Educational Collaboration with the Republic of Serbia Brings New Serbian Language Course to OU!

In recent years, Serbia and Japan have rapidly built a close relationship in a variety of areas such as culture, education, and government.

Entrusted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia and the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade in Serbia, Osaka University’s Graduate School of Language and Culture, looking to take advantage of the positive environment that the two nations have created, will be holding Serbian language courses from Fall 2019.

This course will allow OU students to interact directly with Serbian language and culture and, at the same time, allow instructors to collect data on the characteristics of native Japanese speakers in order to explore what kind of linguistic and cultural differences need to be comprehended to foster a mutual understanding between Japan and Serbia.

In the last academic year, the Graduate School of Language and Culture invited Dean Ljiljana Marković and Associate Professor Divna Tričković of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade to Osaka University on a cross appointment system. This has led to the opening of the new course, with support from Prof. Majima Junko and Professor FUJIWARA Katsumi of the Graduate School of Language and Culture.

Incidentally, on request from the Association of Japanese Language Teachers in Europe (AJE), Prof. Majima delivered a keynote address on the first day of the AJE 2019 Symposium, held from August 29~31, 2019.

Held at the University of Belgrade, the symposium attracted nearly 200 participants, ending on a high note. Some scenes from the final day of the symposium as well as interviews of related individuals were broadcast on Serbia’s Prime News television program. You can view a clip of the program at the link below.

http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/125/drustvo/3649202/u-osaki-ce-biti-otvoren-cen (link in Serbian)