I had an opportunity to visit the capital of Viet Nam, Hanoi, for the first time in mid-March.
I did mainly two things in Hanoi; one is to meet Instructors of Japanese, both native and non-native teachers of Japanese in Hanoi area, and to participate in the TOP-J Japanese Speech Contest for junior and senior high school students as one of the judges of the contest. I stayed in Hanoi from 16 to 19 March, which was rather short but I enjoyed myself fully.
From 23 to 25 March, I visited Bangkok, Thailand, with my colleagues. This time we visited some universities to promote mutual partnership.
ASEAN countries have increasing number of students studying Japanese as a foreign language. It is very nice that many Thai students who earned Masters’ or Doctorate Degrees from us have been teaching Japanese at quite a number of Thai Universities. We are proud of them.
