On September 22-25, 2018 the Japanese language and culture summer camp was held in the Local Government Training Center of the National Association of Municipalities of the Republic of Bulgaria, the village of Gergini. For the seventh consecutive year Sofia university hosted the event. The participants this year came from Sofia University, Veliko Tarnovo University, the University of Belgrade and the University of Bucharest. The topic of the event was `Humor` and the final public event was held in the city of Gabrovo at the House of humor and satire.
During the camp the students had the opportunity to practice their Japanese by creating a common diary in Japanese for the days that they spent together, told each other humorous stories, visualized their anecdotes in comics and practiced their calligraphy, origami and dressing in a yukata skills. The participants had the opportunity to watch a kendo demonstration and even participate in a kendo lesson themselves, ask questions and learn more about this sport in Bulgaria and its historic roots in Japan. Each morning the day began with a relaxing yoga practice, led by Lyudmila Kirilova – one of the highest-ranked yoga instructors in Bulgaria. The students came into contact with the world of humor through Japanese fairytales, Japanese cinema, academic research of the topic, onomatopoeic words, a quiz with humorous questions and answers in Japanese, humorous games and others. The final public event – A festival of Japanese and Balkan humor in Gabrovo, was held on September 25, 2018 at The House of humor and satire.
For the seventh consecutive time Sofia university and the department of Japanology welcomed its colleagues from Balkan countries. Applying the newest methods and trends in foreign language teaching we work for a high standard and competitiveness of the Japanese studies in Bulgaria nationwide and worldwide. Our department strives to bind the study of a language with the acquaintance with the Japanese culture on one hand, parallel to our efforts to educate our students and build their communicative and social skills which are required in the globalizing world. With the financial support of The Japan Foundation.
Project Directors: Assistant Professors Vyara Nikolova and Tsvetomira Ivanova