When he first came to Japan to study in 2013, Nguyen Dat both studied and worked, and participated in several Vietnam-Japan cultural exchange activities. Initially, he did not think he was capable of teaching Vietnamese to Japanese people, so he decided to work part-time at restaurants.
From the first learner
After his Japanese improved, Dat worked at a bakery, then became an interpreter for trainees, workers and companies.
In 2019, he graduated from Tokai University in Kanagawa Prefecture with a degree in business administration and started working for a food company. From here, he also participated in volunteer activities teaching Vietnamese for free on weekends.
A colleague of Dat introduced him to a language learning app so he could interact with more Japanese people. That was the bridge that helped him get acquainted with his first learner: a Japanese man who wanted to learn Vietnamese.
Mr. Nguyen Dat (second from right) participates in an exchange activity to learn Vietnamese and Japanese in Shinjuku district, Tokyo. Photo: PROVIDED BY CHARACTER
"At that time, I felt very touched because I met a Japanese person who expressed his desire to learn to speak Vietnamese and learn about Vietnamese culture, so I gave him free instruction," said Mr. Dat.
Seeing that this young man from Ho Chi Minh City was very enthusiastic, the "student" introduced Mr. Dat to a Vietnamese language school for Japanese people called GoWell, which was also where he had previously studied.
Mr. Dat's opportunity to teach Vietnamese to Japanese people officially began in 2021, when he moved to Tokyo to find better job opportunities and worked part-time at GoWell.
Besides helping him earn some extra income, thinking back, the reason he still maintains his job of teaching Vietnamese to Japanese people on a voluntary basis is that he wants to repay Japan for helping him grow up and forging him through challenges to develop himself.
"Thanks to this special part-time job, I understand more about Japan's education system and have a multi-dimensional perspective on how Japanese people perceive the country and people of Vietnam," he confided.
GoWell Language Center teaches many languages, in addition to Vietnamese, there are also Thai, Indonesian... The "one-on-one" teaching method requires teachers to continuously improve their knowledge, learn, and have good and attractive instructions to keep students enrolled. The center has flexible online and in-person teaching methods for both teachers and students.
An online teaching session by Mr. Dat (below) with a Japanese student at elementary level 1, preparing for a business trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Provided by the character
Creative methods
Mr. Dat's students are very diverse, from those who want to learn about Vietnamese culture, work in Vietnam to Japanese police... That partly helps him reach many students and more importantly, motivates him to have more motivation to inspire students.
He shared that meeting fellow countrymen in a foreign land was already fun, but when he met Japanese people who wanted to learn Vietnamese, he was even more moved and happy.
Understanding the difficulty of Japanese people in learning and pronouncing Vietnamese, the 33-year-old man cleverly combines Vietnamese with music. Most Japanese people learning Vietnamese need to come to Vietnam for a short time, so the course usually lasts a few weeks or a few months, with the general goal of ensuring that students can communicate at a basic level.
Depending on the students, whether they are police officers, trainee managers, or Japanese people who want to work in Vietnam, Mr. Dat has different teaching methods - not only vocabulary, grammar, and intonation, but also culture for each specific case.
What makes Mr. Dat happiest and most touched is seeing his students, some of whom are over 60 years old, studying Vietnamese very diligently. He recalls a memory of an elderly man calling him and saying: "Mr. Dat, I have practiced writing a lot and even pasted vocabulary in the bathroom so I can memorize it."
Mr. Dat feels that when teaching Vietnamese, he not only teaches the language but also inspires, shares difficulties, and cultural differences between people of the two countries.
Mr. Dat wears Ao Dai, acts as a cheerleader in a Vietnam - Japan exchange activity to celebrate spring 2023. Photo: Character provided
The number of Vietnamese people in Japan has increased rapidly in recent times, so the number of Japanese people interested in Vietnamese culture has also increased. However, the demand for learning Vietnamese in Japan is not high, so there are still quite a few Vietnamese teachers here. The GoWell Center where he teaches has only 10 Vietnamese teachers.
Like Mr. Dat, these teachers are all around 30 years old and share the same desire to introduce Vietnamese culture and traditions to the Japanese people through language teaching. Not only that, teaching also helps them ease their homesickness.
"Sweet Gift"
Teaching Vietnamese is now Nguyen Dat's joy when looking back on his 10-year journey of building a career in Japan, which has been full of difficulties. It is also the "sweet gift" he wants to give to the land of the rising sun.
After teaching for about a year, Mr. Dat cherished the dream of inviting Vietnamese speakers in Japan to establish an exchange community "Japanese people love Vietnam". He is still in contact with 20 students he has guided. In the near future, he also plans to join a non-profit organization that helps connect students from the two countries, as well as universities in Vietnam and Japan.
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