Advertorial | JICA volunteers boost Japanese language education at UWI

Grace Perez is an instructor and coordinator of the Japanese Language Programme at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus (UWI).

She has extensive experience working with JICA volunteers.

Ms Perez and JICA volunteer, Ms Mikiko Takeda, will be working together to support the Japanese Language Programme at UWI.

From its humble beginnings as a non-credit, lunchtime programme with only a few students in 1995, the Japanese Language Programme at the UWI has seen significant growth.

Today, more than 100 students have the option of pursuing Japanese as a minor each semester.

The support of JICA has been indispensable to the success and growth of the programme.

The first JICA volunteer was dispatched to UWI in 1996 and since then a total of 17 have come to the UWI over the years.

Most outstanding among the volunteers that have come to UWI is Ms. Iijima, who first came to Jamaica in 2004.

After her two-year tenure as a JICA volunteer, she went home to Japan and then returned to Jamaica, and to UWI as a full-time instructor, where she welcomed JICA volunteers in her new capacity as a local faculty member.

JICA volunteers enhance the cultural exposure that students of Japanese experience.

In the past, volunteers have invited up to eight of their JICA colleagues to visit a single class and participate in activities where students get to experience cultural and lingual immersion without leaving Jamaica.

The JICA volunteer is also instrumental in planning events such as the annual Japanese Speech Contest that showcases the skills of our Japanese Language learners.

Dr Teresa Villoria, Head of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, recognises the impact of the contribution made by JICA volunteers.

As UWI requires more of its students to study foreign languages in preparation for a world that seems to get smaller every day, Dr Villoria looks forward to the continued strengthening of the relationship between JICA and UWI.