Language Lounge, "Urashima Taro". What is a Timeless "Material" of Japanese Language Learning ?

peer reviewedWhat is an original, dynamic and timeless material for language learning/teaching ? To answer this question, this article aims to share the experience of Japanese language lessons held in a French-speaking Belgian university (2018, 2019), particularly in using “realia” (authentic educational material). In the first part, we present the example of “Language Lounge creating project”, which focusses on a creation (or a renovation) of a language learning space in a university building. Called “Language Lounge”, it seeks to provide students and teachers with a relaxed atmosphere to “live” real situations in target languages with native speakers. Second example is “Urashima Taro project”, in which the B1 level-students worked on a 17th Century Japanese handwritten book. This very-known folk tale is one of the most popular book in the Heritage Collection of Université catholique de Louvain, offered by Japan State during 1920s. Thanks to Open Access policy of University Library, students could freely get access to the high-definition digital images of the book and participate in a multi-functional learning approach of Japanese Language, such as : visualizing the traditional hiragana and kanji calligraphy, reading and understanding the ancient text and rewriting the story in an easy Japanese