古川裕

世界漢語教學學會副會長/日本中國語教育學會原會長

今天我非常榮幸能夠代表世界漢語教學學會在開幕式上致詞。我是世界漢語教學學會副會長古川裕，現在在日本大阪大學從事漢語教學。趁今天這個難得的機會，請允許我先簡單說說我自己的漢語人生。

我是1978 年4 月進入大阪外國語大學漢語專業開始學習漢語的，算起來已經有四十一年的漢語學習經歷了。很榮幸這四十多年和中國的改革開放同步一路走來。

1986 年我在東京大學拿到碩士學位以后，有幸拿到中國國家留學基金委的獎學金，能夠來到北京大學中文系進修兩年。1988 年留學生活結束以后就回母校開始教漢語，至今也有三十年的教齡了，可以說是一個名副其實的老教師了。

我人生已經有一半以上的時間都跟中國、跟漢語有非常密切的交流，估計我這輩子跟漢語有很深的緣份，相信一輩子都分不開。在這四十年的時間內，作為一個旁觀者，我一直在觀察中國的巨大變化以及由此變化給世界以及給日本帶來的各種影響。

眾所周知，日本跟中國之間已有千余年，甚至可以說有幾千年的交流歷史。日本也是除了中國以外，唯一一個還在使用漢字的國家。因此，我們對漢語的教學和研究也有很悠久的歷史，這可以說是日本的一個特色。兩國人民都對雙方的語言有很深的親切感，喜歡學漢語的日本人以及喜歡學日語的中國朋友，其人數越來越多，其學習熱情也越來越高，這是值得我們高興的事情。

與此同時，我們也要注意，雖然日本學生學習漢語的條件越來越好，但是目前大部分的學習者只能學基礎或是初級階段的漢語，能夠學到中高級水平的學生并沒有那么多，能用漢語能跟漢語母語者進行交流的人才非常欠缺，需要盡快培養補充漢語人才。

一句話就是，漢語學習者的“數量”問題基本解決了，我們現在面臨的問題是漢語學習者“質量”的提高。我個人認為這是目前日本漢語教學界急需解決的一個問題。另外，從宏觀的角度看，我們也在面臨一個跨國的、世界性的大問題，那就是人工智能的發展給外語教學帶來的挑戰，漢語國際教學也不例外。

記得前些年英國牛津大學的一位學者發表了一篇論文說，幾十年后，隨著人工智能日新月異的發展，會有幾個職業在這世上不需要存在了，其中就有老師和翻譯兩個行業，嗚呼哀哉！

又比如，機器翻譯的發展很快，現在我們手里只要有一個小機器，就完全可以無憂無慮，能跟外國人進行面對面的交流了。雖說如此，我們也不要太悲觀，人腦肯定比電腦更聰明，人心一定比機器更會體貼人。機器人除了聽說讀寫外語以外，還不能代替我們人類，更不能發揮個性來創造藝術性的世界。我們都知道“教育”兩個字就是“教書育人”的意思，我們的最終目的應該是通過教漢語來“育人”，也就是“培養人才”。

我們可以通過漢語教學，努力培養既有漢語能力又富有人文精神的人才，在不同的國家和不同的文化間搭起漢語的橋梁。

我們一起努力，一起奮斗吧！

Dr. Furukawa Yutaka

Vice President of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching Former President of the Japan Association of Chinese Language Education

Today, I am greatly honored to deliver an opening speech on behalf of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching. I am Yutaka Furukawa,Vice President of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching,and I am now teaching Chinese at Osaka University in Japan. Today, taking this precious opportunity, please allow me to briefly talk about my life with the Chinese language.

I started learning Chinese as a Chinese major student in April 1978 at Osaka University of Foreign Studies.That means, I have been studying Chinese for 41 years. I am very lucky that over the 40 years or so, I have come along with China’s reform and opening up all the way.

In 1986, when I got a master’s degree from Tokyo University, fortunately, I received a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council and was able to study in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University for two years. In 1988, I returned to my alma mater and began to teach Chinese after my study in China.Up to now, I have been teaching for 30 years, and I am a veritably experienced teacher.

For more than half of my life, I have had very close communication with China and Chinese. I think I am deeply connected with and inseparable from Chinese throughout my whole life.Over the four decades, as a bystander, I have been observing the great changes in China and its impact on the world and Japan.

As we all know, Japan has a long history of exchanges with China for hundreds of years, even thousands of years. Japan is also the only country that still uses Chinese characters besides China, so we have a long history of teaching and studying Chinese,which can be regarded as a feature of Japan. The two peoples have a deep affinity with the languages of both sides.The number of Japanese who like to learn Chinese and Chinese friends who like to learn Japanese continues unabated and our enthusiasm for learning is also growing increasingly. That is worth to be happy for us.

At the same time, we should also note that although the conditions for Japanese students to learn Chinese are improving, most students today can only learn at a basic or primary level,and not many students can reach to a middle or advanced level. As a result,there are pretty few talents who can communicate with native speakers in Chinese, and the situation urges us to train and supplement such Chinese talents.

In a word, the problem of the“quantity” of Chinese learners has been basically solved. What we are facing is to improve the “quality” of Chinese learners. In my opinion, the problem is urgent to be solved in the current Chinese language education in Japan.Additionally, from a macro perspective,we are also confronted with a transnational and worldwide challenge—the challenge to foreign language teaching brought by the development of artificial intelligence, and the international Chinese language teaching is no exception.

I remember a scholar from Oxford University published a paper a few years ago, saying that with the rapid development of artificial intelligence,some professions are no longer needed in the world in the coming decades,including teachers, translators, and interpreters. Alas!

For example, machine translation is developing so rapidly. With a small machine translator in hand, we can be carefree to communicate with foreigners face to face now. Even so, we should not be pessimistic, because the human brain is definitely more intelligent than the computer and the human heart is certainly more considerate than the machine. Except for listening,speaking, reading and writing in foreign languages, robots cannot replace human beings. If robots communicate on their own, they cannot give full play to their personalities to create an artistic world. We know that the word “education” means “imparting knowledge and cultivating people”, and our ultimate goal should be to “cultivate people” by teaching Chinese, that is, to “foster talents”.

In that case, we can make great efforts to cultivate talents with Chinese language proficiency and full of human touch through Chinese teaching, and build bridges of Chinese among different countries and different cultures.

Let’s work together shoulder to shoulder!