Japanese Education

Mikuni Marathon Taikai163, originally uploaded by wwc photos.

A few things about the Japanese education system that I have been meaning to mention.

I have been playing this game(that I mentioned before) with almost every class: I have words written on the back of cards. They are 1,2,3,5 and 10 points. The kids make two teams. They come up one by one and pick a card and then have to make a sentence out of the word. I made the game for 1st years but I have used with with 2nd and 3rd years as well. If it were up to me I would play this game once a month because it really exposes the flaws in kid's games, linguistically speaking. For example, so many 2nd year kids said, "I like dog." When I said, "You are forgetting something." They would say, "I like a dog? I like two dog?" They should know this a few months into their 1st year. Why the teachers aren't checking this, I don't know.

In any case, every class has had a lot of fun playing this game. My nemesis, 2-4, even enjoyed it. The nemesis within my nemesis, Okada, even got it together to make a sentence. But, one class, 2-3, whose homeroom teacher is the English teacher had the oddest reaction. I actually never saw it coming. They were crap at it, the mood turned really sour and they got offended and acted persecuted. I don't like to stereotype teenagers, as I hated those stereotypes when I was a teenager. I would like to think of actual reasons for it. They were being absurd. "Why are you making us do this? We can't do this! We don't know English. Why? Why? How can you do this to us?" It was seriously like that for 50 minutes. That English teacher is very odd to work with. What an odd reaction. His explanation was, "Well, their English level is low." And? The game was made for 1st years.

Which brings me to:
It has taken me a while to pin this down, but I finally did. Junior high school students in Japan can fail every test they take within a year and still advance a grade with no repercussions. I was in class when 1st year's English tests were handed back. Some did well. Some kids had 0s and 14s and were laughing about it. I remember junior high. I would have been cringing had I done so bad. Not only out of pride, but for fear of what would happen. For fear of being a 7th grader again. I asked the teacher after class, "What happens if they don't get better?" "Nothing. What happens in America?" "They don't advance." "Really? I can't believe it?" He seemed hurt for the children. This says a lot about why the kids act like they do and react like they do. They have nothing to lose at all. There is a lot I like about Japanese schools. There is a lot I don't believe. There are some things that I just sit back and watch.