Third- and fourth-year students from the Faculty of Education participated in the 1st HEART.FULL Expo hosted by Okayama Prefecture at the Okayama Convention Center on Sunday, July 16th. The purpose of this event was to raise awareness and take action on human rights issues throughout the prefecture as a whole, as well as to engage in human rights awareness activities in cooperation with the younger generation in the prefecture. Six organizations from four universities in Okayama Prefecture participated in the event, giving stage presentations and exhibiting booths about their efforts on various human rights issues.
Eight third- and fourth-year students majoring in Japanese language education at the Faculty of Education, Okayama University of Science, exhibited a booth about the necessity of "YASASHII Japanese," which they realized through exchange events with students studying Japanese at partner schools overseas, Japanese language support for foreign workers at companies in Okayama Prefecture, and support for students studying Japanese at the Intensive Japanese Language Program (IJLP). The students emphasized the importance of avoiding the use of Chinese words (Kango) and onomatopoeia, and speaking in short sentences with clear sentence endings (desu, masu) when communicating with non-native speakers of Japanese. The participants were able to experience communicating in “YASASHII Japanese” through the quiz and the card game.
At the booth exhibition, the students were able to convey in concrete terms how they devised ways to communicate in "YASASHII Japanese" based on their experiences gained from interacting with actual Japanese language learners, along with their classroom learning. As a result, participants from other universities commented that they "became aware of the existence of people whose need for support is difficult to be seen," "learned about 'YASASHII Japanese' for the first time," and "thought that it was possible because of the diversity of students from Okayama University of Science." A representative of an NPO also commented, "Many people can live happily if each one of us is aware of 'YASASHII Japanese' and communicates with others. I hope you will continue your activities so that many people will be aware of the importance of 'YASASHII Japanese'."