2021 Activity Report
March Activity Report
30 March 2022
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Fumika Miyamoto
It's March, and spring has finally arrived. The first half of the month was cold, but the second half was warm enough to see people wearing short sleeves indoors. It is still cold at night, but cafes are setting up outside terrace seats one after another, and I feel the arrival of spring when I see people chatting outside. In Serbia, the requirement to wear masks indoors was lifted this month. I feel like we're getting back to where we were before the pandemic. Even though the weather is getting better from this month, students look busy with no time to play. It's like that this month, and I report below on the GJO activities of this month.
We have resumed our evening Japanese classes that we had last November. This activity was established so that students can take classes at any level they want, regardless of their grade. Because of the inevitable goal of exams, weekday classes are grammar-based, but here we want students to study Japanese language of life as a Japanese culture. As before, we have established four levels: "Irodori" A1, A 2-1, A2-2, and intermediate and above. For the first-year students, we have added a new A1 class, and in the remaining classes we are continuing to teach what we started in November. However, some levels are circling the textbook at the pace we are teaching, so we will be consulting with students to decide whether to move on to the next textbook or use other materials for study.
In addition, two Japan Cafe and one Perapera Cafe were held this month.
The first Japan Cafe was held on Saturday, March 12 from 11:00-12:00. The theme was "Ceremony" in honor of this spring. There were two participants. The temperature fluctuates greatly at this time, and many of the students who had planned to come seemed to get sick. In Serbia, graduation ceremonies are held in summer and entrance ceremonies in fall, but in Japan, entrance and graduation ceremonies are held in spring. We began with a comparison of these events in Japan and Serbia. From there, we began to talk about clothing for ceremonies and other events, which led to a discussion of hakama for graduation ceremonies and then to kimono, the differences in wedding ceremonies and different kimono styles. We also talk about wedding ring custom and how to distinguish between married and unmarried couples. It is always interesting when students ask me questions and I discover Japanese culture that I didn't know before. I have been in Serbia for almost two years now, but I still don't know much about Serbia. Japan Cafe was a good opportunity for me to ask questions to the students.
The second Japan café was held on Saturday, March 19 from 11:00-12:00, featured a lecture on the Chubu, the central region of Japan. The reason why we chose this topic was because the next day was the Balkan Japan Bowl, a quiz competition about Japan, and this was one of the topics to be discussed. There were seven participants. I talked with the participants about the history, specialties, and geography of the Chubu region, quizzing them on a variety of topics. Although this session turned out to be quite a lecture-style event, the students said it was a good opportunity for them as they rarely see Japan divided by region. The next day, the students were pleased to hear that the quiz competition included questions that we had discussed at the Japan café. Students who want to learn new things often come to Japan café, so it may be good to sometimes give a lecture-style talk.
The last event of this month was the Perapera Cafe on Saturday, March 26. There were 9 participants this time, 3 from the University of Belgrade, 1 from Taiwan, and 5 Japanese students. Since we had almost met each other for the first time, we started by introducing ourselves and talking about our hobbies and interests. Although we had given them a topic beforehand of things to do in the spring, the participants seemed to talk a lot about other topics. Again, an hour did not seem to be enough time, and they continued to ask questions about Serbia, discuss music recommendations for each country, and share links, even after the time we had initially presented.
As I mentioned at the beginning, we have also received many requests to meet and talk with students in person due to the lifting of the mandatory wearing of indoor masks in Serbia. However, because Perapera Cafe is online, Serbian students can talk with students in Japan. Also, at the University of Belgrade, there are no classrooms available at the time of Perapera Cafe, teaching online is sometimes an efficient and convenient way for a small group of students. We are struggling with where to come to terms with this problem, but we hope to hold face-to-face events in the near future.
February Activity Report
28 February 2022
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Fumika Miyamoto
February is quite a sensitive month at the University of Belgrade. For students at the University of Belgrade, testing periods take up most of the month. Some students take as many as nine classes in a semester, and the tests go on forever. Of course, some students pass their tests early and get them over with, but those students have gone into vacation mode. And even after the testing period is over, classes start a week later. It is a very delicate time of the year, it seems like a vacation but it is not. Then I would like to introduce GJO's activities this month.
Since there was an exam period and off-campus events this month, we held one Book club and one Perapera café. First, we held a reading session on Saturday, February 12 via Zoom. This time there were only 3 participants, a small number. that is why we were had enough time to read a lot of things and also to talk to others about what we had read. The participants were high-level, and although the conversations were short, they said they were glad to have time to speak and read Japanese, even if only semi-forcibly, for the first time in a while. This event is mostly just a place for independent study. Some students pass the Japanese language test early and are away from the language for a while. We would like to continue to plan and make time for such students to experience a little bit of Japanese language even during their vacation period.
The last event of the month was the Perapera Cafe on Saturday, February 26. There were 5 participants this time, and we could talk closely with them. There was one participant from the University of Belgrade, one from a university in Taiwan, and three Japanese students attending a Japanese university. Since all of them were meeting each other for the first time, they started by introducing themselves and telling us about their hobbies, the situation where they live, and why they joined this meeting. It was interesting that some said the reason they joined the meeting was because they saw it on the website of the university where they were on a short-term study abroad program in Japan. Others said that they found Belgrade in a book they happened to be reading. One-hour was not enough, and we continued to ask questions about Serbia, discuss music recommendations for each country, and share links to other countries even after the time we had originally suggested. After all, when people of different nationalities and backgrounds get together, even within Japan, the differences become apparent and the conversation becomes very diverse. The students said they would like to come back again if the time permits, and we would like to continue this event as a place where people from all walks of life can gather.
There were other Japanese cultural events outside of the Belgrade GJO this month. A Japanese film review meeting was held in Belgrade from February 18 to 21, sponsored by the Embassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation. Although I personally could not attend the event, students actively visit this nearby event and experienced Japanese culture.
So, that's all for this month's activities. We will be busy again with the start of the second semester, but from next month we will revive our mini-classes, book lending, and evening classes. Even though we are busy, we would be happy to spend more time face-to-face with our students. I will do my best next month to keep this casual happiness in mind.
January Activity Report
31 January 2022
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Fumika Miyamoto
For Japanese people, January means New Year’s Day! However, New Year’s Day in Serbia is not as exciting as it is in Japan, although there are fireworks at the beginning of the year. The main event is Christmas on January 7. Many families also celebrate the Serbian Lunar New Year on January 14. Although the celebrations are a bit more relaxed due to the current circumstances, everyone seems to be enjoying the festivities. This is a month with many events to spend with family. It is also a busy month for students at the University of Belgrade during the testing period, but I would like to introduce some of the GJO’s activities.
This month we held three activities: two Japan Café events and a Book Club.
The first event of the New Year was the Japan Café on January 5. There were 8 participants. We are grateful to the students who showed up during their vacation. The theme of this Japan Cafe was the Japanese New Year. We played Japanese New Year’s music before the event started. Since this kind of seasonal music is different from the J-pop and other music we usually listen to, the participants seemed to enjoy the slightly different atmosphere. We started the event with a firm New Year’s greeting once all the participants were present. Since we had learned about the basics of New Year’s together in class at the end of last year, the topic this time was along the lines of “Do you know this?” For example, we started with a simple “Do you know about the Red vs White sing-off?” (Answer: Kohaku Utagassen) and then moved on to “Do you know some common homework assignments to be done over the winter holidays by elementary school students? (The answers are a composition of New Year’s resolutions, and the first calligraphy of the year.) The Café content was designed to give both students who have only just started learning the Japanese language and those who have been exposed to Japanese culture for a while something to think about. In the Zoom breakout room, some students seemed to know the answers to the questions while others did not. The students who knew the answers were able to explain them to us in various ways.
The second event this month was the Book Club held on Wednesday, January 19. There were four participants at this event. This time, after the event started, we immediately shared various reading and listening resources accessible online. We then had 45 minutes to read silently and the last 10 minutes to share what we had read. Since I knew the participants in advance, I was able to present reading material at a level appropriate for the students. When I asked the students for their impressions, they told me that they still sometimes do not know what to read in Japanese. They said they were glad that they could make time to read Japanese intentionally by coming to these meetings. Last year’s reading group was almost like reading to the students. This year, however, I was the only Japanese teacher who could participate in the reading session. Therefore, I had to shift to this type of reading activity that more directly involved the students. However, the students seemed to enjoy this format and seemed to be satisfied with it. Therefore, we would like to adopt this self-study-after-sharing format the next time we hold this event.
The last event of the month was the Japan Café on Thursday, January 27. There were 8 participants at this event. This was the second Japan Cafe held this month, as requested by a student. We adopted the theme suggested by the student and chose yokai (Japanese monsters). While waiting for the participants to gather, we played an English video explaining about yokai. After the participants entered the room, the theme of famous Japanese yokai names and ghost stories was presented. After dividing into groups, the participants introduced what they knew and researched what they did not know. As I went around the groups and listened to their conversations, the student who suggested the theme mentioned that he had actually given a presentation on this topic in his class. He knew details that even I, a Japanese, had never heard of, and led the conversation from start to finish, making it half like a study session. This was well received by the other students who said they did not know much about yokai and commented that it was interesting to gain new knowledge. Students are usually busy, but as in this case, if it is not a class period, it can be a good idea to solicit requests from students and recruit people to lead the conversation.
So, that’s all for this month’s activities. The second semester begins next month. We will be busy with classes again, but I will try to keep our GJO’s activities going.
December Activity Report
31 December 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Fumika Miyamoto
December in Serbia was a busy month with the Japanese Language Proficiency Test on the 5th and the mid-term exams at the end of the month. The schedule is similar for me and the students who participate in GJO events. So, although there were fewer events hosted by the GJO than in November, we were still able to do some activities, even if in a small way, so I would like to introduce some of our activities this month.
This month, we had two activities: Book Lending and Japan Café.
In the first activity, book lending, a total of 22 books were loaned out this month. Last month, students borrowed new books after returning the ones they had taken out earlier. This month, however, with the end of the term and the tests at the beginning of the year, many students declined to borrow new books, saying that they were too busy. This is not a class, so we cannot force students to read books. However, I would like to continue to steadily introduce books to the students so that they will have books at hand when they want to read.
The second activity of the month was the Japan Café. This month’s event was held on Saturday, December 25, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. December 25th, isn’t that Christmas? Is that okay? In this country where there are many believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church, however, it is a normal day. This time there were 8 participants. This month’s topic was New Year’s Eve and the Kohaku Utagassen, and we decided to have a meeting with a Japanese music theme. Of course, we played Japanese music before the event started. After the event got going, we talked about the major music genres in Japan, popular music, and my personal favorite music. Since the students were speaking to each other in Serbian, there were many parts of the conversation that I could not understand, but in general they seemed to have a lot of fun talking about various kinds of music.
This event was scheduled for one hour, but I left the Zoom open until all the students were satisfied. Then, perhaps because it was the end of the semester, it turned into a career counseling session where students asked upperclassmen how they should absorb Japanese language and culture. This was not the original purpose of the event but considering the current situation where there is not much interaction between upper and lower level students, I think it was worthwhile to hold this event.
Although not a GJO-sponsored event, another event was held this month in the Faculty of Letters to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Oriental Studies. Professors from various majors in the Department of Oriental Studies gave special classes over the course of two weeks. This time, I gave a demonstration and lecture on Japanese dance and tea ceremony with a Serbian teacher who is also in charge of the Japanese language major. The event was opened with remarks by the president. There were about 30 people in the actual conference room, including students, and the rest were online participants. This time, throughout the lecture, I gave a brief explanation in Japanese and the other teacher gave a Serbian translation of my explanation. I was in charge of the Japanese dance part, demonstrating the “Sakura, Sakura” dance and introducing the song. The tea ceremony was performed by a Serbian teacher, and I participated as a guest. This was a short event of only 45 minutes, but the students commented that it was informative and interesting. Although it was brief, the students commented that they learned a lot and found it very interesting. Currently, it is difficult to actually experience the drinking matcha, the tea served in the tea ceremony, due to hygiene concerns. Still, I hope that the students will eventually experience the tea ceremony for themselves.
The Shiwasu season of business exists even outside of Japan. However, looking back, it has been a very productive month. Next year, I will try to be more creative and enrich the GJO’s activities.
* In Japan we called December, Shiwasu, which literally means teachers or priests running around. Of course, teachers and priests don’t usually run even if they are busy, but the term evokes the busyness at the end of the year.
November Activity Report
30 November 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Fumika Miyamoto
Serbia in November was much colder than last month. It’s almost time for knit caps and scarves. In October, the number of COVID-19 infections was 6,000 per day because of the heavy travel and big events during the summer. But the number of infected people has declined to less than 3,000 per day. However, it seems that we still need to be careful in the future.
This month we had five main activities: Book Club, Night Japanese Class, Japan Café, Shodo no Kai (Calligraphy Club), and Pera Pera Café.
The Book Club loans JLPT and other Japanese books for general reading to students. A total of 49 books were taken out on loan this month. It is significant that the first-year students who have finished learning hiragana and katakana are gradually starting to borrow books. Many students borrow something every week, saying, “It makes me happy when I realize I can read the Japanese.” As the end of the semester approaches, they will be so busy that they won’t have time to read books. I am considering lending them books for a longer period of time during the winter break.
Also, we continued to hold night classes this month. The number of students fluctuated as the university classes started to get busier, but it was good to see that there was always someone there. In class, we talk in small groups, which is fun for me because it gives me time to talk about things outside the textbook and get to know the students better. Since there are many JLPT and end-of-semester events in December, we will suspend the program for a while and resume it after the testing period in January and February.
The third activity this month is Japan Café, an event for “Talking about Japan in any language!”. This month it was held from 11:00 to 12:00 on Saturday, November 6. As in the previous Café, there were many first-year students. There were 15 participants this time, including students who had participated before. It seems they were encouraged by the fact that we lowered the hurdle by allowing people to speak in Serbian and English as well as Japanese. This month the theme was “Japanese Drama”. Before the event started, we showed videos introducing recommended Japanese dramas. There were several dramas that the participants knew about or had seen, and this helped to get a conversation started. Later we talked about my personal favorite dramas and dramas that were popular, and then I asked them to use Zoom’s Breakout room to share dramas that they have seen, dramas that they would recommend to others, and conversely, dramas that they would not personally recommend. The conversations seemed to be quite lively, and by the end of the event, a student-led group had been formed to watch Japanese dramas. I would like to continue to provide a place where students who are interested in common things can connect with each other, regardless of their academic year, as in this event.
On Saturday, November 20, the Shodo no Kai (Calligraphy Club) was held from 11:00 to 12:00.
This is an online revival of the calligraphy group that met regularly until the year before last. We lent out nine sets of calligraphy tools and spent an hour explaining the basics of calligraphy on Zoom and having the students show each other what they had written. Although more than half of the hour was spent working in silence while still on Zoom, the students said that the time flew by. I thought it would be difficult to hold such an event remotely, but it seemed to have the advantage of allowing each of the participants to continue until they felt comfortable after Zoom session ended. Clearly the work they submitted later was much improved over those they had shown to everyone just before the Zoom session ended. Although the number of sets that can be rented is limited, we would like to hold this event on a regular basis because there is a definite demand from people who want to try out the calligraphy tools.
The last event of the month was the Pera Pera Cafe. It was held from 11:00 to 12:00 on Saturday, November 27, and this was the first time that a Pera Pera Cafe was opened to multiple universities. As a result, 7 students from Belgrade University and 3 students from Japanese universities participated. Since many of the participants were meeting each other for the first time, we chose self-introduction and favorite music as the topics. However, they were not limited to speaking only in Japanese and ended up talking about whatever they wanted to talk about. Some of the comments after the event suggested that they would like to play games that can be done using Zoom, so we will consider this in the future. In addition, two members commented that changing groups every 25 minutes in just one hour did not give them enough time to get to know each other, so we will consider this as well.
This month, the Japanese Serbian Film Festival was held from Friday, November 12 to Monday, the 15th, although it was not hosted by the GJO. Held once a year, this is a unique opportunity to watch Japanese movies on the big screen in Serbia. Some students go to this festival every day. I went to see the short films. After being in Serbia for a year, this was my first opportunity to see a Serbian-language film. I really enjoyed watching the films that told stories of Serbian culture that I had come to see and hear for myself. I have been given many opportunities to introduce Japanese culture here, but I was reminded by this festival that I should learn more about the history and culture of Serbia where I currently live. At the same time, I was able to reconfirm that there are so many people who are interested in Japan, so I will continue to work hard.
October Activity Report
31 October 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Fumika Miyamoto
First, let me briefly introduce myself. I glad meet you. My name is Miyamoto and I've been the coordinator of GJO Belgrade from October. I am a graduate student at Akita International University. Since October last year, I have been working as a Japanese guest lecturer at the Department of Japanese Language and Culture, Faculty of Letters, University of Belgrade, and I have been supporting GJO activities from time to time. I will do my best.
The new fiscal year began on this month. It's still not going to be possible to control the number of Covid-19 cases here. However, the University of Belgrade requested "face-to-face classes if possible," so I have been conducting classes in a hybrid format with face-to-face and online live performances at the same time. We decided to take this form because some students cannot participate face-to-face due to the health of them and their families', though hearing more and more requests for face-to-face classes since last year. First year students don’t master hiragana and katakana completely, and it is difficult to learn in online classes where students can't talk to each other smoothly, so many students come to face-to-face classes. I want students to stay highly motivated and not be discouraged when they are just starting to learn.
This month, we held five extracurricular activities: “Lending libraries”, “Evening Japanese classes”, “Japan café”, “Book club”, and “Perapera cafe”.
The activity of lending libraries means providing students with books on measures for the JLPT to be held in December and books from the multi-reading library in the teachers' room. In the past, we held biweekly "Book club" in person, but in order to minimize face-to-face contact, we decided to rent out individual books to students before and after face-to-face classes. First-year students have just studied hiragana and katakana, so few borrow books, but some second-year students borrow different books every week. Since these books are valuable source of Japanese information that we have accumulated through various forms of support, we would like to establish this library system to make effective use of them.
"Evening Japanese Class" was offered online from around 6:00 PM Tuesday through Friday. In the regular classes of Japanese language majors, the emphasis tends to be on grammar because the goal is to pass the exams. Also, students have to learn Japanese at a fast pace. Other than that, there are students who have already studied the contents of regular classes in high school or who study ahead of the progress of classes by themselves. Therefore, we started this activity during the summer vacation for students to learn Japanese for daily life as part of the Japanese culture, regardless of their grade level, in addition to the regular classes and as a review. For beginner level students, I teach using the "Irodori" program provided by the Japan Foundation. Also, with intermediate and higher level students, I solve reading comprehension problems in the course materials and talk about them, or have discussions with them using Japanese conversation materials. I hope that they will have more opportunities to learn about Japan.
"Japan café" was planned as a cultural event in which students are not forced to speak in Japanese in order to lower the hurdle for them to participate in the event. It was done online at 11: 00 -12: 00 on Saturday, October 16. This month's event was called "Autumn of Appetite," and the theme was food. There were 16 participants. We watched a video on NHK's website about Japanese food while waiting for the students to gather (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2019277/). After that, they used Zoom's Breakout Room to discuss what Japanese foods they knew and had eaten, whether there was anything they could find in Serbia, and to share information about restaurants. Sharing information about Japanese food in Serbia was especially exciting, and lots of participants said they had enjoyed it very much. I plan to continue this event from next month.
The “Book club” has been held regularly until now, and this time it was held at 11: 00 -12: 00 on Saturday, October 23. This time, for the first 45 minutes, I had the students reading online. I used the website of KC Yomuyomu this time. After reading, we discussed what we had read and I asked students to introduce their favorite books. We had a particularly lively discussion about the book "Tsukimi" and how the moon looks in different parts of the world. In the book , it was introduced that women with long hair can be seen in the moon in Eastern Europe, but when I asked the students, they said it wasn't so. The students had never seen the moon that way before. That is very different from Japan where there is a commonly shared idea of the "moon rabbit" and people eat dumplings in the shape of the full moon. Cultural differences were also apparent. There were two participants this time and the challenge for next time is that some students have finished all of the readings available online. We have two plans. The first is to get people to borrow college books and make up for the lack of online reading. The second is to get rid of the book rule and switch to an event like a watch party by sharing videos and talking about them. I will think about what to do by looking at the students' reactions.
The last event of the month was "Perapera Cafe". It's a Japanese speaking group continuing for a long time. It was held at 11: 00 -12: 00 on Saturday, October 30. It was a meeting of 10 people, and since it was the first meeting of the year, there was some first year students participated, so we started by introducing ourself. They told me what they liked. We had a lot of fun talking about our hobbies derived from our self-introductions and asking questions about Japanese culture. It was a mixed conversation with English and Serbian, but this is a good opportunity to talk with people from Japan, so I want them to use it as motivation to study Japanese from now on.
So that's all for this month's activities. I would like to continue to hold events and activities related to Japan as much as possible and gradually expand my circle.
September Activity Report
5 October 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yagi Haruka
September was the end of the academic year for the Japanese language major at the University of Belgrade, and the last final exam was held. The long examination period is now over, and the new academic year will begin in October.
This month's "PeraPera Cafe" was held on Sunday, September 12, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Japan time) via zoom. There were 10 participants in total: 7 native speakers of Japanese (2 students and graduates who have studied at the University of Belgrade, 2 Japanese residents of Serbia, 1 former teacher, and 2 teachers), 2 native speakers of Serbian (1 student and 1 teacher of Japanese at the University of Belgrade), and 1 native speaker of Chinese (a university student who studied at the University of Belgrade and is now studying Japanese).
Again, we used the voting function of zoom to let the participants choose the topics they wanted to talk about. As a result, "What I want to do when the pandemic is over" was chosen for the first breakout session, and "Japanese and foreign cultures that I find strange" and "Free talk" were chosen by the same percentage for the second session.
When we talked about "what I want to do when the pandemic is over," a student said, "I want to go back to the classroom." Since the first case of the disease was confirmed in Serbia last March, the Japanese language major at the University of Belgrade has continued to offer fully online classes. The student who gave me this opinion had experienced face-to-face classes before the pandemic, and may still be very eager to return to the classroom. In the past, students were able to study in classrooms with their friends and talk with them in cafes between the classes, but since the pandemic, many students take online classes from their hometowns without staying in the dormitories in Belgrade.
Others said that they wanted to go on a trip. Since Serbia is a landlocked country, many students want to go to the sea in neighboring countries during their summer vacation. Some Japanese said they wanted to go to hot springs. Now that people are restricted from traveling far and freely, there are probably many people in Japan and Serbia who want to go to places away from everyday life to refresh themselves. I found out that each of the participants had their own ideas of what they would like to do after the pandemic is over, and I can only hope that itwill be over soon.
When we talked about "What I find strange about Japanese and foreign culture," a Japanese resident of Serbia told us that when she was paying the bill at a supermarket in Serbia, the change was calculated roughly (for example, if she paid 200 dinars for a purchase of 103 dinars, she would get 100 dinars change instead of 97 dinars.). Some people commented that this might be due to the fact that people in Serbia don't like to handle small coins, but they also talked about how it is impossible in Japan. On the other hand, Japanese senior and junior culture seems to be difficult for Serbian students to understand. Students majoring in Japanese language are aware of the hierarchical relationship between seniors and juniors through Japanese anime and manga, but they do not actually change the way they speak to their seniors and juniors at university, such as using honorific language or tentative language.
We also talked about the vaccination rate in each country and what we want to eat in autumn. The participants this time came from four countries: Japan, Serbia, China, and Hungary. I think one of the charms of online is that we can talk in real time across locations. Before the pandemic, Perapera Cafe was held at a cafe near the university, but even after starting it online, we were able to continue our activities, albeit in a small way. In a time when they have fewer opportunities to interact and chat with people, I think it was a valuable experience for the Serbian students to talk about various things in Japanese at the PeraPera Cafe. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who participated.
Other than these activity, we also shared information with the students about studying in Japan. From last fall to August this year, one student majoring in Japanese language at the University of Belgrade studied at Okayama University, and wrote a report about her experience of studying in Japan. I shared the report with the first through fourth year students at the University of Belgrade. Due to Covid-19, her experience in Japan was very limited, but even under such circumstances, she seemed to have absorbed the maximum amount of Japanese language and culture.
In the past, University of Belgrade students who returned from study abroad held face-to-face "Study abroad debriefing sessions," but now that they cannot gather at the university, we decided to share these information in the form of report. The report was written in both Serbian and Japanese so that it could be understood by first-year students who had just started studying Japanese, and it also included photos of their time in Japan. Although it is still difficult for students to study in Japan, we hope that the information from their seniors will help them feel closer to Japan.
At the end of this month, I will finish my term as a Japanese language instructor at Belgrade University and as a coordinator for the GJO Belgrade. Due to Covid-19, I had to work remotely from Japan for about a year and a half since I made an emergency return to my country last March, and I had been doing all the lessons and extracurricular activities through trial and error. During the six months I was in Serbia, I had the experience of living as a foreigner, and it made me think again about what it is to learn a foreign language and to experience a foreign culture. After I returned to Japan, I spent my days thinking what I could do when I was online and in Japan. I hope the increasing development of Japanese language education in Serbia and also hope the warm ties between Serbia and Japan go on and on.
August Activity Report
31 August 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yagi Haruka
Since this month is the summer vacation period for the Japanese major at Belgrade University, we did not hold any online events. We did not hold synchronous type events, but by using asynchronous tools, we made the following efforts to enable students to study Japanese autonomously even during the vacation, and to continue their interest in Japan.
First of all, I informed the students that the "Yomujp (Japanese Reading Dojo)" (https://yomujp.com/) was renewed at the end of July that I used to deal with in classes and the "Book club". The website, created by Kuroshio Publishers, is now available for free and contains extensive reading on various subjects, including Japanese food, history, nature and geography. There are many pictures, so I think it's easy for beginners to understand the contents. Today, it is difficult for Serbian students to go to Japan due to the pandemic, so using such a well-read website can be an opportunity to learn about the real situation of Japan from various angles.
I asked students to fill out a simple questionnaire on what article they read at the Yomujp. As a result, we received the following comment and shared it with the students (Photo 1). By reading the comments from other students, I hope that they will be inspired to read the article as well, and that students will gain insights that they could not have when reading alone.
As an activity other than reading a lot, I created a video to introduce my hobby of nagauta shamisen and shared it with students (Photo 2). The word shamisen itself is used in a textbook for freshmen at Belgrade University, 'Elementary Japanese for Academic Purposes Tomodachi Vol. 1', where there is a practice problem of using the phrase "This is a musical instrument called Shamisen." in the phrase form,. So even Belgrade students know something about the shamisen, but I wanted them to hear what it actually sounds like. In the video, I played a the nagauta "Kagamij-ishi." and the aikata “Kami-arai”. There are many types of "shamisen," such as Tsugaru shamisen and Gidayu bushi, as well as nagauta, which is mainly played in kabuki, but I would be happy if one of these types of shamisen could spark the interest of Serbian students in traditional Japanese music.
As it was summer vacation, it was a slightly different activity for GJO. I hope that students will continue to be interested in Japanese and Japan from various angles while enjoying summer.
- There are no various bridges in Serbia, so the pictures of Japanese bridge are very interesting and beautiful. (N5,”Bridge”)
- Oh, I imagined the Amami rabbit was cute, but it looks like a mouse with big ears.(N2,”Southwestern islands”)
- Looks delicious. Interesting how you prepare different breads. I would like to try different kinds of bread. (N5, “Bread”)
- I want to try a variety of udon noodles. The udon I want to try the most is Nabeyaki udon. And I think it is difficult to read Japanese addresses. (N4, “Delicious Restaurant of Udon”)
Photo 1: Students’ comments after reading the articles of "Yomujp (Japanese Reading Dojo)"
Photo 2: Introducing the Shamisen in the Video
July Activity Report
4 August 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yagi Haruka
This month, the second final exam for the Japanese major at Belgrade University was over and summer vacation has started. Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who took part in men's tennis at the Tokyo Olympics, was surprised by the sultry heat in Tokyo, but this year Serbia is having hot days every day.
This month's extracurricular activities for Japanese major were "Perapera Café " and "Tandem Study club".
Perapera Café was held in zoom from 18 o'clock to 19 o'clock on Sunday, July 11 (Japan time). There were 12 participants, including 5 native Japanese speakers (Two TUFS students and graduates, one former faculty member and two faculty members who have studied at Belgrade University), 6 native Serbian speakers (Five students major in Japanese language and one teacher at the University of Belgrade), and 1 native Chinese speaker (the university student who studied Japanese at Belgrade University).
As the classes in Japanese language majors finished their second final exams this month, there were many fourth-year students participating in this Perapera Café. Also, a Belgrade University student who is currently studying at Okayama University participated in the event for the first time in a while.
Again, we used zoom's voting function to let participants choose the topics they wanted to talk about. As a result, in the first breakout session, the topics "What I want to eat and drink on a hot day" were selected, and in the second session, the topics "Japanese and foreign cultures that I find strange" were selected.
In the first session, the group I attended mentioned curry rice and Chinese hot pot. In common with other countries around the world, people may want to eat spicy food in the summer and sweat and feel refreshed. They also mentioned iced coffee and beer as things they wanted to drink. I heard that Japanese beer is sold at a supermarket in Belgrade recently, and there were students who were familiar with Japanese beer makers.
Next, on the topic of "Japanese and foreign cultures that I find strange," we talked about the Serbian “promaja” (the legend that if you are in a place with two open windows, you will get sick) and also about the culture of the Japanese workplace, especially the hierarchical relationship.
“Tandem Study club” events were held by zoom from 18 o'clock to 19:30 on Saturday, July 24 (Japan time). There were 7 participants, including 5 native Japanese speakers (Two TUFS students and graduates, one former faculty member and two faculty members who have studied at Belgrade University), 1 native Serbian speaker (student of Japanese language at the University of Belgrade), and 1 native Chinese speaker (the university student who studied Japanese at Belgrade University).
In this topic's poll, "What I want to do this summer. What I did in summer when I was a child." and "The town I want to go to in Serbia and Japan" were selected. The vote is based on a majority of five topics, and the candidate topic is mainly suggested by a preliminary survey. The topics selected in this poll were also requested in advance by the participants.
When we talked about "What I want to do this summer. What I did when I was a child", student of our university told us that when she was a child, she often went to summer festivals held at shrines, etc., and there was also talk of omikoshi, portable shrine and Bon Odori.
And about the "The town I want to go to in Japan and Serbia ", we talked about a jazz festival in Ni?, Serbia. According to the Serbian students, some Japanese musicians participate in this festival.
In addition, during the free talk session, we discussed the vaccination situation in each country and the competition that we are focusing on at the Tokyo Olympics which just started.
As a result of the pandemic, many educational institutions around the world have gone online, allowing students to communicate with people in foreign countries from the comfort of their own homes. This kind of online interaction can be an opportunity to get real information about the country from people in the language area you are studying. Although it is still difficult to study abroad, I hope that these activities will help learners maintain their motivation to learn the language.
The 2nd GJO Coordinator Exchange Meeting was held on Tuesday, July 13. There were nine participants: Ann-san from Seoul GJO, Takada-san from Shanghai GJO, Iwasawa-san from Tam-kang GJO, Imai-san from Yangon GJO, Kubo-san from Salamanca GJO, Marco-san from Guanajuato GJO, Komatsu-san from TUFS Student Mobility Center, Tanaka-san from Office for International Affairs, and Yagi from Belgrade GJO.
This time, Komatsu-san first talked about the status of the University's dispatch and acceptance of students for study abroad, followed by a report on the recent situation from each center, and then a question and answer session. I learned a lot to to listen to very valuable story of all of the coordinators. While some offices have resumed face-to-face activities, there are many offices that continue to conduct activities online. While the situation at each country varies, there were common issues such as how to conduct events and how to gather participants. During the question-and-answer session, there was a lively exchange of information, and I hoped that connections among the coordinators would lead to better activities at each GJO office in the future.
June Activity Report
30 June 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yagi Haruka
This month, the University of Belgrade's Japanese major had its first final exam. The classes were held all online this semester, but the exams were held face-to-face at the university. I am still in Japan, and I was in charge of preparing the exam questions. For the time being, I was relieved to hear that the first exam was finished safely, but the second exam will be held at the beginning of next month.
This month's extracurricular activities for Japanese major were "Perapera Cafe" and "Book Club".
Perapera Café was held by zoom from 18:00 to 19:00 on Sunday, June 20 (Japan time). There were 11 participants in total: 8 native speakers of Japanese (TUFS students and graduates who have studied at the University of Belgrade, two Japanese nationals in Serbia, One person from JICA, one former teacher and two teachers), 2 native Serbian speakers (one faculty member from the University of Belgrade and One student majoring in Japanese from Karlovci Grammar School), and one native Chinese speaker (She used to study at the University of Belgrade and is currently studying Japanese.).
Again, we used zoom's voting function to let participants choose the topics they wanted to talk about. The selected topics for the first breakout session were "What I want to do during summer vacation" and for the second session were "How to relieve stress."
When we talked about how to relieve stress, one of the students said he uses YouTube videos to exercise at home. Some people said, “While there are many people who lack exercise in both Japan and Serbia due to Covid-19, it would be good for physical and mental health to exercise with the help of videos.” After that, we talked about what kind of YouTube channel is good and how often we do exercises. In the questionnaire afterwards, some of the participants suggested that it would be fun to do exercises together while watching the video at the next Perapera Cafe. As a new initiative, I hope to incorporate it into future activities.
All three extracurricular activities ―Perapera Cafe, Tandem Study Club and Book Club―require participants to complete a follow-up questionnaire. As the number of activities has increased and the number of responses to questionnaires has also increased, this month we compiled comments from people who have come to the café so far (Photo 2-3). This was also shared with University of Belgrade students majoring in Japanese. I hope that students who have not participated in the café before will be more interested in the activity after reading this comment.
The Book Club was held from 18:00 to 19:00 on Saturday, June 26 (Japan time). There were five participants: three students (all freshmen) and two teachers from University of Belgrade.
After first checking the rules of reading, I introduced the website "Hirogaru" (https://hirogaru-nihongo.jp/) as today’s recommendation. Various aspects of Japanese culture are introduced in videos, photographs and articles. Among them, after watching a video interview with a calligrapher, we read an article about Fudepen. Among the students who participated, there were some who often used the brush pens they bought at art stores, showing a strong interest in calligraphy.
Next, teachers and students worked in small groups in the break out rooms. This time, as a new experiment, we asked students which websites and YouTube channels they would like to see in the Book club in the preliminary survey. The students in the group I participated in requested "Tiki's Kitchen Tiyana Serbian Cuisine" (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1ZD5tmkDzsCazBf0xaOtqg) and "Anime/Manga no Nihongo" (https://anime-manga.jp/en/), so I looked at these two sites. First, we watched a video of Tiki's Kitchen on how to make "Paratchinke," a Serbian crepe. Paratchinke is a national snack in Serbia, so students often make it at home, and they talked about what kind of jam they put in it.
After that, we saw a page that introduced role words in "Anime/Manga no Nihongo." Here, the expressions by each character such as boy, girl, samurai, steward, grandfather and Osakajin (person from Osaka) that often appear in anime and manga are introduced. Each expression can be spoken by voice actors as well as written characters, so the students seemed to enjoy listening to voice actors. There are few opportunities to deal with role words in elementary classes, but students may have daily exposure to it outside of class through anime and manga. Through this website, I think they could confirm again that there are variations depending on the character in Japanese.
Finally, we all gathered together again and talked about what we read in each group and what kind of words we had learned. Another group of students commented that they had read an article about music lessons at an elementary school in Japan from "Hirogaru", and compared it to an elementary school in Serbia. It is also unique to zoom's synchronized event that participants can interact with each other in Japanese and English right after reading or watching videos. Now that online classes are all over the place, it may be more necessary to read books while communicating with friends and teachers, rather than just reading by themselves.
- I want to improve my Japanese soon. I'm waiting for the next meeting.
- I am very happy to have the opportunity to participate in the online PeraPera Cafe first. I am also looking forward to the next Perapera cafe.
- I liked it when we talked about our interests.
- I didn't understand the story at all, but the cafe was very good. It was fun.
Photo 2: Comments from Perapera Café visitors 1
- I didn't understand many anime and movies you taught me, so the screen share was very useful.
- They often talked about anime and manga, so I enjoyed listening to them.
- The Serbs I spoke to yesterday were very good at Japanese. You can make a lot of mistakes, so I want beginners of Japanese to participate.
- Since I participate in it in my mother tongue, I enjoy it comfortably. It's great to see you regularly have this opportunity to chat online, even if we don't go out and interact with people often.
Photo 3: Comments from Perapera Café visitors 2
May Activity Report
31 May 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yagi Haruka
This month, this year's Japanese Language Program at University of Belgrade is over. From now on, the examination period will start. The University of Belgrade has a rather unusual system that allows students to take multiple final exams from June to September. Teachers are busy preparing exams and students are busy studying for them.
This month, we had a midterm exam for the Japanese major, so we only held the "Book club" for extracurricular activities.
The Reading Party was held at zoom from 18 o'clock to 19 o'clock on Sunday, May 30 (Japan time). This time, Prof. Wataru Takahashi, a former Japanese language instructor at Belgrade University, participated as a guest. (Prof. Takahashi graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and started the Book Club at University of Belgrade. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Kanda University of Foreign Studies Special Course for Foreign Students.) The other participants were two students (Both are first year students) and two teachers, a total of five people.
This time, I first checked the rules of reading, and then introduced a picture book called "Tappu no Sato" as "Today's Recommendation". One of the features of this book is that it contains many Japanese onomatopoeias. Even if it is difficult to understand the content only with letters, it will be easier to guess the meaning of onomatopoeia by reading it together with the impressive picture in the work.
Next, I introduced a YouTube channel called DELISH KITCHEN. This is what Mr. Takahashi taught me, and there are videos of recipes of various dishes. The actual video of cooking was subtitled in Japanese and I think it was easy for beginners to understand the content.
After that, it was divided into two breakout rooms, and students and teachers worked in pairs. In the group I joined, we first watched a video of exercise to relieve stiff shoulders from Marina Takewaki's channel as an introduction to YouTubers that are currently popular in Japan, and exercised with students. This video shows you a simple three-minute sedentary exercise. In Japanese subtitles, there are words of encouragement even for people who are not good at sports. This kind of casual Japanese is rarely taught in elementary classes, but for students, reading Japanese instructions and exercising with encouragement is a new experience.
After that, I read Level 3 "Wonderful Things I Feel" from Free Reading, a multilingual NPO. This book was written by a foreign student from China on the theme of something he had wondered about in Japan. The student I was in charge of had studied in Japan when the student was a high school student, so I went on reading books while talking about what it was like for students. The book introduces Japanese wearing masks even in the summer, but some participants, both Japanese and Serbian, said they had never worn masks before the coronavirus pandemic.
Finally, we got together and talked about what we read and watched in each group and what kind of story it was. The other group watched a video of a Japanese old story, and it became a topic that the story of "Usagi to Kame" also exists in Serbia.
Book Club, a Japanese major at the University of Belgrade, has been active for about 10 years since Prof. Takahashi started it. Now it's online, but there are things you can do, like watching videos. Now that the class period is over, I would like to continue to devise ways to provide students with opportunities to experience the Japanese language as much as possible, so that more and more students will be able to enjoy reading Japanese.
April Activity Report
30 April 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yagi Haruka
There is less than one month left for the Japanese major class of this semester. The number of people vaccinated against Covid-19 in Serbia seems to be increasing steadily, but all Japanese majors classes are still conducted online. I continue to teach classes by zoom and videos in Japan, and recently I feel the merits of synchronous and asynchronous types. After online classes started, I started using various apps and Moodle features. While I was thankful that there were so many useful online tools, I found that even though the tools changed, what I did with the students is important, and it gave me a chance to reconsider my class.
Again this month, extracurricular activities at Belgrade University included "Perapera Cafe" "Book Club" and "Tandem Study club".
"Perapera Cafe" was held in zoom from 18 o'clock to 19 o'clock on Sunday, April 4 (Japan Time). There were 13 participants, including 7 native Japanese speakers (One TUFS student who has studied in Belgrade, one JICA official, two Japanese nationals in Serbia, one former teacher, and two teachers.), 5 native Serbian speakers (Two students from Belgrade University, two Japanese teachers from Karlovci Grammar School and one Japanese language student from Karlovci Grammar School), and 1 native Chinese speaker (A university student who studied Japanese at Belgrade University).
Again, using zoom's voting function, we asked participants to choose the topics they wanted to speak in Japanese. As a result, we decided to talk about "My hometown." in the first breakout session and "My favorite TV shows and movies" in the second.
There were many first-time participants, such as first year student at the University of Belgrade and Karlovci Grammar School teachers and students, and we asked them to introduce themselves first in the break room. There are many students who have just started to study Japanese, so it was probably quite difficult to understand the whole conversation. However, it was a good opportunity to use what they learned in class while actually communicating with native speakers of Japanese. In addition, screen sharing is also actively used in each break out room, and it may have become easier to understand the content of the conversation by obtaining not only the information by the voice of the conversation but also the information by the image.
In the questionnaire after the incident, some said that they were happy to have the opportunity to talk on a regular basis while people in Serbia and Japan were unable to go out and interact due to Covid-19. For Serbian students, the opportunity to talk to native speakers of Japanese other than teachers was valuable.
"Reading Club" was held in zoom from 18:00 to 19:00 on Sunday, April 11 (Japan Time). There were five participants: three freshmen students from University of Belgrade and two teachers. On this day, another teacher recommended a video. After watching a video of Misuzu Kaneko reading "Me, A sound bird, A bell," from 'YUMEARU' (https://www.yumearu-ehon.com/stories/1238/), we watched a video in the dialect of Senzaki in Yamaguchi Prefectre from 'NHK for School' (https://www2.nhk.or.jp/school/movie/bangumi.cgi?das_id=D0005150325_00000). I don't usually teach Japanese dialects, especially in elementary classes, but in extracurricular activities like this, by comparing the two videos, I think it became an opportunity to learn that there are many variations in Japanese.
After that, we were divided into two groups (A group of one student and one teacher) and three groups (A group of two students and one teacher). In the group I participated in, I first read the easiest level 0 book from the NPO Multilingual Reading 'free reading' (https://tadoku.org/japanese/free-books/), but then I read only the first page of the level 5 book because I received a request from a student saying "I want to see only one page of the hardest level book.". For freshmen who have just started studying Japanese, level 5 books were very difficult, but because kanji also has furigana, there are some parts that they can understand So the goal of "learn to read level 5 books" may be one of the motivations for future learning.
Next, from 'Japanese in Anime and Manga' (https://anime-manga.jp/en/), we read manga introducing Japanese expressions in schools and talked about the differences in the customs of schools in Japan and Serbia. Also, many Japanese onomatopoeias appear on this site. I rarely teach onomatopoeia in regular classes, but I think students could understand the scenes where the word is used by visual information of manga, and then guess the meaning of the onomatopoeia from the actual sounds (the actual sound expressed by onomatopoeias such as the sound of the wind or the sound of school chimes) that can be heard by clicking on the onomatopoeia part.
After that, we gathered together again as a whole and talked about what we read in each group, what kind of story it was, and newly learned words. I think that it was a good experience not only to input Japanese but also to practice to output Japanese by telling students and teachers in other groups about the books and videos they read.
"Tandem Study Club" was held in zoom from 18:00 to 19:30 on Saturday, April 24 (Japan Time). The 11 participants consisted of 5 native Japanese speakers (One TUFS graduate who studied at University of Belgrade, one Japanese living in Serbia, one former teacher, and two teachers.) and 6 native Serbian speakers (Four undergraduate students, one PhD student from University of Belgrade, and one Japanese teacher from Karlovci Grammer School).
Once again, participants were asked to choose the topics they wanted to talk about, and in the Japanese time poll, "My favorite anime, manga and music" and in the Serbian time poll, "Recommended way to study Japanese and Serbian" were selected. During the first breakout session, the group I attended talked about Japanese anime on Serbian television. Moreover, it is said to be a dubbed version of Serbian. Even in Serbia, many students seem to have an interest in Japan and Japanese because they saw a dubbed version of Japanese anime when they were children.
Recently, the fact that many people in Serbia and Japan go for walks and hikes has also become a topic of conversation as pandemic continues. As a result of Covid-19, daily life in Serbia and Japan has changed significantly, but I learned that participants are spending their time with their own ideas. Given the difficulty of traveling abroad, it would be great if this kind of online interaction can help to keep people motivated to learn each language.
