[Date & Time] Monday, July 25
Part I at 13:30～14:20: How to Use Honorific Expressions
Part II at 14:30~15:20: Session for Exchanging Opinions
[Place] At Japanese Language Studies Center, Pacifico Yokohama・Yokohama International Cooperation Center 5F
[Attendants] 8 KSGG members
Eight members of KSGG helped the foreign students studying in the summer school with their Japanese by the request of IUC again this year. In Part One, 2 KSGG members, Mr. H and Mr. D, checked if the students used Japanese honorifics properly for about one hour. Following Part One, 7 students and 8 KSGG members, who were divided into three groups and exchanged lively opinions in Japanese about the topic, “The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.” Our support was received as well as it was last year. I am very glad to say that we are sure to have this kind of request next year, too.
☆[Part One]
[Attendants] 4 male students
After Mr. H and I from KSGG gave salutes to Professor A and Professor K at IUC, 4 students were divided into two groups. We had been requested to help them learn honorifics first. However, as we were advised to give the students comments on how they use courteous language while talking, the students and we introduced ourselves one another. Those students gave their self-introductions as follows: Mr. D majoring in Japanese literature studies on Saikaku Ihara; Mr. P majoring in Japanese literature studies on Anthology of Kokin Waka Poems and Saigyo; Mr. M majoring in anime is especially interested in storyboarding, layout, and directors; and Mt. T majoring in sociology studies on the situations of immigrants in the world. We were impressed by their ability to understand and speak pretty difficult Japanese. When I encouraged Mr. P to become a distinguished researcher like Professor Donald Keene, he said that he would do his best to become such a researcher. Since he could speak in almost perfect courteous language, I hardly needed to correct his Japanese.
☆[Part Two]
[Students in the Session for Exchanging Opinions] 7 students (6 students from IUC and another: 4 male students and 3 female students)
[Nationalities] American, Canadian, and Chinese
[Universities] Columbia University; University of California, Berkeley; Yale University; and McGill University
This time, we exchanged opinions about “The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.” Although this was a difficult topic to talk about, they could express what they wanted to say almost perfectly, even if they made some grammatical mistakes. They had a pretty good command of Japanese. Some students studying Japanese literature or Japanese history had come to Japan several times before. One student said, “I felt deeply sorry for the Great East Japan Earthquake. The earthquake struck me as a more distressful accident than the accidents that happened in any other country.” I asked if they were afraid about the influences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident before they came to Japan. They said that they can trust the Japanese government because the Japanese never tell a lie and that they thought it was safe to come to Japan because Japanese people could lead ordinary lives. It seemed that they had good impressions on Japan and the Japanese, knowing that Japanese people never got panicky, being calm, and everyone tried to take a step back even when the Great East Japan Earthquake or the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster took place. They also thought that the Japanese keep their words and are kind. Their opinions were very interesting for me and gave me a lot to think about. I could spend quality time exchanging opinions with these students.
