Japanese language program partnership launched
Education through Communication for the Community (ECC), Nihongo Japanese Blended Learning Program, a life-long learning institution has teamed up with the University of Perpetual Help System Dalta (UPHSD) to provide a Japanese language program in the country.
Officials of University of Perpetual Help System Dalta and ECC Foreign Language Institute joined links in a contract signing held recently at B Hotel, Quezon City.
Toshimi Izumi, ECC general manager of new product development; Anthony Jose Tamayo, UPHSD president; Dr. Daisy Tamayo, UPHSD co-founder/vice-chairman/ chief executive board; Masahiro Hanafusa, ECC executive vice president; Noriaki Okamura, ECC general manager of new product development and Dr. Alfonso Loreto, school director of UPHSD Las Pinas Campus sat down for the memorandum of agreement between the two institutions.
The educational contents provided by ECC, known as the “UPHSD-ECC Nihongo Program,” involve a combination of e-learning materials, mobile educational tools, and classes that employ ECC’s Japanese educational method. By offering this as one of UPH’s extension programs, it is hoped that students, especially those who wish to work or study in Japan, or find jobs with Japanese companies in the Philippines, will be able to further their Japanese language abilities effectively within a short period of time.
To make the e-learning program even more effective, a once-a-week class in English by a Filipino teacher of Japanese is included, giving students a chance to fully internalize what they have learned. This style of program can be offered at a lower cost compared to conventional Japanese-taught courses.
As a result of a larger number of Japanese companies expanding their operations into
other countries, as well as a decrease in labor forces in Japan’s leading domestic companies to hire more foreign workers.
In recent years, interest in Japanese language studies has risen in many Asian countries, most specially here in Philippines, as is evident by the annual increase in test-takers registering for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
The Philippines saw a record 14,062 people register for the test in 2017 (a 21 percent increase over the previous year), many of whom are studying Japanese to be able to work in Japan or get promoted within a Japanese company.