earticle

영어

In South Korea, there is always a certain number of children from Japanese-Korean international marriage families. Most of them usually attend local schools or international schools. There are not many places for these children to learn Japanese language and culture, which is the mother tongue and culture of their parent(s), and it is left to families and voluntary groups. Busan-Japan Village is an organization formed by parents that started its activities in 2012 to teach the Japanese language and culture to children from Japanese-Korean international marriage families. From 2012 to 2019, kindergarten and elementary school children gathered regularly for activities. However, due to Covid-19, they had to suspend their activities in 2020. After that, they continued to work online in 2021 and 2022, and in 2023, they became in-person and online activities. When Covid-19 brought various activities online, some children left Busan-Japan Village while others continued to participate. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire and interview survey of five parents who had participated in Busan-Japan Village activities before Covid-19 and continued to participate online after Covid-19 to clarify what online activities were like for the participants. The results showed that even though Covid-19 did not allow them to return to Japan as often as before, they were satisfied that their children could have an environment where they could use Japanese regularly and connect with peers in similar circumstances while in South Korea. In addition, events making use of the children's strength other than regular activities served as a place to enhance their sense of self-affirmation. In 2023, there are both offline and online classes, and the range of activities has been expanded, such as Japanese international students from Busan University of Foreign Studies joining as teaching assistants. What the participants expect from the Busan-Japan Village, whether in person or online, is “an environment where children can use Japanese” and “connections with other participants in similar circumstances”. In the future, Busan-Japan Village aims to continue their activities and support more children of Japanese-Korean international marriage families to inherit the Japanese language.