Benefits for Foreigners of Producing Theatre in a Japanese Regional Dialect more

Sun, May 1, 12:30-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul

This presentation describes the Genki Tosaben Musical (Genki), a unique community theatre project in Kochi prefecture in Japan. Since 1996, foreigners living in Kochi have been creating original musical theatre productions in Tosaben, the local Japanese dialect, and touring the prefecture to raise money for charity and promote cross-cultural exchange. In this study, qualitative survey responses from 35 former participants in Genki were analyzed. Based on these survey responses, this presentation explores the motivations of the participants in this production, how the experience impacted language learning and community integration, as well as the positive and negative aspects of partaking in this event. The results indicate that this type of project can strengthen connections within the immigrant community of a country, providing a sense of belonging, as well as between foreigners and residents by creating the motivation to learn the local dialect and practice speaking a foreign language outside the classroom.