From April through the end of December, in partnership with the Shizuoka-Romania Friendship Association and the Kobe University of Foreign Studies (KUFS), two Romanian language courses were organized in an online and open academy format for beginners, taught by Prof. Yusuke Sumi—a linguist and director of the Japanese Cultural Center at UBB Cluj—using the method developed by Prof. Shingo Suzuki. The courses followed the structure of the Japanese academic year, which begins in April. Each course module lasted 8 months and consisted of 24 sessions/meetings. Each session lasted 90 minutes. The project proposal aimed to launch online Romanian language courses for beginners at other institutions in different prefectures or regions of Japan, in order to build a critical mass of future students for intermediate-to-advanced levels. By organizing online beginner-level courses—which currently serve as a foundation with the potential for further development by setting a precedent—the framework for a complete foreign language learning pathway within an open academy system is established: beginner (online—these two courses in Shizuoka and Kobe) and intermediate-advanced (TUFS—online and in-person). Prior to these two courses, the ICR had only supported the organization of Romanian language courses at TUFS in Japan—at the intermediate-advanced level. Next year, it is also planned to organize certification exams to assess the acquired language skills, thus completing the teaching-learning-examination cycle.
