“One of the biggest surprises we saw during the pandemic, students enrolling from marginalised backgrounds and rural areas, there were no barriers.”
By Sushmita Dey
Over the years, Chennai has seen the highest spike in people learning East Asian languages such as Japanese, Korean and Mandarin apart from the traditional foreign languages.
It all started in 1997, ever since the auto giant company Hyundai opened its first factory near the city. Right now, Chennai has the largest South Korean community in India, says Nandini Menon, teaching and information at InKo Centre.
Similarly, Arun Kumar, director at Tokyo Trust, said, “Due to mechanical and automobile companies, we’ve seen an uptake in business professionals reaching out to us.”
Kumar said that the driving force behind the desire of learning new languages is linked to employability because there is “a plethora of Korean and Japanese companies in the city.”
There are more than 30 language schools in Chennai offering various certification and pure communication courses for all kinds of age groups. However, Tokyo Trust has a policy of intaking students from 20 to 45-year-old age groups.
Anu Radha Rajesekaran, director at ABK-AOTS Dosokai, one of the oldest Japanese schools, said, “Our chairman started the institution with one student 45 years ago, now we have 3000 plus students – the growth has been tremendous.”
Online classes are one of the primary reasons behind this amazing growth, she pointed out.
“One of the biggest growths we saw during the online classes is students enrolling from different marginalised backgrounds and rural areas, there were no barriers, '' she said.
In the wake of the pandemic, housewives, teachers and especially retired people have also shown interest in learning these languages and to learn about different cultures, said Rajesekaran.
Referring to opening up new opportunities by pursuing new language, she said, “College- goers and other students from different backgrounds want to pursue these courses – with an aim to go and settle in Japan.”
In addition to it, Rajesekaran said people are more interested nowadays because they find interpretation and translation jobs a lucrative career option – which has also led to the hike of language schools in the city.
Social media groups on Facebook have also played a vital role in spreading information about the online classes/ current offline classes to Chennaiites, she said.
The final year engineering students in Tamil Nadu will be taught foreign languages in our institution to enhance their opportunities for research and employment abroad, she said, adding to how the East Asian language craze is especially thriving in the city.
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