Voluntary Association VILLA EDUCATION CENTER (VEC) ~ A Japanese language class for Myanmar people and other foreigners living in Japan, to learn together. ~

Restaurant Ruby (hereafter referred to as “Ruby”) is a Burmese restaurant located near Takadanobaba Station. The voluntary organization VILLA EDUCATION CENTER (“VEC”) is based at this restaurant. Mr. Kyaw Kyaw Soe, owner and a refugee himself - together with Mr. Shin Matsuo, a professor at Tokyo Woman's Christian University, and an expert in Japanese language education - launched this organization for the benefit of his fellow compatriots living in Japan. VEC conducts a wide range of activities, from Japanese language education to daily life support, in order to help Myanmar people with various situations live in Japan comfortably.
We interviewed Mr. Matsuo, the representative director of VEC, as well as graduate students of Tokyo Woman’s Christian University who are working as student members.

Japanese Language Education for Myanmar People with Various Circumstances

Mr. Kyaw Kyaw Soe came to Japan in 1991 and was granted refugee status in 1998. In addition to running Restaurant Ruby, he has helped Myanmar people who visit the community he belongs to and his restaurant to make a better life in Japan. The motivation for the birth of VEC was to create a safe place to learn Japanese for fellow Myanmar citizens who have lived and worked in Japan for a long time, but who find it difficult to connect with society due to the lack of opportunities to learn Japanese. Mr. Kyaw Kyaw Soe - and Mr. Matsuo, who echoed his ideas - launched VILLA EDUCATION CENTER (VEC) in June 2014. The classroom is located in an old apartment in Takadanobaba.
“In the beginning, participants included some who had received refugee status. Others were in the process of applying for it, others were on provisional release and, others still had complicated circumstances, such as unstable residency status. Therefore, the program was limited to Myanmar nationals only, as we wanted to create a more secure environment to study. Now, we have people from other countries joining us,” says Mr. Matsuo. The name of the organization comes from the word “VILLA,” meaning “big house,” with the image of a house where anyone can go, in addition to a place of education like a house where anyone is welcome.

Changes in the Fourth Year of activity, a Fresh Start as a Voluntary Association

In 2020, VEC was re-launched as a voluntary association introducing a constitution, board of directors, and membership system. They say there were various reasons behind this. One of the reasons for this re-start was to ensure the stability of VEC’s activities. “We were a completely volunteer-based organization from our establishment until 2020. We had fellow professional Japanese language teachers who were only being paid their transportation costs, but we thought it would be difficult to continue under such conditions,” says Mr. Matsuo. He also says another reason is that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the range of VEC’s activities. “The COVID-19 pandemic changed the quality and quantity of support apart from Japanese language classes. Until now, we have been providing support in a volunteer spirit, helping people who came to eat at Ruby, but we decided it would be difficult if we did not do it more systematically.”
As of December 18, 2022, the eighth year of the program, Japanese language classes have been held 368 times with 460 participants. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, VEC has only missed 7 or 8 sessions of Japanese language classes. And, the rest of the time, they continued to hold face-to-face sessions, ensuring proper ventilation as well as an appropriate number of participants. Mr. Matsuo says this is because VEC is a “community where people meet and communicate.”
“We feel relieved when we come here, and the Myanmar people feel relieved when they meet each other. We also enjoy chatting with fellow participants after the class.”

VEC’s strength is not just one-way teaching, but “learning from each other” as equals and “face to face”.

VEC’s Japanese language classes are offered as follows; in the mornings with “Let’s speak in Japanese” - a discussion activity in Japanese as Japanese language education for social participation – and, in the afternoons, with “Japanese language class for beginners”: in which participants learn Japanese using Japanese language textbooks. Participants pay a monthly fee of 2,000 yen and are allowed to attend either class as much or as little as they want. And, some attend both morning and afternoon classes.
The morning class, “Let’s speak in Japanese,” is “the most VEC-like part,” says Mr. Matsuo. In this class, instead of a teacher using a textbook to teach grammar one-sidedly, participants and Japanese volunteers exchange opinions in Japanese on a certain topic each week. “What we value is ‘learning from each other’. Even if the graduate students who teach in class are native Japanese speakers, it does not give them any advantage in discussions. Rather, the graduate students themselves often think and learn from people from Myanmar, China, and other countries who speak about their experiences. We have been working to teach and to be taught by each other, to think together, and to become enriched individuals,” says Mr. Matsuo. On the day of our visit, the discussion was on the topic of “racial profiling”. During the discussion, the participants also talked about their own experiences of questioning by police.

VEC Seminar, an initiative to deepen understanding of intercultural cohesion.

VEC not only offers Japanese language classes but also a variety of other projects. One of these, the VEC seminar “Intercultural Cohesion - Starting with Learning from Each Other,” is an initiative to help each participant gain a deeper understanding of intercultural cohesion as an issue for themselves. The format of the seminars varies from lecture-based to unique endeavors. “The 5th VEC Seminar for 2022”, took place on December 10, 2022. In that seminar, a workshop was held to express the problems faced by children with foreign roots as well as the people around them, in the form of a play. In this unusual program, which also incorporates a perspective of development education, participants were encouraged to not only “see” but also to “think” about the scenarios and “act” as the person involved, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding multicultural coexistence. VEC member, Ms. Yabe, who participated in the program, says, “Creating the lines yourself brings with it a lot of emotion.”
The VEC seminar consists of six sessions. The first step is to learn about the social situation on a larger scale, and then to learn the art of “listening,” followed by listening to the stories of the people concerned, and then acting in a theatrical play in order to gain a deeper understanding. Each seminar may be attended by as many as 180-200 participants, at the most.

Seek partnerships with local communities and organizations to develop activities.

The graduate and undergraduate students who are involved in VEC are all students who voluntarily joined after hearing about VEC in Mr. Matsuo’s class during their second or third year as undergraduates. “I first came to VEC to see the (Japanese language education) scene during my Japanese language education class. I wanted to know more about VEC and meet a certain person again, so I started participating in its activities,” says Ms. Goto a staff member. VEC is also a place to train future leaders of Japanese language education, like them.
We asked about the future of VEC. Ms. Nishimura and Ms. Yabe say, “What we often talk about among the student members is that we want to increase our connection with the local community. We hope to hold some events together.”
Mr. Matsuo says that he is also looking for ways to collaborate with other organizations: since their consultation services with Myanmar people in daily life support are becoming more specialized, and quite in-depth. “VEC has a limit to what we can do on our own. I believe that we can better respond to the needs of them by collaborating with other organizations that are active in their specialized fields.”
The members of VEC are continuing their activities, in order to see what they can do for the people of Myanmar who are living in Japan, while being concerned about the situation in Myanmar.

*This article is based on information available at the time of the interview. For the latest information, please contact the organization directly.