Hey everyone~
Today, I'll be talking about the wonders of the enkai, the Japanese work party.
Enkais are really important in the Japanese culture, and they happen very often. Whenever there is a special occasion (for example, the start of a new year, the end of a year, welcome/farewell parties, etc), an enkai is held. At enkais, all members must pay a fee for food as well as drinks. This flat fee often allows you to drink as much alcohol as you want for two hours, "nomihodai" (all you can drink).
These enkais aren't just parties, but also catalysts for social communication and bonding among co-workers outside of the workplace. While some people order water or oolong tea, most of the others drink lots of alcohol; the most popular two choices being beer (namabiiru, which is whatever beer is on tap) and sake (nihonshu). The introduction of alcohol helps break down the formal work atmosphere and allows the workers to get to know each other on a personal level.
Personally, I don't like going to enkais very much. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few that I enjoyed: my welcome party with my base school and the two welcome parties with my visit school.
The former was with just the English teachers at my base school and the latter ones were with my visit school. I was terrified of going to the visit school enkai especially because my visit school co-workers don't really speak English at all. The first was an all-faculty enkai at a yakiniku place (sweet, delicious grilled meat)...and I was placed far from the two people I usually talk to. In fact, I was super nervous because I ended up being placed right across the table from the principal (eek!), but he was super nice and the people around us were really easy to talk to and get along with. I didn't need to worry as much as I did :] A few days after, I had an enkai with the women faculty at my visit school. The women are all very close, since there are very few women faculty members at my almost all-boys visit school. It was a very intimate and friendly atmosphere.
The other enkais that I've been to haven't been as fun. These ones involve faculty (who I don't normally interact with) who could care less about the hassle involved in talking with me, so they ignore me all together. They speak too fast and speak about topics that I couldn't possibly have the vocabulary to comprehend. If I'm lucky, I'll speak to someone about 2-3 times for a few minutes in the course of an enkai. People that I can communicate to often sit very far from me, too.
In addition to this awkwardness, I try not to go to these very often because 1) I don't drink, 2) they are very expensive, and 3) you don't eat as much food as you pay for (quality or quantity). They cost ￥5000 each, and, like I said, they happen often. I got invited to at least 6 this past week...and if I went to each, I'd be dropping about $220 total to go to parties that I'd be sitting alone awkwardly at. No, thank you!
You know what? Maybe I'd like going to these if they were cheaper, but even then, I'd rather not pay to get ignored at one of these things... I miss being able to express myself in English...
Anyways, there are a few things that I'm gonna miss about Japan, but enkais are definitely not one of them! じゃ、またねー！ (Well, until next time, see ya!)
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Universities
Education in Japan and education in America are vastly different in numerous aspects, but today, I'll describe Japanese study habits and university entrance exams and compare them a bit to American ones.
Before I talk about universities, I've gotta look at the habits set in high school. Typically, American students must be able to analyze and interpret information, often inferring or utilizing critical thinking skills. While memorization does play a role, it can be a rather minute one, depending on what subject matter you are being tested on. For English, yes, you might be tested on obscure vocabulary (damn you GRE!), but other than that, there are far more sections where analysis is more important, such as reading comprehension and writing. Even in Math, where you might think relies more on rote memory because you must remember some formulas, you must still be able to show an understanding of how to apply the formulas when solving the problems. In the US, it seems that, if you have to memorize something, it is usually pertinent information.
This is in stark contrast to Japan, where everything is based on rote memorization. Everything is rote memory. Students will be tested on important things and obscure things. It is the student's duty to cram it all into his or her brain. They don't even have to understand what it means, but if they are able to write it out on the test, they'll get good grades. Critical thinking skills are largely ignored. This is painfully apparent in how most of the students will try to speak English...but that's beside the point.
The main point to take away from these contrasts is how important rote memory is in Japan.
For Japanese university entrance exams, rote memory is especially important. There are no critical thinking sections...I believe it is all multiple-choice answering. The students who remember the most get the best grades. Based on your score, you are given a selection of universities that you are able to attend. Essentially, if a student is able to memorize all of the information they learned in high school, they will get a top score on the public university entrance exam. This top score allows them to choose any public university in the country that they want to go to. This once-a-year test is very competitive, as many students are competing to get into just a few prestigious universities.
How different this is from American universities! American ones look at extracurricular activities, volunteer work, high school grades, essays, letters of recommendation, and standardized testing scores. Even if you excel in school, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get into the top university.
Backtracking, the less famous Japanese private universities test multiple times a year. There are so many universities in Japan and only so many students to attend them...so these private schools want to be able to accept as many students as possible, often extending the entrance deadlines until the latest possible date to do so. More students = more money = happier universities! ...or something like that...
These private universities often have a little bit of a different requirement for testing, which I've found to be a little closer to the American style of testing (even if everything else about the test, including how to study for it, is still vastly Japanese). Certain English Departments at these private schools have a test only on English skills. They are required to listen, think, and analyze/infer information very quickly...which is very difficult for Japanese students to do. The passing rate of some of these entrance exams is far less than 50%, so I've been told.
Having said all of this, I can now say that I was on the train this past weekend when I received some amazing news! One of my students, Suzuka, had passed her college entrance examination!!!
She had been trying to get into the Foreign Languages Department at her dream university (a private university in Osaka) since I had met her. She didn't make it after the first round of private school testing...and, while she did decently on the public university test, she didn't want to go to any of the universities that were available to her. The last date that she could take her dream private university's test was on Akaho's graduation ceremony day...so she missed it to take her test.
After a long wait (even longer for her, I'd imagine), I heard back from her. I am so happy for her and I'm so proud of her!!! :] I was so happy, in fact, that I did a celebratory fist-pump and happy noise on the otherwise silent train. Normally, I would've been very embarrassed, but I didn't even care at all. I was just too happy for her!! ;)
Before I talk about universities, I've gotta look at the habits set in high school. Typically, American students must be able to analyze and interpret information, often inferring or utilizing critical thinking skills. While memorization does play a role, it can be a rather minute one, depending on what subject matter you are being tested on. For English, yes, you might be tested on obscure vocabulary (damn you GRE!), but other than that, there are far more sections where analysis is more important, such as reading comprehension and writing. Even in Math, where you might think relies more on rote memory because you must remember some formulas, you must still be able to show an understanding of how to apply the formulas when solving the problems. In the US, it seems that, if you have to memorize something, it is usually pertinent information.
This is in stark contrast to Japan, where everything is based on rote memorization. Everything is rote memory. Students will be tested on important things and obscure things. It is the student's duty to cram it all into his or her brain. They don't even have to understand what it means, but if they are able to write it out on the test, they'll get good grades. Critical thinking skills are largely ignored. This is painfully apparent in how most of the students will try to speak English...but that's beside the point.
The main point to take away from these contrasts is how important rote memory is in Japan.
For Japanese university entrance exams, rote memory is especially important. There are no critical thinking sections...I believe it is all multiple-choice answering. The students who remember the most get the best grades. Based on your score, you are given a selection of universities that you are able to attend. Essentially, if a student is able to memorize all of the information they learned in high school, they will get a top score on the public university entrance exam. This top score allows them to choose any public university in the country that they want to go to. This once-a-year test is very competitive, as many students are competing to get into just a few prestigious universities.
How different this is from American universities! American ones look at extracurricular activities, volunteer work, high school grades, essays, letters of recommendation, and standardized testing scores. Even if you excel in school, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get into the top university.
Backtracking, the less famous Japanese private universities test multiple times a year. There are so many universities in Japan and only so many students to attend them...so these private schools want to be able to accept as many students as possible, often extending the entrance deadlines until the latest possible date to do so. More students = more money = happier universities! ...or something like that...
These private universities often have a little bit of a different requirement for testing, which I've found to be a little closer to the American style of testing (even if everything else about the test, including how to study for it, is still vastly Japanese). Certain English Departments at these private schools have a test only on English skills. They are required to listen, think, and analyze/infer information very quickly...which is very difficult for Japanese students to do. The passing rate of some of these entrance exams is far less than 50%, so I've been told.
Having said all of this, I can now say that I was on the train this past weekend when I received some amazing news! One of my students, Suzuka, had passed her college entrance examination!!!
She had been trying to get into the Foreign Languages Department at her dream university (a private university in Osaka) since I had met her. She didn't make it after the first round of private school testing...and, while she did decently on the public university test, she didn't want to go to any of the universities that were available to her. The last date that she could take her dream private university's test was on Akaho's graduation ceremony day...so she missed it to take her test.
After a long wait (even longer for her, I'd imagine), I heard back from her. I am so happy for her and I'm so proud of her!!! :] I was so happy, in fact, that I did a celebratory fist-pump and happy noise on the otherwise silent train. Normally, I would've been very embarrassed, but I didn't even care at all. I was just too happy for her!! ;)
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Direction
Continuing from the last post, today's post is going to be a post about my more optimistic thoughts about the future. While I've had lots of time to regret or wonder "what would've happened if", I've also had to accept that I can't do anything about it anyways. There's no use getting caught up in the past, so why not start thinking about what I can change?
So...I started thinking a lot about the future. So, I know that I don't want to teach for the rest of my life. How will I enjoy/spend my time now and what am I going to do after JET?
Even before the JET Program started, I knew that I wanted to go to graduate school for Speech Language Pathology or Audiology. I really love learning about hearing and pronunciation. I want to help people with speech problems (particularly stuttering), and I really enjoy helping make a difference in people's lives. While I haven't been able to impact many students in my time on JET, seeing the ones that I have (had an impact on) reach their goals and achieve happiness warms my soul and is definitely one of the sole redeeming qualities of the JET Program experience. I really believe that becoming a Speech Language Pathologist can help me do what I love and help other people attain happiness.
My plan is to go to San Diego State University to pursue a Master's in Speech Language Pathology. I've been researching the requirements for graduate school entry into any Speech Language Pathology program and I've emailed SDSU's Communication Sciences Graduate Department to ask a bunch of questions about the program. From my research and questioning, I found that I can't get into any Speech-Language Pathology graduate program with my current Linguistics/Psychology bachelor's degree (or my current GPA, for that matter...while it is not a bad GPA, it's just not high enough for admittance into the program). Because of this, I'd need to finish a post-baccalaureate degree to help me catch up to other Communicative Disorders majors before I try to apply for a graduate program. Thankfully, for students who complete a post-baccalaureate program, the post-bac GPA is the one that SDSU (and other graduate schools) will use, rather than my undergrad GPA at UCSD.
Once I finish acing that post-baccalaureate program, with my better post-baccalaureate GPA, recommendations from professors in that post-baccalaureate program, my experience with the JET program, and soccer/work-life experience from being a two-time All-American, I think that I'll have a really good chance at getting into my dream program.
To further help my chances in getting accepted into that program, I'm going to retake the GRE. I found out that I can take it in Tokyo. Even though I've already taken the test twice, I think that I can improve my score with vigorous studying. My score right now is a few points above the average (not very impressive), but I think that, with a top score, I can almost guarantee my acceptance into SDSU (or at the very least, acceptance into at least one program). I've signed up to take it on April 26th, the Friday right before a long string of holidays in Japan called "Golden Week".
I've found many resources online to help me study for all parts of the exam, and I've even joined a study program which I will have access to while I have free time at work (and boy, do I have a lot of free time at work...), where I can watch video lessons, study math and vocabulary, take practice tests, and work on problem areas! In addition, I've been taking notes, reading articles from the New Yorker online (in hopes of increasing my vocabulary), and making flashcards.
It's going to be a lot of hard work, but this month, I'm not teaching any classes, so I'm taking advantage of this time to study my ass off. I know I'll get the best score that I can get if I keep on studying as passionately as I have been until the time when I take the test.
47 days left until the GRE. Wish me luck!! :)
So...I started thinking a lot about the future. So, I know that I don't want to teach for the rest of my life. How will I enjoy/spend my time now and what am I going to do after JET?
Even before the JET Program started, I knew that I wanted to go to graduate school for Speech Language Pathology or Audiology. I really love learning about hearing and pronunciation. I want to help people with speech problems (particularly stuttering), and I really enjoy helping make a difference in people's lives. While I haven't been able to impact many students in my time on JET, seeing the ones that I have (had an impact on) reach their goals and achieve happiness warms my soul and is definitely one of the sole redeeming qualities of the JET Program experience. I really believe that becoming a Speech Language Pathologist can help me do what I love and help other people attain happiness.
My plan is to go to San Diego State University to pursue a Master's in Speech Language Pathology. I've been researching the requirements for graduate school entry into any Speech Language Pathology program and I've emailed SDSU's Communication Sciences Graduate Department to ask a bunch of questions about the program. From my research and questioning, I found that I can't get into any Speech-Language Pathology graduate program with my current Linguistics/Psychology bachelor's degree (or my current GPA, for that matter...while it is not a bad GPA, it's just not high enough for admittance into the program). Because of this, I'd need to finish a post-baccalaureate degree to help me catch up to other Communicative Disorders majors before I try to apply for a graduate program. Thankfully, for students who complete a post-baccalaureate program, the post-bac GPA is the one that SDSU (and other graduate schools) will use, rather than my undergrad GPA at UCSD.
Once I finish acing that post-baccalaureate program, with my better post-baccalaureate GPA, recommendations from professors in that post-baccalaureate program, my experience with the JET program, and soccer/work-life experience from being a two-time All-American, I think that I'll have a really good chance at getting into my dream program.
To further help my chances in getting accepted into that program, I'm going to retake the GRE. I found out that I can take it in Tokyo. Even though I've already taken the test twice, I think that I can improve my score with vigorous studying. My score right now is a few points above the average (not very impressive), but I think that, with a top score, I can almost guarantee my acceptance into SDSU (or at the very least, acceptance into at least one program). I've signed up to take it on April 26th, the Friday right before a long string of holidays in Japan called "Golden Week".
I've found many resources online to help me study for all parts of the exam, and I've even joined a study program which I will have access to while I have free time at work (and boy, do I have a lot of free time at work...), where I can watch video lessons, study math and vocabulary, take practice tests, and work on problem areas! In addition, I've been taking notes, reading articles from the New Yorker online (in hopes of increasing my vocabulary), and making flashcards.
It's going to be a lot of hard work, but this month, I'm not teaching any classes, so I'm taking advantage of this time to study my ass off. I know I'll get the best score that I can get if I keep on studying as passionately as I have been until the time when I take the test.
47 days left until the GRE. Wish me luck!! :)
Sunday, March 3, 2013
So Much Feels
Hey everyone,
So, recently, I've finished up all of my classes at both my base school and my visit school. (No work? Hell yeah! ^.^) While the conclusion of this year's classes was awesome at first, the free time that I had been left with had become a double-edged sword. Planning lessons and teaching classes had always been a major source of stress, so relief from that is welcomed with open arms. Now that I had a lot of free time to myself, I could think about everything.
What's the other edge of the sword? Well, let's just say that too much time to think isn't always a good thing when you're all by yourself and feeling a bit sad. There have been happy times abroad (recently, more so), but Japan hasn't been all fun and games. Here's some insight into what had been going on in my head for a while...
First, I thought about the Japanese language and its relationship to my identity and self-worth. My Japanese level is very strange. Some days, I can hold an hour-long conversation with a co-worker with little reference to my phone dictionary and other days, I can't even remember simple vocabulary. The good days lead to an increased sense of self-confidence and a spectacular mood. The lack of language on the bad days makes me feel depressed because I feel like I should know more than I do. "You've spent this long in Japan, this long studying Japanese, and you still don't know this simple stuff?" This perfectionist style of thinking, in turn, leads to low self-worth.
Sanam and I recently talked about this, and we both agreed that I was being too hard on myself. This is what she told me:
"You just have really high expectations for yourself, and while it's a good motivator, I think it can also be damaging because you can never really achieve the goal you set up for yourself. You breezed through Spanish and got freaking 100+% on all your tests, so you think it should be the same for everything else."
She's totally right. I can't expect to breeze through all foreign languages like I did with Spanish. I've gotta work at studying little by little each day and applying my knowledge in conversations in order to improve. Somehow, I already knew that this is really the only way to get better at a language, but got lazy due to my strange level of competence in Japanese.
This got me to thinking, while living in Japan, I've been forced to confront many aspects of myself that, until recently, I would've rather shoved under the rug. Things like the one mentioned above, which shows my bad habit of knowing what to do and not tending to not follow through with plans to improve myself***. I've also had to do an overhaul on how I perceive myself and how I want to be perceived by others. What an identity crisis I have had...
This 'crisis' doesn't even involve language in general, but rather my personality and behavior patterns towards people. I haven't been particularly shaken up by it (although, part of me feels that I should be a bit more shaken up by it), but it's made me realize that I really haven't been true to myself in many, many situations. This feeling started around senior year of soccer when I was forced to distance myself from soccer as it phased out of my life.
Don't get me wrong. I know that I loved my soccer experiences throughout life, especially GK training, but now that I think about it...how happy would I have been had I been able to pursue all of my interests in college? What would have changed if I had been able to take the classes that I really wanted to take without pressure to take them with teammates or friends (and at the times that I had wanted to take them), if I had been able to pursue extracurriculars that I had always been interested in, or if I had been able to study abroad? (Perhaps another question for later..."Why did soccer have to be an excuse to not accomplish these in the first place?", but I digress...) At what point in time did soccer start enveloping my identity?
In the end, I'm happy with the sacrifices I've made for soccer. I am really happy with how things have ended up. After all, had things not happened the way they did, I probably wouldn't be in Japan and I am almost entirely sure I wouldn't have met Ryan. I really couldn't ask for anything better...but somehow I've ended up feeling so distant about the soccer program. I'm proud of my individual accomplishments and the team accomplishments, but I'm not really happy about the person I had become during my time at UCSD.
Who exactly was I? Was I who I thought I was or was I the person that I became when trying to fit in with soccer team? Who am I now? Am I me or am I the person that I become when talking with strangers or Japanese co-workers? Or the person that I become when I'm on the phone? etc, etc...
Conclusion: multiple personas.
It's surprising how many personas I've put on over the years. It's simultaneously surprising and disgusting. Why did I feel it was necessary to put on so many fake faces? Why do I feel the need to please everyone or try to fit in to every group that I'm in?
It's been tough to reflect upon this, but eventually I was forced to realize that, all my life, I've been a doormat and never really had many opinions for fear of upsetting people (I've always hated arguing). But...that's no way to live. I'm starting to think for myself a lot more. I will always respect and care about other people (especially my friends and family) and I will always be a nice person because that's the way I am, but I need to think about myself a bit more. I don't have to put on that awkward fake persona to deal with my problems or uncomfortable situations. I don't have to do things to gain acceptance within a group. I've just recently realized that not everyone will like me for who I am. I need to be strong enough to show my personality and not worry about the people who have a problem with it. I just need to relax...do what I want to do, and say what I want to say. This is easier said than done though...and it's going to be a rough transformation to kill this bad habit of just going with the flow. I can't change the past, but if I work at this issue persistently and always keep it in the back of my mind, I know that I will eventually become the stronger individual that I hope to become and I won't have any regrets about my future actions and their consequences.
That's it for today...the next blog post will be about a rather exciting product of the thinking in my spare time: my future plans. I promise it'll be happier than this post, for sure. :)
*** To combat my bad habits (and depressed days), I've set a strict schedule to adhere to and do my best to achieve the goals along my journey towards the goals I'd like to accomplish. These will be discussed in the next blog post.
So, recently, I've finished up all of my classes at both my base school and my visit school. (No work? Hell yeah! ^.^) While the conclusion of this year's classes was awesome at first, the free time that I had been left with had become a double-edged sword. Planning lessons and teaching classes had always been a major source of stress, so relief from that is welcomed with open arms. Now that I had a lot of free time to myself, I could think about everything.
What's the other edge of the sword? Well, let's just say that too much time to think isn't always a good thing when you're all by yourself and feeling a bit sad. There have been happy times abroad (recently, more so), but Japan hasn't been all fun and games. Here's some insight into what had been going on in my head for a while...
First, I thought about the Japanese language and its relationship to my identity and self-worth. My Japanese level is very strange. Some days, I can hold an hour-long conversation with a co-worker with little reference to my phone dictionary and other days, I can't even remember simple vocabulary. The good days lead to an increased sense of self-confidence and a spectacular mood. The lack of language on the bad days makes me feel depressed because I feel like I should know more than I do. "You've spent this long in Japan, this long studying Japanese, and you still don't know this simple stuff?" This perfectionist style of thinking, in turn, leads to low self-worth.
Sanam and I recently talked about this, and we both agreed that I was being too hard on myself. This is what she told me:
"You just have really high expectations for yourself, and while it's a good motivator, I think it can also be damaging because you can never really achieve the goal you set up for yourself. You breezed through Spanish and got freaking 100+% on all your tests, so you think it should be the same for everything else."
She's totally right. I can't expect to breeze through all foreign languages like I did with Spanish. I've gotta work at studying little by little each day and applying my knowledge in conversations in order to improve. Somehow, I already knew that this is really the only way to get better at a language, but got lazy due to my strange level of competence in Japanese.
This got me to thinking, while living in Japan, I've been forced to confront many aspects of myself that, until recently, I would've rather shoved under the rug. Things like the one mentioned above, which shows my bad habit of knowing what to do and not tending to not follow through with plans to improve myself***. I've also had to do an overhaul on how I perceive myself and how I want to be perceived by others. What an identity crisis I have had...
This 'crisis' doesn't even involve language in general, but rather my personality and behavior patterns towards people. I haven't been particularly shaken up by it (although, part of me feels that I should be a bit more shaken up by it), but it's made me realize that I really haven't been true to myself in many, many situations. This feeling started around senior year of soccer when I was forced to distance myself from soccer as it phased out of my life.
Don't get me wrong. I know that I loved my soccer experiences throughout life, especially GK training, but now that I think about it...how happy would I have been had I been able to pursue all of my interests in college? What would have changed if I had been able to take the classes that I really wanted to take without pressure to take them with teammates or friends (and at the times that I had wanted to take them), if I had been able to pursue extracurriculars that I had always been interested in, or if I had been able to study abroad? (Perhaps another question for later..."Why did soccer have to be an excuse to not accomplish these in the first place?", but I digress...) At what point in time did soccer start enveloping my identity?
In the end, I'm happy with the sacrifices I've made for soccer. I am really happy with how things have ended up. After all, had things not happened the way they did, I probably wouldn't be in Japan and I am almost entirely sure I wouldn't have met Ryan. I really couldn't ask for anything better...but somehow I've ended up feeling so distant about the soccer program. I'm proud of my individual accomplishments and the team accomplishments, but I'm not really happy about the person I had become during my time at UCSD.
Who exactly was I? Was I who I thought I was or was I the person that I became when trying to fit in with soccer team? Who am I now? Am I me or am I the person that I become when talking with strangers or Japanese co-workers? Or the person that I become when I'm on the phone? etc, etc...
Conclusion: multiple personas.
It's surprising how many personas I've put on over the years. It's simultaneously surprising and disgusting. Why did I feel it was necessary to put on so many fake faces? Why do I feel the need to please everyone or try to fit in to every group that I'm in?
It's been tough to reflect upon this, but eventually I was forced to realize that, all my life, I've been a doormat and never really had many opinions for fear of upsetting people (I've always hated arguing). But...that's no way to live. I'm starting to think for myself a lot more. I will always respect and care about other people (especially my friends and family) and I will always be a nice person because that's the way I am, but I need to think about myself a bit more. I don't have to put on that awkward fake persona to deal with my problems or uncomfortable situations. I don't have to do things to gain acceptance within a group. I've just recently realized that not everyone will like me for who I am. I need to be strong enough to show my personality and not worry about the people who have a problem with it. I just need to relax...do what I want to do, and say what I want to say. This is easier said than done though...and it's going to be a rough transformation to kill this bad habit of just going with the flow. I can't change the past, but if I work at this issue persistently and always keep it in the back of my mind, I know that I will eventually become the stronger individual that I hope to become and I won't have any regrets about my future actions and their consequences.
That's it for today...the next blog post will be about a rather exciting product of the thinking in my spare time: my future plans. I promise it'll be happier than this post, for sure. :)
*** To combat my bad habits (and depressed days), I've set a strict schedule to adhere to and do my best to achieve the goals along my journey towards the goals I'd like to accomplish. These will be discussed in the next blog post.
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