Ikuno Komorebi Kindergarten in Osaka has opened extra tutoring classes for children of immigrant families, mainly Vietnamese, so that they do not fall behind when they enter elementary school.
Every Monday morning, Ikuno Komorebi Kindergarten in Ikuno Ward, Osaka, spends 30 minutes tutoring children who have difficulty communicating in Japanese, with about 10 students participating, practicing basic pronunciation and other lessons.
This classroom was converted from a girls' locker room to serve the new curriculum that will be implemented from spring 2023. Ms. Keiko Tsujimoto, the school's 72-year-old principal, emphasized the importance of Japanese in the preschool curriculum, helping children prepare for elementary school.
Many of her students are children of immigrants, mainly from Vietnam, whose parents do not have the means to teach them Japanese. Without government support, she worries they could be left behind. "If this continues, they will not be able to adapt when they reach elementary school and will drop out," Tsujimoto told the Mainichi .
Vice Principal Daisuke Hironaka teaches Japanese to kindergarten children at Ikuno Komorebi School in Osaka. Photo: Kyodo
When the Mainichi reporter visited, five-year-old students sat at tables eating pho, chatting animatedly in Kansai dialect. "It's 'Vietnamese udon,'" one child exclaimed. "I've had this before back home," another replied.
Three years ago, the number of Vietnamese students studying at Ikuno Komorebi increased dramatically. Rents in Ikuno Ward are relatively cheap. The area also has many factories and workshops, attracting many Vietnamese workers, and there is also a Japanese language school for foreign students.
Of the 98 kindergarteners at Ikuno Komorebi, nearly half are Vietnamese, with the rest coming from China and Korea. Many parents speak to their children in their native language, so their ability to understand Japanese tends to be slow. This becomes a big challenge for them before they enter elementary school.
Many children fail to keep up in their first days of elementary school, develop an inferiority complex and easily lose their roots, principal Tsujimoto explained.
Students eat pho at Ikuno Komorebi Kindergarten in Osaka, Japan. Photo: Mainichi
Teachers also try to find suitable Japanese teaching methods for young students. In Japanese class every Monday morning, students use handwritten picture cards with Vietnamese characters as learning tools.
“We have to search for answers every day,” said Daisuke Hironaka, 30, vice principal and Japanese language teacher.
In early 2023, the school recruited Trinh Thi Huyen Trang, 23 years old, a former Vietnamese international student, as a childcare assistant. Trang graduated from a Japanese language school affiliated with the kindergarten. In addition to childcare and translation, Trang also acts as a bridge between parents and the school, providing information about their children's situation and necessary documents.
"The hardest part is when they're sick," said Trang, who is working toward certification as a preschool teacher.
Principal Tsujimoto believes it is natural for Japan to have a responsibility towards the foreign community, as this group provides a needed workforce in the current demographic crisis.
"Japanese life cannot survive without foreign workers in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. We hope society will accept foreigners and their children as permanent residents and increase support for them," she said.
Duc Trung (According to Mainichi )
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