Immerse yourself in the culture and language of Japan

THE world is getting smaller — travel to far-flung places is becoming more commonplace and the Western world is now a melting pot of different cultures.

Learning another language has never been more relevant. But have you thought about Japanese?

The Far East, with its complicated history and exotic culture, is drawing more and more Westerners to its lands.

But its not just the promise of an exotic holiday that is tempting people to learn Japanese.

This unique culture is already capturing people's imaginations over here with Japanese martial arts and cartoons ever-popular.

Plus learning a language for interest's sake can be an enjoyable challenge.

Both Japanese and Mandarin use completely different written characters to the Western alphabet, but these need not be studied when just learning to speak the language.

The Asia Cultural Centre in Topsham is a meeting place for everybody who has an interest in Oriental culture, offering Japanese and Mandarin lessons as well as providing opportunities for people to socialise with Japanese and Chinese people living locally.

Eric Bransden, 69, from Topsham, has been teaching Japanese for almost 30 years and co-founded the centre, which he runs from his home, in July last year.

Eric became fascinated with Japanese culture after falling in love with the courtesy of the Japanese people. He moved to Japan in 1970 and stayed for 11 years, before returning to the UK and moving to Devon.

He said: "My vision was to provide a place in Exeter where people could come and learn Japanese and Mandarin and share their interest in the Orient with one another.

"I run weekly language classes, day trips and monthly meetings in the Southgate Hotel for people to learn about the culture and to socialise with local oriental people and set up a language exchange.

"After about 10 sessions, students are usually able to say several useful daily expressions, including self-introductions and how to order a meal.

"Going to meetings at the Asia Cultural Centre enables people to become friends with native speakers and put their learning into practice."

Aidah Suleiman, 21, is a law student at Exeter University and has been learning Japanese from Eric for about four months. She said: "I have an interest in Japanese cartoon styles manga and anime.

"I wanted to learn Japanese so I could understand what the characters were saying myself and not have to rely on the characters or those writing the subtitles. I love it."

Dr Ayman Nassar, 33, from Honiton, works at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital and has been learning Japanese for about 18 months. He said: "I started to learn Japanese because of my interest in the Japanese martial art aikido.

"I am keen to be able to understand the instructions on the DVDs myself and there are so many DVDs without subtitles.

"Japanese is straightforward — the grammar is basic and sentence construction is simple, so it easy to learn."