TCJ considers the Japanese education institutes a place to change friction, caused by differences in culture and custom that are often seen in Japanese language education sites worldwide, to mutual understanding, not just a place to teach Japanese. We would like to be the cultural cross point for both the students in the Japanese Language and Japanese Instructor Training courses to interact with each other. TCJ furnishes many occasions to experience true crosscultural exchange that leads you to see other cultures without traveling overseas. A class in "Modern history for Japanese instructors" is also available in our Japanese Instructor Training course to learn the history of a country to which Japanese instructors are dispatched, besides crosscultural exchange experiences on a daily level.
This is an episode in a female Japanese instructor, which actually occurred in the classroom. She was dispatched to a Japanese language institute in Malaysia after the completion of 80-hour Japanese instructor training course in some language school in Japan.
She was teaching in perfect makeup and revealing dress, remaining her lifestyle in Japan. One day the principal gave caution to her out of impatience to wear light makeup. She quit the institute and flew back home immediately after that. How much had she known about Malaysian culture before her departure? Malaysia is an Islamic state. Owing to the fact, you may easily be able to imagine what impression her appearance left her students with. Living abroad requires respect for and understanding of the culture, and confidence in survival in the country. Otherwise, it may leave a profound scar on both sides.
If she had reached out for greater understanding of the conception of religion in Malaysia, she could have brought a different result. This indicates the controversial point that the Japanese language school she graduated from should have provided adequate guidance in adaptability besides teaching techniques.
This incident established a certain image of Japanese with Malaysian students. In other words, it may have been a reminder of the history of the prewar education, one-sided impositive of Japanese culture and values, that Japan conducted to the countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Japanese-learners are predominantly from Asian countries, and Japan is always found in their modern histories. Japanese instructors must be aware of the fact that resentment often lies beneath the existence of Japan in their histories due to the act of aggression, instead of an affirmative existence.
Schools in Japan have a tendency to devote their time to study Western history but disregard Asian history. Even an assertion of "no need to teach adverse aspects in Japanese history in school" has been expressed, which results in formation of the gap between Japanese instructors and learners.
Consequently TCJ offers a variety of classes such as a "Modern Asian History" class in order to improve mutual understanding with learners. We have engaged in fostering independently aggregative cosmopolitan people through our curriculum.
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