In September 2018, Ohanasi Kagawa was born with the fundamental vitality of Aki’s frustration, despair, and discouragement as the representative of Ohanasi Kagawa, but a major turning point came in June 2020. It was June 2020 when COVID-19 began to spread in the United States, where I was living at the time, and many people were forced to be under house arrest. I wondered, “What can I do now that everyone is stuck in their homes and the mood is so gloomy?” As I was thinking about it, an idea came to my mind: “Yes, let’s start Ohanasi Kagawa online!” And so, with five Japanese friends and English speakers, we held our first Ohanasi Kagawa online event via Zoom. After that, when we announced the event in the U.S., many American learners of Japanese said, “I want to participate, too!” I realized that so many people in the U.S. were eager to talk with Japanese people. And one question remained in my mind. While many people in Japan, like myself, strongly desire to speak English with people from all over the world, many people in the world also desire to speak Japanese with people from Japan. “Why is there no place where people from Japan and the rest of the world, who are seeking each other out, can connect with each other in a safe and easy environment?” People who have been seeking each other but have been unable to meet can now meet online, transcending national borders! With this conviction, we have continued to hold events, and in less than a year, more than 2,000 participants from over 50 countries have joined Ohanasi Kagawa’s events. I saw great potential in Ohanasi Kagawa as a platform to connect people who love Japan and Japan-loving people around the world.

“I want to actually speak English with English speakers!” I googled “where to talk to English speakers” on the Internet and spent 30 minutes. I never dreamed that I would feel so much “frustration,” “despair,” and “discouragement. Why, you ask? Because I realized that no matter how much I looked on the Internet, there was no place nearby where I could casually talk and interact with English speakers. I went around to various places to gather information, but I could not find the kind of place I was looking where I could interact with English speakers in a casual and safe environment. * It is true that there are places in Japan where you can interact with English speakers, such as foreigner bars and international exchange parties, but these places were far away from my desire to “practice speaking”. What I want to do is not drink and have a good time with people from overseas. (To begin with, there are not many such places in my rural Kagawa Prefecture.) I was about to give up on the idea that it would be impossible for me to have an environment where I could speak English practically as long as I stayed in Japan. I was about to give up. At that time, I received an e-mail from a woman who was also studying English. She said, “Aki, I am also looking for a place to speak English, but I can’t find it. Could you please tell me where I can find a good place?” I was at a loss for words. I couldn’t find a place where I could speak English even though I had looked for a place where I could speak English by myself so much. “Let’s give up. As long as you stay in Japan, it is impossible to find a place where you can speak English.” I was so frustrated that I was about to tell her so. I wondered if I should leave the current situation in Japan as it was, that as long as I stayed in Japan, I would never have a chance to speak English. “No, I will not give up! If it’s not there, then I’ll make it myself!” So I gathered local English speakers and Japanese who were learning English in Kagawa Prefecture and started an event in the same way as Ohanasi Kagawa, which is now online, and that’s how it all started. And Ohanasi Kagawa took a big turn with COVID-19. To be continued in my blog.

Have you ever wondered why Japanese people don’t speak English well compared to other countries in the world? The story I am going to tell you today is about Ohanasi Kagawa, an international exchange platform that was created to change such an environment. “What is Ohanasi Kagawa?” I am sure that many of you are not familiar with Ohanasi Kagawa, so let me introduce ourselves again. Ohanasi Kagawa in a nutshell is “an international language exchange platform!” It is a place where Japanese people who are learning English and people from all over the world who are learning Japanese can gather in one place, speak English and Japanese alternately, and interact with each other to share their cultures, values, and ideas. Let me tell you “why” we decided to create Ohanasi Kagawa in the first place. Ohanasi Kagawa was born from the negative feelings of frustration, despair, and discouragement of Aki, the representative of Ohanasi Kagawa. Ohanasi Kagawa actually started not online at first, but in September 2018 in Kagawa, the smallest prefecture in Japan, where I, Aki, am from. I was 23 years old at the time and had quit the company I had been working for since I graduated from high school to study English in order to study psychology in the United States. I hated studying English when I was a student and only took naps during class, but I entered an American university and continued to study English with the sole intention of starting my life over again. It was about a year after I started studying English that I felt a great sense of despair. I had studied grammar and vocabulary on my own and had come to understand English to a certain extent, so I decided that I wanted to actually speak English with English speakers. I immediately went online and googled “where to speak English with English speakers”. I never dreamed that 30 minutes later, I would feel a great “despair”. To be continued in my next blog. Join Ohanasi Kagawa Event →