Asami Language Services have actively participated in the education projects to make Japanese language education widely available to young learners in England regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds.

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Today, Japanese language and culture are immensely popular amongst the young generation internationally, especially because of its pop culture namely manga and animation. There are a number of large-scale Japan-themed events held in major cities such as London every year which are popular with young people.

 

However, the reality is that Japanese language education is not widely available at state-run schools outside of Japan due to their budget limitations. 

 

Asami Language Services has fully supported schools in England to set up Japanese courses via education grants: Whitefield School (2015-2017), Highbury Fields School for Girls (2015-2019), Haverstock School (2016-2018), Imperial College London (2018-2019) and the Fulham Boys School (2022-2024, online).

 

These language courses were funded by Japan-related foundations such as the Japan Foundation London and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation through their grant programmes. We have fully supported the schools to obtain the grants by making grant applications, designing the course syllabi, deciding budget plans, running the courses as well as claiming the matching grants at the end of each academic year.

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One of the main purposes for running this school project was to connect the young pupils' personal interest to formal qualifications, such as GCSE, A-level and JLPT, which will be useful for their both academic and professional paths in the future.

 

We initially started the language courses as extra-curricular courses at the above schools, yet all the schools opted to open inter/co-curricular GCSE preparation courses subsequently due to the popularity of the courses. The courses have been attended by many keen and serious learners at each school. 

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We create a variety of learning materials that are specially designed for each class (or sometimes individual learners) considering the students’ profiles and levels. We also studying into dyslexia and other reading difficulties, giving consideration for those with learning difficulties so that everyone can enjoy learning at their own pace. 

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In addition to language classes, we organise culture-related workshops so that students can fully immerse themselves into the culture through enjoyable activities such as: cooking, calligraphy, origami, music, animation and illustration.

 

We intend to continuously endeavour to look for opportunities to support young learners and make Japanese language education widely available in the future. 

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