NHK announcer and Chinese instructor Bungyou Dan believes learning about the culture and history of a country can help develop language skills, particularly when it comes to her mother tongue. So perhaps a visit to the Tokyo National Museum to see the ¡°Terracotta Army¡± would be a good place to start?
¡°Yes, definitely,¡± says the Tianjin-born TV personality. ¡°I¡¯ve never been to Xian so I really want to see the statues for myself. It also might motivate people to learn more about China and maybe study the language. I think before focusing on grammar and vocabulary it¡¯s a good idea to first find out about a country¡¯s past, traditions or even things like food. Having a point of interest makes things easier. I¡¯ve always been into manga and this has really helped with my Japanese. It¡¯s a much more fascinating way to study than just using a textbook, which can be quite boring.¡±
Dan, who recently appeared in the Masafumi Kuroda film ¡°Baka-Doron,¡± first came to Japan in 2009 and two years later enrolled in a journalism course at Waseda University. Around the same time she also started working as a presenter and instructor for a Chinese-language program on NHK; a show on which she still regularly features.
She won¡¯t tell us her age (she says it¡¯s around 30), but she has already released a study book titled ¡°Hajimete no Chugokugo¡± (¡°Chinese for Beginners¡°), and since graduating earlier this year has been working as a teaching assistant at Waseda University.
¡°It gives me such a buzz seeing Japanese people speak Chinese and then telling me they want to visit my homeland,¡± Dan says. ¡°I know relations between the two countries aren¡¯t good, but I really hope that can change in the future. We have a lot of differences, but in many ways we¡¯re also very similar.¡±
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