French Language Education, Switzerland, and Rousseau
Participant Profile
Takuya Kobayashi
Takuya Kobayashi
These three elements in the title are my current research themes. First, regarding "French language education," I aim to establish an efficient learning method that incorporates my own experiences, such as studying abroad and passing Level 1 of the French Language Proficiency Test.
Currently, I am focusing on creating a new type of reference book that reflects word frequency data. The results of this work include ""Furansugo Saikyō no Tsukaeru Dōshi 59"" (The 59 Most Useful French Verbs) (Surugadai Shuppansha, 2013), which specializes in verb usage, and ""Kiku dake! Yasashii Furansugo Kaiwa"" (Just Listen! Easy French Conversation) (DHC, 2014), which applies this to phrases. Both books have been well received, and the former is scheduled to become a series with "Adjective and Adverb Edition" and "Noun Edition" installments.
I also strive to quantify the results in my daily classes. For example, in the 2016 academic year, my students' achievements included 6 passing Level 2, 25 passing Pre-Level 2, 37 passing Level 3, 16 passing Level 4, and 3 passing Level 5 of the French Language Proficiency Test. Additionally, 5 students passed the examination for French Government Scholarship students. I am currently preparing a website to disseminate this kind of information.
As for "Switzerland," it was where I studied abroad. I obtained my Ph.D. in Letters with the highest distinction, summa cum laude , in Neuchâtel, a French-speaking city where many of the manuscripts of the 18th-century thinker J.-J. Rousseau, the subject of my research, are preserved.
Currently, I am interested in the history and culture of the Jura Mountains (the origin of the term "Jurassic period"), a place where Rousseau also stayed and which is known as the world center of the watchmaking industry. To also present my research findings, I had the opportunity to organize an international commemorative symposium at Hiyoshi Campus in 2014, the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Switzerland.
Incidentally, Switzerland is an amazing country that leads the world in various fields, despite being only about the size of Kyushu. For example, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016–2017, the top-rated universities in both German- and French-speaking regions are not in Germany or France, but are the institutes of technology in Zurich and Lausanne (ranked 8th and 14th, respectively). There are also Mita-kai alumni associations in Zurich and Geneva, and I still serve as the web manager for the latter!
Finally, regarding "Rousseau," I am re-evaluating his role as a botanist. In the new complete works published in Switzerland in 2012 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his birth, I used the 434 pages of Volume 11 to present and comment on all related texts for the first time in the history of Rousseau scholarship.
Rousseau, known for works such as ""The Social Contract"" and ""Emile, or On Education,"" spent much of the latter half of his life studying botany. This was not merely a hobby or a form of escapism; his activities truly resembled those of a "botanist," as evidenced by his interactions with experts like Linnaeus and Jussieu, and his writing of a terminological dictionary and introductory books.
On the other hand, it is also conceivable that his habits as a botanist—such as observing fine details and grasping structures and systems for classifying plants—became a source of inspiration and motivation for writing ""Confessions,"" which is considered the prototype of autobiographical literature. Indeed, this work was intended to minutely analyze his own actions and psychology and to clearly present the fundamental principles that run through the whole. In our modern age, where we tend to confine ourselves to our respective areas of expertise, is it not very important to occasionally encounter such examples of resonance that transcend disciplinary boundaries?