Visiting the University of Leeds and the University of Bonn
From October 31 to November 5, two lecturers from the Department of Language Education at the Center for Globalization visited the University of Leeds (U.K.) and the University of Bonn (Germany). These universities have undergraduate and graduate programs in Japanese Language and Culture as well as institutes of Japanese studies. Every year 3 to 5 students from these universities study at our university as exchange students.
The main purpose of the visits was to collect information on the course contents in Japanese language education in order to improve our curriculum to best fit the needs of the exchange students from these universities.
During the visit they observed beginning- to advanced-level Japanese conversation and grammar classes as well as Japanese literature and history classes. In both universities, great efforts were being made to increase the overall Japanese-language ability of the students by encouraging them to use Japanese for communication.
The visiting team from Kumamoto University exchanged views on various aspects of Japanese-language education and have built deeper cooperation with the concerned faculty members at the University of Leeds and the University of Bonn.
