Intercultural Aspects in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language in Indonesia as a Means of Character Education of Japanese Literature Students

Diana Kartika

Abstract: This article aims at presenting insights regarding the formation of students character education through the learning of foreign language with intercultural insight. The primary focus of this study is to examine the extent to which students know and understand the cultural differences between Japanese and Indonesian culture, especially in Japanese literature students in nonverbal communication that will be able to form the character of the students themselves. Questionnaires were employed mainly to collect data. The subjects participating in this study were thirty students of Japanese Literature. Findings revealed that on the basis of 10 questions about the cultural knowledge, the respondents who know the Japanese culture were 50 %. Only one question was known by 70 % of the respondents. More than 60 % of the respondents do not know the eight out of ten questions. It can be concluded that based on the ten questions, the respondents generally do not know the Japanese culture.

Keywords: Japanese, foreign language learning, intercultural learning, character education