On Tuesday, the long awaited day arrived. I have finished my last final for this academic term, which means I am officially on break! Now that it's done, I feel like I have enough experience to write about my opinions on the Japanese education system. If you're not an American, please realise that my opinions have been influenced by the American education system. While it is pretty good, there are faults in it too, and you may disagree with what I think. But that's what's so fun about making international friends! We get to see how other people do things.
Language education in Japan simply DOES NOT do it for me. There, I said it. To be quite honest, I dont feel as if I've learned much in the five months I've been here. Let's go over how class is structured. The teacher lectures, perhaps by having the class read a short essay, or listening to a short spoken piece. New grammar or kanji introduced in the lesson is explained. Then you go home and do your homework, which is basically fill in the blank. And that's it. It sounds pretty okay, right? But I disagree. For one thing, most of the grammar we were taught were either stuff I already knew (like ～ば～ほど or どうしても). The few grammar points that I didnt know were explained difficultly. The teachers I had only spoke Japanese, which means I was getting Japanese grammar definitions in a language I dont understand. The books we were given didnt explain the grammar AT ALL. There were no notations, no definitions, no nothing. Thank goodness I have the entire series of Japanese grammar dictionaries by Makino and Tsutsui, because if I didnt, I wouldnt know what was going on in class half the time.
But what really upset me was that we were given little or no chance to truly practice anything we learned in class. I'll admit, I dont like homework, but if it's something like Japanese, I'll still do it. At UHM, we are made to converse with our classmates, either to imitate the sample conversation, or to practice using the grammar forms we learn. Periodically, we are assigned short essays, or an oral presentation. And let's not forget the oral tests we have with sensei, and the long essay section on most tests. However, in my classes here, we were not given or assigned anything to practice. Our homework was basically fill in the blank, and while we did "practice", I feel that it was too short and simple to really make us learn it. I suppose some homework is better than no homework, but still. I dont think that this is the way to teach. I have been told that Japanese education is based heavily on the assumption that the student will study on their own. But in my experience, finding a student that will study on their own is difficult to find. And in any case, it is helpful to the student if the teacher at least provides the information they need. Like I said, what would I have done if I didnt have my grammar dictionaries?
The most unfortunate thing is that this is how ALL Japanese language classes are structured. And I'm not talking about "Japanese language classes"; I mean this is how foreign languages are taught in general in Japan. From what I gather, the teacher just lectures on and on about the target language, and students are made to read samples from that language. However, there is little or no practice as to how to actualy USE what they learn. Thus, Japanese people may be able to understand what you're telling them; but if you ask them to talk to you, they cant, or they have much difficulty. In my opinion, what's the point of learning something if you cant use it? Language classes should be half explanation, half practice.
The class "What is Peace?" was another dismal failure. The teacher in charge of the course only lectured about two or three times. I have no idea what he was going on about, because all he talked about was some kind of discussion about religious systems. I wish I could explain better, but that's pretty much all it was. The rest of the class was student presentations about various conflicts in the contemporary world. So have I learned what peace is? Of course not! And what's worse is that he makes Peace Studies sound more boring than it really is. While I was doing research on the effects of religion on peace building, I found a host of articles related to Peace Studies. And they were actually a bit interesting, and made me think. Part of it was because there was some poli sci information and ties in them, but mostly it made me realise, there's more to Peace Studies than this professor. In particular, one of the articles I read summed up what I thought the class would be about. You can read it here. All in all, I could have spent the time better.
Having said that, I wouldnt jump to the conclusion that Hiroshima University does not offer interesting classes. I took a class on Japanese literature, and enjoyed it so very much. It was the same class that I had to write my essay on 伊勢物語 for. It was taught all in Japanese, so I didnt always understand everything that was talked about, but I did learn a little bit on Japanese literature. It focused on early literature, which I have only read cursory information about. The professor talked about 古事記, 万葉集, and 方丈記, all of which I havent really studied. And the professor himself was fun to watch. He was so very animated, and read with such enthusiasm that you knew he really did love what he taught. I hope to take a class with him again next semester, not only because I want to satsify one of my lit credits back at UHM, but also because I enjoyed him.
So what is my assessment of Japanese university education? It's a bit mixed and biased. I suppose if I were one of those kids that could study on his own, and wasnt led astray by youtube or facebook, maybe it wouldnt have been so bad. But at the same time, because there is little focus on practicing with real people, I dont think it would have made much difference. It's one thing to point out a に here, or using a suffix like まい; it's completely different to use them in a sentence that you've formed in your head. And there are teachers like the "What is Peace?" teacher that do not teach at all. They talk about everything BUT the suject matter, and waste time, really. But on the other hand, there are teachers like my Japanese lit teacher. They have a passion for their subject that is rarely encountered, and actually make class enjoyable. I guess it's kind of like American education, then. While there are some areas that are really, terribly, awfully bad, every now and then you will find the silver lining, the diamond in the rough. The one class that you actually walk out of and say, "Wow, I've really learned a lot."
I can only hope that my next term here will be less of the former, and more of the latter.
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