The Yamawaki Seminar of the School of Global Japanese Studies held a “Yasashimin Workshop” on September 15, 2024, for people involved in Nakano Ward's community associations and neighborhood associations to learn plain Japanese (Yasashii Nihongo), and a “Plain Japanese Plaza (Yasashii Nihongo Hiroba)” on October 11, also for people involved in community associations and neighborhood associations and foreign residents to interact using plain Japanese. Both events were held at “Nakanova,” an event space on the first floor of the Nakano Ward Office, which opened in May of this year.
By providing an opportunity to review considerations in information transmission and communication in the local community through cross-cultural understanding and problem-solving using “plain Japanese”, we aim to contribute to the formation of a society that is friendly to everyone from the community association and neighborhood association level,
By holding the workshop in the open space of the ward office, which supports the lives of all ward residents regardless of nationality or culture, we believe that each person can think about different cultures as a member of the community.
14 people from community and neighborhood associations attended the “Yasashimin Workshop,” which included 12 seminar students. “Yasashimin” refers to citizens who use plain Japanese to create a livable society.
The Yamawaki Seminar held workshops on Japanese for local government officials, school students and teachers, and business people since FY 2018 so far, but this was the first time to hold for people involved in community and neighborhood associations. The first half of the workshop was consisted of a general lecture, and in the second half, seminar students joined groups of two or three as facilitators to work on practical paraphrasing and rewriting of plain Japanese on the theme of disaster prevention. Participants had a very active discussion during the group work. The event was also featured on Nakano Ward's cable TV news.
The “Yasashii Nihongo Hiroba” was co-sponsored by the Yamawaki Seminar and Nakano Ward, with the aim of promoting exchanges between foreign residents and people involved in community associations and neighborhood associations in Nakano Ward, and promoting multicultural community development. Participants included 13 people from the community association, 14 foreign residents, and 6 seminar students. The event was held in 5 groups of 5 or 6 people. At the beginning of the seminar, an explanation of plain Japanese, and tips on how to say things in Japanese were given. After that, as an ice-breaker, each group introduced themselves and played a game called “YASANICHI KARUTA” to get them acquainted with plain Japanese. After deepening their understanding of plain Japanese, the participants started an exchange meeting using plain Japanese. The exchange meeting was divided into three parts: the first two were about disaster prevention, and the last was a free talk. In each part, a lottery was drawn, and participants were asked to freely discuss the written topics. The first two were “typhoons” and “earthquakes,” and the last was “If you could use one magic spell, what would it be?”
I was very glad that 27 people finally participated in the event although I was worried that it would be difficult to gather participants until the last minute. I was also very nervous because it was my first time hosting an event, but thanks to the heartwarming atmosphere created by the participants, I was able to make it through to the end. I would like to thank everyone in the community who helped make this event possible. We would like to continue to contribute to the “creation of a multicultural community” through various activities.
(ISHIDA Nanami, 3rd year seminar leader)
≪Japanese version≫
