In this Maharashtra village, children speak Japanese

A fascination for robotics and technology has pushed students of a Zilla Parishad-run school in a remote village of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district to learn Japanese. Gadiwat village, located 25km from Aurangabad city, may not have access to good roads and other necessary infrastructure, but Internet connectivity has proven to be a boon for children studying at the local Zilla Parishad school.

In September last year, the government-run school decided to launch a foreign language programme, under which students from Classes 4 to 8 were asked to choose a language they would like to learn. “Surprisingly, most of them said they were interested in robotics and technology and were keen to learn Japanese,” Dadasaheb Navpute, a secondary teacher at the school, told PTI.

Despite having no proper course material and professional guidance for teaching Japanese, the school administration managed to gather information from videos and translation applications on the Internet, he said. However, the school has now roped in Sunil Jogdeo, an Aurangabad-based language expert, who has been conducting Japanese classes for free.