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Hello to all of our international student alumni.

My name is Hiroko Takeuchi, and I teach Japanese to international students in the Faculty of Policy Studies.

In the Japanese language courses offered by the Faculty of Policy Studies, we support our international students, who come with a wide range of Japanese proficiency levels, so that they become able to write academic reports and complete their graduation research in Japanese. Even if students have reached a good level of everyday spoken Japanese, the academic language used for writing reports and conducting research follows certain conventions. This means they must pay attention to word choice, accuracy of expression, logical structure, and overall coherence. This is truly challenging, and the students work very hard to learn Japanese.

At the same time, in recent years, smartphone apps have made translation extremely easy. Their development has been remarkable, and some applications can instantly translate words and sentences from your native language into Japanese. With such convenient tools available, it is only natural to wonder whether one really needs to go to the trouble of learning a foreign language - or whether learning it is necessary at all.

One of my research areas involves supporting communication and improving the environment between Japanese staff and foreign caregivers working in Japanese eldercare facilities. When accepting caregivers from abroad, we often hear concerns about communication. Even now, nearly 20 years after foreign caregivers first began being accepted, communication is still cited as a challenge during the onboarding process. It is not easy to ease that tension when people expect communication with others to be difficult.

For this reason, we have conducted workshops with facility staff to create opportunities to enjoy communication through various communicative activities. When communication spaces are safe and comfortable, people naturally feel encouraged to speak proactively and want to share their opinions and feelings. After these workshops, foreign caregivers became more motivated to study Japanese so they could express what they needed to say to Japanese staff. Japanese staff, in turn, began making efforts to communicate in ways that were easier for the foreign caregivers to understand.

Earlier I mentioned that, thanks to translation apps and AI, one might feel that it is no longer necessary to "struggle" to learn Japanese on one's own. It is true that accuracy of vocabulary and expressions may improve. But even if someone can use language "like a native speaker," can we really say that communication problems will disappear entirely? Think about your own experience - haven't you sometimes found it difficult to communicate even with people who share your native language?

Communication that is safe and reassuring allows both parties to deepen their understanding of each other's "intended meaning" through interaction. Although this process includes both the joys and difficulties of communication, I hope that you do not feel discouraged and instead try to enjoy it.

I hope that today, somewhere in the world, all of you alumni who once studied at Nanzan University will have many stimulating experiences using Japanese!

Hiroko Takeuchi
Faculty of Policy Studies
Nanzan University