For four weeks in June and July, OUS students taking "Introduction to Japanese Language Education" and "Pedagogical Seminar of Japanese Language Education" in the Faculty of Education participated in an online program with students at Rangsit University and the Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology in Thailand who are learning Japanese. Rangsit and Thai-Nichi students have few opportunities to speak Japanese with anyone other than their teachers. They have various concerns, such as whether the Japanese learned in the classroom is truly understandable and how well they speak the language, although they would like to study in Japan someday.
In the program, participants enjoyed small-group conversations in Japanese using Zoom's breakout feature. Each week they communicated on a different topic with different members. Although there were issues involving Internet reliability and students feeling nervous about talking to new people for the first time, their desire to communicate and understand each other made those issues fade into insignificance.

For Japanese language teachers, it is essential to be attentive to the cultures of the learners and to speak in a way that is easy for them to understand. After participating in the program, OUS Education students commented, "It was frustrating that I could not easily communicate in the Japanese I normally use, but I had fun communicating by using Japanese that is easy enough for the Thai students to understand," and "There were many Thai students who knew more about Japanese language and culture than I had imagined. I learned that there are things that are unnoticeable but can be clearly seen from a different perspective. I also got the impression that although they love Japanese culture, they are also very proud of their own culture, which made me, as a Japanese person, want to take pride in my own language and culture.”

To gain the knowledge and skills required of Japanese language teachers and their attitude toward Japanese learners, we would like to continue providing opportunities for exchange with Japanese language learners from overseas.