1st March, 2013

In Japan, taking up voluntary work in various fields is a very common and important aspect of the society. As volunteers, people work in elderly care homes, medical homes and teaching etc.

The Edogawa Sogo Jinsei University conducts adult education classes. In order to gain credits to pass each level, the students need to do various voluntary jobs including teaching. They employ various informal teaching methods in order to make the classes more interesting and thought-provoking.

The students of the Edogawa Sogo Jinsei University have formed a club of 25 members, called, "Aiueo no Kai" for such activities. All the members of this club meet every week to discuss various voluntary teaching activities to be undertaken in future.

Keeping in view the difficulties sometimes faced by the non-native Japanese language students, GIIS Tokyo often invites volunteer teachers from the Edogawa Sogo Jinsei University, Shinozaki, Japan and other nearby schools and educational establishments.

Students learning Japanese as second and third language at GIIS Tokyo Campus are not all at the same level. So, each class has been divided into 4 or 5 levels. It becomes difficult for the teachers to manage such sub-groups. With the help of voluntary teachers individualised attention to all the students is accomplished. Five volunteer teachers from the Edogawa Sogo Jinsei University were invited by the school for teaching Japanese kanji to the students. Ms Umezawa, the leader of the "Aiueo no Kai" club, conducted the class in Grades 6 and 8. She was assisted by Ms Hatayama, Mr Chiba, and others. The class was observed by the school Principal and the Japanese teachers as well.

The topic for the class was "Learning Japanese Kanjis through stories". The students as well as the teachers enjoyed the teaching methodology implemented by the volunteer teachers. It was a very informal way of teaching.

Ms Rajeshwary Sambathrajan, Principal GIIS Tokyo Campus, and the staff thanked all the visiting volunteer teachers for their dedication and commitment towards their work.