NEWS
ICU students served as volunteer interpreters at the 23rd Africa Educational Research Forum
Update: April 24, 2019
The 23rd Africa Educational Research Forum was held at ICU on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 where ICU students served as volunteer interpreters.
As many as 120 researchers, practitioners, and graduate students came to gather from various parts of Japan and made 37 presentations on education in Africa. Among 37 presentations, 11 oral presentations were made in Japanese. We prepared five tables for Japanese-English interpretation where our students interpreted the Japanese presentations into English for non-Japanese speakers, most of whom were graduate students from sub-Saharan Africa. Volunteer interpreters studied the abstracts of presentations and sincerely and enthusiastically worked on simultaneous interpretation during the presentations so that non-Japanese speakers could follow the presentations. A few volunteer interpreters were those who went to Kenya last summer to participate in the Service-Learning Program*, while others were interested in education and development in Africa, or simply wanted to contribute to the society by using their language skills.
As a result of their contribution, the number of questions posed by non-Japanese speakers on Japanese presentations increased and the forum activated the dialogue between the Japanese and African participants. Student volunteer interpreters also participated in the academic forum for the first time, serving and learning as a volunteer, and obtained a wonderful opportunity to make themselves acquainted with researchers and practitioners in education in Africa.
*Service-Learning is an educational platform that provides practical and reciprocal learning opportunities for students. Participants will volunteer in a community service of their choice for a given period.
Photographer: Soya Kanemaru (ICU student)
