Virtual or non-virtual, love for the Japanese language remains the same!

The advent of the pandemic, COVID-19, has taught the world to educate, work, shop, and entertain in ways that were quite foreign to most of us before. With the background of how things have been working out around the world, one can’t help but see a very nebulous future. Nevertheless, though cities and countries may have to undergo lockdowns, passions and interests certainly can’t.

With a persevering fascination for the Japanese language, both the current as well as passed out students of JPM school continued attending language classes in the Sawaru Nihongo (Touch Japanese) Group held at the Association over the weekend, until mid-April 2020 when the Association had to close and send back the students home. However, thanks to the unswerving support of the committed volunteers who continued classes in the online mode, particularly to help the ones who had applied to appear for the globally conducted Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) scheduled in July 2020. With the worsening of the pandemic situation, the July exam in Delhi was canceled and postponed to December 2020, which again has been deferred to July 2021. 

Notwithstanding, the team of volunteers continued to teach the language in virtual classrooms using audio materials. Unfortunately, the visually challenged who require text in Braille haven’t had the access to it since hard copies of Braille text prepared, printed, and distributed internally by the Association could not be prepared and sent to the students who have moved to their remote native places.

Even with the online classes, issues like connectivity in rural areas continue to pose challenges. One of the Group’s students, Mr. Ramdas Shivhare said, “The online classes are both a boon and a bane. Those who couldn’t make it to the Association every week are now able to attend online classes, whereas, those in rural areas have not been able to join regularly due to poor network.”

Still and all, other visually impaired persons, including those who are not students/former students of JPM School have shown interest in learning the Japanese language. The Association is also considering to start online classes in basic conversation and introduction to Japanese culture and society. As and when the situation improves and it is possible to hold physical classes, Japanese Braille will also be taught.

Deepak Gupta, another student of the same group expresses his experience this way: “We not only learn this language but touch and feel it. Japanese has connected us to many wonderful people, their visionary ways of life, and the vibrant cultural landscape of Japan!”

As of now, 5 students were preparing for JLPT scheduled in July 2020.

Level 4: Ramdas Shivhare (banker), Gaurav Kumar, and Samir Khan (both students of the Delhi University)

Level 5: Nikhil Srivastava; Vidyanand and Ajay Gupta (all JPM School students).

We salute the commitment and dedication of the volunteer teachers Mrs.Naomi Furampu, Ms. Himani, Ms. Anupreet Kaur, Mr.Yogesh Dayal (based in the USA), and Mr. Kazuma Oura (student in the British School)