Local Youth
Anbi Yamamoto
In July 2024, I had temporarily returned to Kochi from the U.S. to participate in the JICA Nikkei training program as an interpreter, and on August 3, 2024, I was in three cars with four local youth and JICA Nikkei trainees from Brazil and Colombia to visit an emekinzo and carp farm in the central eastern part of Kochi Prefecture.
Everyone was impressed and moved by the explanation that “the size of the carp depends on the size of the tank in which they are farmed and how they are raised,” and that they started the carp farming in the hope that young people would return home and make a living in the carp farming business in the future.
At the Ekinzo, the visitors seemed to be intrigued by the explanatory text and short video, while listening to the explanations of the commentators and developing an image of Japanese yokai.
It was an unforgettable one-day drive that served as an unforgettable training program for both the trainees and us to understand the local community.
Hisaki Yoshiba
On November 23, 2024, as a local youth, I led JICA trainees from the Cambodian educational administration to the Kochi Castle History Museum, Kochi Castle, Hirome Market, Harimaya Bridge, and Kochi Yosakoi Information Exchange Center.
I also participated in a training course at Kochi University's Faculty of Education on the topic of gender, and was amazed at their leadership skills and ability to organize. Their characters are enthusiastic, earnest, and friendly. Many of them had experience studying abroad, and about half of them could speak English.
Mr. Khai, a Cambodian lawyer who also acted as an interpreter for us as a training administrator, was also good at making puns in Japanese. He also taught me the secret to learning a foreign language, saying, “It is important to keep learning a foreign language through interesting word play. When I repeatedly used the word “samui” (cold), he told me that in Khmer it is called “ulgiena.
Two weeks later, on December 8, I led a group of Cambodian youth participating in SSEAYP (Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program) around Kochi City. I immediately had the opportunity to use the word “Urgiena” and realized how fun it is to speak a foreign language. Through these two programs, including the 8-day SWY program I participated in this past February, I am happy to be able to enjoy international exchange as a local youth in Kochi.
Rina Tanaka
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On December 5, 2023, I participated in a one-day seminar with trainees participating in JICA's issue-based training program “Improvement of Education in Remote Areas - for the Achievement of the SDGs”, I was on the same team with trainees from the Philippines and Kiribati, and we had a discussion on the topic of “How to deal with problem behaviors of students.
In the group, we discussed the following topics: “Principals, who are the leaders of schools, and teachers and staff who are in charge of the field need to build good relationships and trust with each other before sharing information and dealing with children, students, and their parents. The group also expressed the opinion that “a new educational system needs to be established, for example, by organizing a team of experts in the field of child psychology, etc.” These opinions were meaningful to me as a future teacher.
Schools, which are the site of education, cannot achieve good results without the cooperation of many people. For this reason, I thought that the most important thing is to communicate face to face, even in small matters.