A teacher at a zilla parishad (ZP) school in the Man taluka of Satara district, Balaji Jadhav, has successfully taught the Japanese language to 40 students from classes 1 to 4. Jadhav believes that learning a foreign language at a young age is crucial, as it opens up a world of opportunities and benefits. A detailed report regarding the same was published in the Hindustan Times
Teaching Process
Jadhav started the teaching process by playing Japanese videos to the students for two to three weeks to help them grasp some basic concepts. Once they picked up these concepts, he began showing them dialogues in Japanese, which piqued their interest. The Japanese language has three types of scripts, and Jadhav started teaching the students the Hiragana script. After they learned five to six letters of the alphabet, they started reading and writing in their spare time. By creating small words from letters, reading them, and writing small words in the Japanese script, they picked up speed. The students can now name animals, birds, months, fruits, flowers, relatives, and more in Japanese. It took them about four months to learn all this.
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Jadhav's Inspiration and Future Plans
Jadhav's own initiation into Japanese began when he started reaching out to children during the pandemic lockdown and telling them stories on the phone. Mukund Chaskar, a linguist of Indian origin from Japan, contacted him after reading the news, and offered to teach him the Japanese language for free. With this email began Jadhav’s foreign language learning and teaching journey. Jadhav has written to the Japanese consulate in India about his initiative and is waiting for a response on the process of students’ enrollment for Japanese language examinations. He plans to continue teaching different languages to his students alongside their daily studies, providing them with an edge over others in the future.
Comments from Officials and Parents
Laxman Pise, an education extension officer of the panchayat samiti, Man tehsil, praised Jadhav’s initiative and hard work in trying to bring government schools up to the level of private schools. He was amazed to see the progress of the children when he visited the school. Indira Narale, a mother of a Class 4 student, said she was happy and proud that her child could speak in Japanese. She also mentioned that no other teacher in their village had made this sort of effort.
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Benefits of Learning a Foreign Language
Jadhav believes that learning a foreign language at a young age is crucial, as it opens up a world of opportunities and benefits. Many students aim to work abroad after graduation, but their lack of knowledge of the language of the country they wish to work in limits their opportunities. Jadhav's efforts are opening up a world of opportunities for these students from rural areas and could pave the way for similar initiatives across the country.
The next academic year will see these students appear for official examinations in Japanese.
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