University in 1981, under the communist government. Between 2008 and 2019, the JF was dispatching two people here—a Specialist and a Japanese-Language Assistant. However, now only a single Specialist is dispatched. The country has been able to create a sustainable Japanese-language education cycle thanks to the dispatch of these Specialists—we can say it has a mature environment.

The Current State of Sofia University

The building in which the Japanese Studies Department is located

I wonder if you’ve heard that Bulgarian people shake their heads from side to side when saying “yes,” and nod up and down when saying “no”? I have spent over one year in my position here without really feeling this famous Bulgarian gesture. This is because direct contact with Bulgarian people via face-to-face meetings has been extremely limited since the State of Emergency that was announced immediately after I took up my post here in March 2020.

Since taking up my post, I have been responsible for a total of 10 hours of classes per week for the third-year and fourth-year students. However, online instruction is ongoing, and I haven’t experienced a single face-to-face class. It seems that it was difficult for both Japanese-language teachers and students to accept the move to online teaching. In particular, it greatly limits the activities of clubs that contributed to the formation of an overarching network across all academic years. Attendance in the online classes isn’t always good, so we need to persevere.

However, I have witnessed the merits of collaboration between members of the Department in the few face-to-face events that have taken place. For example, I remember the opening day for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Studies Department, held on September 27, 2020. I recall how impressed I was that the students cooperated in an organized way to set up the stage outside.

The Spread of Japanese-language Education Since the Announcement of the State of Emergency

Burgas on the Black Sea Coast

With face-to-face guidance limited all over the world, in October 2020 the JF launched support for overseas Japanese-Language educational institutions (a special support program in response to COVID-19), which supports new online Japanese-language education initiatives.

In addition to Sofia University, four high schools in the city of Burgas on the Black Sea Coast, which hasn’t offered Japanese teaching in the past, and one high school in the town of Zlatitsa, on the outskirts of the capital, Sofia, have applied for this special support program from Bulgaria. Before any applications for the support program, I was offered the chance to visit each institution on the Black Sea Coast together with the then-Deputy Chief of Mission from the Embassy of Japan in Bulgaria and inform them about support for Japanese-language education from the JF.

After this, applications from several educational institutions were chosen, and new Japanese-language education projects were launched in different regions of Bulgaria, in a situation in which the world is suffering a state of emergency. Each institution’s project finished on March 31, 2021, at the end of the Japanese academic and fiscal year—I participated online in the closing ceremonies of the five high schools that started offering Japanese-language education for the first time with this support, and was able to take in the feeling of elation at each school, generated by their long-awaited experience of the Japanese language.

Through my recent experiences, I have realized that it is possible to turn the current situation that limits face-to-face guidance to our advantage, and actually expand Japanese-language education online. The terrible situation across the globe may continue for a while, but I anticipate that Japanese-language education will develop, in breadth and depth, across Bulgaria in the future.