Hội An City starts Japanese education at primary schools

HỘI AN — The Culture and Sports centre of the central city of Hội An, in co-operation with the Tokyo Shirubakai Art Troupe, has opened a Japanese language and culture education project for primary school students.

Centre director Võ Phùng said the project aims to boost cultural exchanges between the young generation of Hội An and Japanese cities.

He said the first course, which started on October 24, has drawn the participation of 40 students every evening.

Primary school students in Hội An join the first course of the Japanese language education project. The 10-year project is a co-operation between Hội An city’s Culture and Sports centre and the Tokyo Shirubakai Art Troupe. — Photo Hội An’s Sports and Culture Centre

Phùng said Japanese teachers from the Tokyo Shirubakai Art Troupe will lecture on Japanese language, culture and lifestyle at the course.

The course is being offered free of charge in the city that has hosted the annual Hội An-Japanese Cultural Festival since 2003.

Links between Hội An and Japan go back a long way. Hội An city still preserves buildings built by Japanese traders over 400 years ago.

Models wearing Kimonos at the annual Hội An-Japanese Cultural Festival on the town’s Japanese Bridge. VNS Photo Công Thành

Residents of Cẩm Châu Commune, a suburb of Hội An, preserve three ancient tombs of families of Japanese traders who died in Hội An in the 17th century.

Researchers from Hội An’s Centre for Cultural Heritage Management Preservation said a stone stele in a cave in Ngũ Hành Sơn (Marble Mountains) near Đà Nẵng has an inscription of the names of five Japanese-Vietnamese families.

Hội An and Đà Nẵng are the first towns in Việt Nam to offer Japanese language education in primary schools. — VNS