Between March 23rd and April 3rd, Professor Narumi Yoshino (吉野成美), from Kindai University (近畿大学), visited the West University of Timişoara Center for East Asian Studies for the second time and held several Japanese language and culture workshops with the students of the Japanese Language and Literature Program.
The two weeks represented a unique opportunity for our students to interact with a native speaker, learn about Japan, and attend interactive, diverse, and entertaining activities Yoshino sensei prepared for them. The students learned, translated and discussed the meaning of Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル)’s famous song: Hanataba wo kimi ni (花束を君に), participated in creative writing workshops in Japanese during which they each wrote their own haiku (俳句) about their favorite season and Timisoara, among other activities.
Professor Yoshino brought traditional kimono (着物) and jinbei (甚平) for the students to try on. At the end of her visit, our students prepared short plays in Japanese and interpreted them in front of the class, wearing traditional Japanese clothing. The plays represented a great opportunity for them to practice their language skills in an enjoyable way, as they either wrote their own scripts, used scenes from Natsume Sōseki’s famous novel Kokoro, or translated scenes from their favorite movies and TV shows.
We are grateful to Professor Yoshino for the wonderful workshops and even more for her passion, kindness, and energy shown in coming to Timişoara every spring and in spending time with our Japanese Language and Literature program students. Her visit is an exciting and long-awaited event for everyone.
吉野先生、いつもありがとございます。また来てくださいね。
