Far Eastern Wonders as DGS visits Oxford University
The Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese linguistics and future robotics were three topics explored during Dartford Grammar School’s visit to Pembroke College at Oxford University where students looked into potential options of further educational studies in Japanese. A group of Year 10 and Year 12 learners travelled to the university to partake and interact in seminars and presentations involving both Japanese culture and linguistics, as well as indulge in the phenomenal history and rich variety of opportunities and experiences present in an Oxford campus.
The day began with an eye-opening lecture on how Japan learns through trauma, particularly the 3/11 Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, (through anime and manga). We began to understand how Japan uses their most popular mediums to effectively represent and engage in topics that are commonly disregarded and are left untouched due to the raw emotions and feelings attached to them, giving us a new perspective into how the Japanese culture mourns and learns from past experiences.
We were also introduced to some incredible manga like Maus, by Art Spiegelmann, discussing and interpreting the Holocaust through the use of mice and cats to depict the horrors. We explored the emergence of documentary manga as well as its impact on the population in Japan in conveying these sensitive issues, an interesting comparison between the UK and our Far Eastern friends. We also spent time discussing courses and Japanese studies with current Oxford Japanese students, gathering valuable information on both the university and the doors knowing another language can open in your future.
Being integrated into the culture of Oxford University through the dining experience in the hall was striking as it really began to highlight the history and the intricate nature of not only the subject you are studying but the college campus as well. The stained-glass windows around the hall really brought the place to life and led to a deeper appreciation of the site as a whole.
After lunch, the group sat in for another lecture, this time based on robotics and the technology-filled future. We also discussed the nature of robots and whether they could ever be made human, an interesting proposition that we were still discussing on the coach home. We looked into future jobs in engineering and robotics, as well as investigating how anime portrays technology and its future effects on our lives.
Later in the day, the year groups split up, each receiving taster classes in Japanese studies at Oxford. The Year 12 group was introduced to the interesting world of Old Japanese and how it links to the modern Japanese that we learn in school. Due to the syllabic sounds of Japanese, linguistically, it was believed that rhyming did not exist. However, in recent years it has been suggested that rhyming patterns are present through different character blends. This discovery has opened up a range of possibilities for poets and artists, each one of them now attempting to utilize Japanese rhyming in literature (as the Western countries do).
Our masterclass ended with a practical activity where we ordered Japanese skewers from a yakitori (BBQ chicken) store, learning about new Japanese foods and customs along the way.
Looking back at the trip to Pembroke College, it was incredibly informative and was a great advert for both Oxford University and further Japanese studies, influencing and inspiring myself and many others in both our Japanese learning and our enthusiasm for Japanese culture and customs.
Image by © David Smith [CC BY-SA 3.0]
