Vietnam's progress toward more active membership within the Asia-Pacific community of nations has generated considerable demand in the country for Japanese language education. The present project was designed to help fill the resulting shortage of Japanese courses and skilled Japanese language teachers. With the cooperation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, the Sendagaya Japanese Institute set up a Japanese language center in Hanoi in 1992. This year, the center conducted an advanced course for 26 trainee Japanese language teachers, offered public classes in beginner's and intermediate Japanese, continued production and publication of a five-volume set of teaching materials (including textbooks, teacher's manuals, student workbooks and cassette tapes), and held its second Japanese speech contest in Hanoi.
The four winners at the contest later took part in a short visit to Japan conducted under the Fund's "People Exchange Program."