Some things frustrate me enough to make me reconsider whether living in Japan and raising a family here is a the best idea. One of such things would be Japan's test taking system and rote-memorization education system.In Japan, it seems like your life is a test; in order to move on in life, you must past a test. A test to get you from elementary school to a good junior high, which is supposed to prepare you for the test to get into a good high school, to prepare you for the test to get into a good college, which is supposed to guide you into a good company, which takes fresh grads with no experience, trains them, and gives them lifetime employment (though this is changing); but this is if you can pass the company test that is part of the entrance interview.
In order to do well on the test, after regular classes are over for the day, almost all students attend extra "cram-school" which specialize in certian subjects like English, mathimatics, and natural sciences, studying 4 or more hours.
According to Wikipedia, "the aim of a cram school is to impart as much information to its students as possible in the shortest period of time. The goal is to enable the students to "parrot," that is, to unthinkingly repeat, information that is deemed necessary for particular examinations. Cram schools are sometimes criticized, as indeed are the education systems in the countries in which they are prevalent, for the lack of training their students receive in critical thinking and analysis." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cram_school)
If you don't pass the University entrance exams the first time around, you either give up and go straight into the working world, or you become a ronin, spending another year studying for the next entrance exams, sometimes 18 hrs a day. And what is college life? Friends, Nomikai, part-time job, Nomikai, maybe study a little, Nomikai, Nomikai, Nomikai~~!
Was there a point in going to school in the first place??? Ryosuke, I salute your courage to buck the system when you were young. All my international student friends, please make good your opportunity for more choices in life.
You may learn good test taking skills, but this method sure doesn't breed broad, free-thinking minds.
Students in Japan never learn writing skills in English; they focus on grammer points (even then, I see so many funny mistakes, I wonder if they really ever learned anything...). I am very interested to know what people learn in other subjects in school... But as far as I can tell, Speech classes or a Critical Thinking class would never be a undergraduate general eduction requirement. (I will look into what those are at Waseda too...) If the companies take care of new employee training, how does your University and school education train you for your future?
I'm trying to think back to my high school days to remember what I learned... I remembered challenging my math teacher that learning sine and cosine was NOT essential to my dream future job of being an art teacher (that dream is a little different now...). But I know I learned a whole lot of how to write; thesis development, organization, quotation, ect. I may not be to easily sit down with a list of new words and just memorize meanings like a human dictionary (**Rraah! Polly wants a cracker! Rraah!**), but I can argue my point (thank you Debate: Politics and Govn't class).
Every student I've talked to about the test taking system agrees they dislike it, but don't know how to change it. Social change is slow in Japan, and when you've had one political party in control for 50 years, that doesn't speed things up either. Then again, Japanese culture stresses not upseting the status quo or open expression of opinion and the educational system doesn't strive to inspire free thought.
When ever I'd imagined "Japanese-ness" I'd thought of fierce samurai spirit or graceful beauty or cutting edge technology. Until maybe this year, wanted to feel like I wanted to"belong" to Japan, that it was better than America; it carried an exotic allure.
It's still alluring, but not quite as exotic.
So, a question to answer in the future: What does it mean to be Japanese? What are the positive and negitive aspects? What have those of 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation missed out on?
These are some of the issues that I reflect upon, as I consider my long-term possiblities of life here in Japan.
3 comments:
Posted by rio_cat but accidentally deleted by me
Hi Claire:
You made a good point. I hate Japanese education system too.
Actually, Japan's system worked well to make everyone factory worker, office worker and etc... in 1960s and 70s because those people don't need to "think" but they need to "know". However Japan is now one of the most advanced country in the world and the education system must change. We need to "think".
In japan, nobody can skip any classs or grades. Everyone has to take same courses. Hence there will never be "genius" in Japan. Because you can't re-take any courses in school, you're pretty much done with math if you don't understand only one course in elementary or junior high. I really think that the way math is taught here is 100 times better than the way it is in Japan. "American math is to understand. Asian math is to memorize." says my ex-girlfriend.
It can talk about this issue for hours...
The only thing I know is that Japan is the birthplace of the suzuki violin method, that crazy system of learning where you start at 3 years old or something like that and.. big surprise.. memorize the music without learning anything about the music itself for quite a while. While the system is proven to produce quite good violinists and has been adapted worldwide by almost all violin teachers it reinforces the point you make about a whole culture based around memorization instead of analysis of a subject. And even that method has been criticized for producing "mechanical" players who focus almost exclusively on technique rather than raw emotion.
>>Rio_cat
That's the first time I've heard a Japanese person say that American math teaching styles are better than Japanese... Japanese always say that they are stronger in math than Americans, and Americans say that Asians are better at math ... Maybe it's a combination of memorization combined with understanding...
>>Kuma
"so damn young and cute" huh? eheh i'd love to see your pictures from then~(^v^)
But i think International schools are a exception, since they are run prvately. but most kids there dont' stay more than 2 or 3 years which makes it hard to have strong, long term friendships, a REALLY important thing here it seems. Also, my host-sister's school Aoyama is a famous "escalator school" (1st thru university, no testing) that focuses on it's good English program. The alternatives are there, but they are not cheap.
>>Anonomyous
Hmm, interesting, thank you for another good example.
Post a Comment