This course was led by my predecessor Mr. Nagamine in 2019‚ but was put on ice for roughly two years as COVID-19 infections became widespread in Japan.

From the very start‚ the language used in this course has been Vietnamese‚ the participants’ mother tongue. From the perspective of the participants‚ this is an excellent thing as they can fully understand the content of the training since the textbook and explanations are all in their native language. However‚ this was my first experience of leading a course in Vietnamese so creating the textbook and training evaluation chart was a real struggle.

Another difficulty was that I needed to communicate through an interpreting coordinator during discussions about action plans so I could grasp what the participants were thinking of doing. Not only was it very time-consuming‚ I was worried that I could never be certain whether the interpreter had accurately conveyed the participants’ intentions.

The participants were sent on the course as representatives of their respective organizations‚ so I can understand them wanting to implement as many actions as possible. However‚ I wanted them to use their judgment and draw up action plans that focused on items that really could be implemented‚ and I do not think they fully understood that. I think one reason was that the short duration of the training course meant there was not much time for discussions.

In any case‚ I was painfully aware how much easier it is for the course leaders when the training is in English‚ allowing us to gain a rough understanding through discussions of what the participants want their action plans to do.