November 17, 2021, Vietnam Japan University (VJU) held an online exchange program with Minamata High School with strong support from Minamata Environmental Academia. This was the mid-term session in which VJU’s bachelor’s students teamed up with Minamata High School students to help them with the research projects on assigned topics to address environmental and educational related issues in Vietnam and Japan.
Mr. Imoto Yusuke, the English teacher of Minamata High School coordinated the mid-term session with Dr. Masashi Yamaguchi, JICA Expert, Program Development Principal Coordinator at VJU, and other Japanese professors as the panelists. VJU’s graduate students also joined the program for observation.
In the session, four groups presented their perspectives on the ongoing issues in both Vietnam and Japan. In terms of the topic of “Big city problems”, Group A firstly analyzed the air pollution situation in Tokyo and Hanoi with the fact that they are densely populated cities and have a high level of traffic. Minamata and VJU students made some suggestions for different stakeholders to reduce the emission levels in the two cities.
Air pollution in Tokyo
With the topic of “How to PR environmental policies”, Group B introduced the Minamata convention on mercury with a mission to limit the use of mercury and eliminate the mercury-related problem in environmental protection and public health. Through this session, students proposed some approaches to promote the public understanding of the convention such as creating posters between Vietnam and Japan or broadcasting documentary movies.
Minamata Convention on mercury
Regarding the educational-related issues, Group C and D respectively discussed the two topics: the solution to improve the English capacity of Japanese and Vietnamese students and the reality of bullying at schools.
As of “Educational systems difference”, students from Group C discussed the imbalance in distributing time for writing and other English skills in Vietnam and Japan, in which speaking and listening skills are sometimes neglected. Therefore, some solutions to improve these skills for Vietnamese and Japanese students were proposed.
Solutions to improve English speaking skills for both Vietnam and Japan
Bullying in school is a hot potato in Vietnam and Japan. It is difficult to recognize bullying as it is often behind the scenes and most of the victims do not know how to find professional help. In order to tackle this issue, Group D emphasized the responsibilities of stakeholders including victims, parents, schools, and bystanders, in addressing the root causes of bullying.
Bullying in school situation in Vietnam
Even though the mid-term session was conducted online with the joint presentations of students from Vietnam, Japan, Myanmar, and Hong Kong, each group was highly motivated and the panelists appreciated the contributions of Minamata and VJU students on the topics related to major issues in the world.
In 2019, Minamata Environmental Academia hosted the “Sakura Science program”, in which 3 VJU students were invited for a one-week internship in Minamata, Japan. Since 2020, VJU has conducted online programs with Minamata High School. The final presentation of the 2021 online program will be conducted in January 2022. After the Covid situation finishes, 3 or more VJU students will be fully covered for a one-week internship in Minamata by Minamata Environmental Academia.
Photo session at the end of the mid-term session
VJU MEDIA
