You might remember me writing last year about a debacle at one school where they forgot to make me a school lunch, even though I was scheduled to eat there and had paid for said lunch. Well, now that I work for another Board of Education, my situation is quite different, and I am pleased as punch about my lunch time circumstances. You see, I am now required to eat my lunch with the students, and this could not make me happier.
Archive for the 'Education' Category
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It’s that time again. Thanks to Earth’s crazy tilt of 23.5 degrees, the northern hemisphere is at the part of Earth’s orbit where we are tilted away from the Sun. This means that the Sun doesn’t get very high in the sky at noon. Scientists call this the Winter Solstice, but most people just call it winter.
This week at Tayama Junior high, I did a small presentation on the seasons before we started to play some Christmas games. I asked the students when Christmas was and what the importance of December 21(22nd in Japan) was. They knew that Christmas was on the 25th, but had no clue about the 22nd. I then explained to them about the solstice and how Earth’s tilt causes the seasons. They seemed flabbergasted. I’m glad I got the chance to explain this, because I feel it’s important to show that many holidays like Christmas are based around the solstice, and that our very concepts of time are based around this important astronomical information.
I’m not really sure if they got everything I was talking about, but some of them seemed interested. I also got them to learn the word solstice. And to me, that was worth it. If you are stuck thinking up a good Christmas lesson, you may wish to try this in your Junior high or High School classes. From here on in, the days can only get longer. Happy solstice.
I got much of the info for this article from this Space.com article. However, I actually planned the lesson a week before they published it. . Oh, I forgot to mention that the Japanese use the word 冬至(touji) when they refer to the winter solstice. It means “winter” “arrive”.
I don’t plan on turning this into a daily Japanese suicide watch, but I did want to point out there was another one in the news. This story over at Japan Today tells all the grim details. It also happens to be related to bullying in school. I feel really bad for these kids.
If you didn’t already know, Japanese students spend crazy amounts of time at school. They are usually there from 7:45am to about 7pm on weekdays, and usually come in on the weekends for club activities as well. Imagine the toll this takes on students that are being bullied. It leaves them with no escape.
There is a lot of pressure in Japan on students to succeed. One sign of success is spending all of your time at school and never being absent. This actually plays a large role in determining which high school will take these students. Therefore, you can almost understand why some students feel suicide is the only way out from this situation.
One thing I think I will start doing is talking with my students more and seeing how they are feeling. I will keep it as subtle as possible, but if I can prevent just one suicide in Japan, it would be worth every second of me being. It breaks my heart every time this happens.
This is the first in a series of articles that explores the Japanese education system: from a western perspective. I hope to give you an idea of what kind of things happen in these institutions of learning. Some things resemble North America to a shocking degree, while other things are just shocking. Today I will start with the most basic form of organized Education, 保育所（Hoikusho), or pre-school.
I had a really weird experience the other day. I wouldn’t say it was a big deal, but it was big enough to make me want to blog about it. It all started before the morning meeting….
Morning meetings are something that happen in just about every Japanese School. The teachers will stand up, say their greetings and talk about what is happening that day. It’s all fairly standard stuff; similar to what you might see at a morning sales meeting in Canada. On this particular day, however, the meeting wasn’t going to start very well, and I was the root of it all.
You see, I had been using the main staff room computer to print out a map of Canada. I was making a display board to show students and parents just how awesome Canada could be. I was not paying attention to the time and was still at that computer at the time the meeting started. The desk where the computer is also happens to be the place where the principal sits in for these meetings. He is usually in his crystal gondola, overlooking the school. He comes down to Earth for brief periods of time. The morning meeting happens to be one of those times. This time however he noticed I was at his desk and went to sit down over at the coffee table. This was nice of him to do, since I wasn’t done printing my poster. Then the bell for the morning meeting sounds and all of the teachers suddenly look at me like I’ve just announced the passing of the Emperor.
It seem that it is a nasty taboo to occupy the principal’s temporary desk. The teachers immediately started pleading for me to return to my own desk. At first I didn’t know what they were on about. Then after hearing some distorted mumbles and a “Kouchou-sensei”, I got the clue. I quickly moved back to my desk, and order was restored. The only person who didn’t seemed phased about this ordeal was the principal himself. He seemed rather calm about the whole thing. He even seemed to find it funny. He and I seemed to be the only ones who did, however. The remaining staff members looked terrified. Which is not a fun wat to start off a morning.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing happen. I think it must harken back to the days of the samurai and his servants. It seems that if you had any sort of power at that time, then you were the man. You called all the shots and no one questioned you. If you didn’t have any power, then you feared those who did for what they could do to you. In this democratic and modern Japan, I would assume things had changed. But looking in the panic struck eyes of those poor staff members, perhaps they haven’t. I say this as a purely speculative assumption, and I am, by no means, trying to say it happens all the time. But it happens enough that gets my attention. I got over the issue rather quickly and moved on with my day.
My principal doesn’t seem like the type of person to come down on someone for a small goof-up such as that. Add to this assumption that he seemed to be letting me get my work done, instead of shooing me away to me desk, and he seems like a decent guy. Of course, in the future, I will be making sure to never be near that computer before a meeting starts. Not for fear that the principal would punish me, but so I don’t get the blood pressure of any other staff members higher than it should be. One of the key skills in working in a Japanese office is to make sure not to step on any toes. It’s a delicate dance that takes time to learn. I think I a finally becoming skilled at it.
I read a disturbing story today on the Asashi online website. You can read it here.
It appears that a teacher to taunted and bullied a student after learning the student had an american grandfather. He was caught by someone(or reported by the boys family), but has so far dodged any responsibility for his actions. In Japan, it seems that as a public servent, the government will protect you and compensate victims in your name. In addition to this, the teacher appears to be back at work. What a wonderful day this must be for that poor boy, who had to endure abuse just for having some american in his blood.
This story wouldn’t enrage me so if it wasn’t something I read about all the time over here. An isolated story is one thing, but this is becoming a weekly topic. As a response to this, I have decided to provide a series of thought provoking questions that foreigners in Japan might want to bring up in a public forum. Here they are:
1. Should a government institution shelter an employee from taking responsibility for his or her actions?
2. Does coming from a mixed background make one human being lesser than another?
3. What do you think of foreign residents in your area?
4. What do you think of children of mixed races? Do you call them half, or something else?
I fear the answers you get may not be the answers you are looking for. I pray I am wrong here, but I am pessimistic about this.
I just heard something positively creepy from some of the teachers in my school. I had just come back to the staff room from teaching some first grade Junior High students and I happened to overhear a small group of teachers talking about something. It appears that over the years, people have been seeing ghosts at Senmaya Junior high School.
Of course, my skeptical side went into full alert. According to Mark, the other ALT who works here, things can get pretty creepy at night, and the day the girl reported seeing a ghost, he said he got violently sick and had to leave the school.
The current rumor is that three year ago one of the students here saw what looked like a woman staring out a window on the second floor above the staff room. Now one might easily dismiss this as an optical illusion or an overactive imagination; however, in the last couple of weeks a teacher who recently started working here described seeing the exact same woman in the exact same spot. And the teacher and former student have never had any previous contact with each other. The woman is said to have long hair. Her face cannot be seen. I’ll keep you updated if I hear anything else. There might be something to these rumors. Though I’m sure it could be debunked pretty easily as well.
UPDATE: It appears that the students and the teachers at my school aren’t the only ones who have seen this ghost. According to my girlfriend Shiho, this sort of story is very common in Japan. When she was a high school student in Mie Prefecture, she used to hear the exact same story as well. In fact, she though it rather nostalgic . She also said that the ghost usually appears to look the same in all the stories. Chalk up another victory for the skeptical enquirer.
The Ichinoseki education office has me at a couple of new schools this term. I don’t mind this asince it gives me a chance to interact with more people and teach more English to kids who would otherwise be deprived of it. Well this week I had two very different reactions to my presence at school.
At the first Junior High, which is a small school outside of Ichinoseki, I noticed a very inviting attitude towards me. They immediately greeted me and made sure that I had my lunch taken care of. During the day people and students spoke to me and asked me all sorts of questions. It was great. I love those kind of situations. In fact, I thrive in them.
However, today I had quite a different lunchtime experience at another Junior High I was visiting. I had just returned from a class and I sat down to type up an email. I noticed that after about 10 minutes, no one had mentioned that lunch was ready and no one was to be seen. At this school, the teachers and students eat kyuushoku, a set meal that is made at a meal center somewhere in the area. When I visit a Junior High school I eat these meals as well and I am sent a bill after a couple of months. The food is good and cheap and it give me a chance to shoot the breeze with the teachers. Well I headed over to the principal’s office(where we eat) and immediately everyone got really quiet and looked at me. I motioned towards an empty chair, and one of the women grudgingly nodded her head. Then, another lady got up and ran from the room, only to return with another lunch tray and placed it next me. For the remainder of the meal, it was very quiet.
Now I’m not a rocket scientist by any means, but I could pretty much ascertain that even though I had been at the school since 8am, they had forgotten that I was there, and neglected to set up another lunch for me. Now, this would be quite insulting to anyone, but I’ve actually gotten used to it. There are some people in Japan who consider foreigners to be less than human and promptly act like 4 year old when faced with one. My three years here have taught me that I am lower on the totem pole than a petunia in many way. Ah, if only I were being sarcastic. The one saving throw is that there are a large number of Japanese people who are not that way, and it keeps me sane while I am here. I’m not sure if this is just something that happens in all countries. I can’t tell anymore. However, when racism happens to you, it’s really not fun. If you ever plan on living in Japan, this is something you’ll need to be ready for. Especially if you plan on living out in the country, where, as in many places around the world, the gene pool hasn’t been given enough Chlorine.
Perhaps I am angry with what has happened. In fact, yes, I am quite angry with it. There should be no excuse for a developed country to bring people in, have them work here and then treat them like garbage. That is the sort of thing that starts wars.
I started teaching at Fujiawa High School again on Tuesday and I noticed that my third year class was missing some students. I asked their teacher what was up with that. He told me that one of the girls had “retired” from school. At first I was taken aback. I asked him if it wasn’t a little early in her life to retire from anything, let alone school. He said it meant that she had quit the school. I suppose we would say “drop out” in English. I seem to remember a teacher “retiring” from school a few years back at well. She was only a year older than me and I thought it as very odd for her to be retiring so young. Teaching is not the cash cow in Japan that people think it is. One certainly cannot retire early on that income alone.
I think the problem originates from the Japanese word 辞める(yameru) This word means that ones retire from work. I think they must get it mixed up with 止める(yameru) which means “to resign or stop.” What this now means is that in Japan the English word “retire” has now taken on the connotation of resigning or dropping out. When in most English speaking countries, it would indicate that you have reached the age where you can no longer legally work(or are getting close to it and receive an early retirement package.) This always leads me to think that the person in question has aged 30 years in a matter of days. And therefore, I always get these strange images in my head. Ah, language is a bitch sometimes, isn’t?
Update: It appears I need to correct my previous statement. When people leave a position like school or work they always say 辞める。So, 学校を辞める would mean you’ve dropped out of school. However, this should mean to quit or to leave and not to retire. The best Japanese word for “retire” would be 退職(taishoku). Therefore when you are 65 you retire. When you quit or leave a position you 辞職(jishoku) or 辞める. So I hope that clears thing up a bit. I’d like to thank Shiho and a random person from the Internet for providing that information. 止める really had nothing to do with quitting a job or school.
A couple weeks ago I spoke at length of the High School graduation I attended. This week, I attended two graduations on the same say. I can’t imagine there are many people in Japan have that pleasure. For me that means twice the number of long speeches. However, it also means seeing my students get their diplomas. And that is worth endure the longest and driest of speeches.
Junior high graduation ceremonies, as compared to High school ceremonies, are a little more entertaining for the audience. You have all the same pomp and circumstance, but the Graduating class sings a farewell song for the remaining students. Then the remaining students return the favor. It’s actually quite emotional and many of the students start bawling their eyes out as they are singing. It’s good for me because it keeps me from falling asleep during the ceremony.
The thing about these ceremonies that I find interesting is that every year the graduating class purchases something for the school as a memorial gift. This is called a 記念品贈呈(kinenhin zoutei.) This year, the students at Senmaya JH bought a tarp covered half-tent for the outdoor activities, and the students at Daito JH bought their school a new set of panel display boards. I always wondered where the school got this stuff from.
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