Sunday 13 September 2009

Japanese Schools - Tradition and Discipline

Thought I would write a bit about the traditions of Japanese Junior High Schools and what I have seen regarding discipline in the schools. For the last two weeks and this week coming timetables have been completely disrupted by the upcoming Sports Day - which here is called a sports festival. Everyday out of 6 periods only two are used for teaching, periods 2 and 4 are set aside for the kids to practice their routines for sports day, girls do a choreographed display with coloured flags and the boys do human acrobatic type stuff, human pyramids etc. Then periods 5 and 6 the whole school (400 pupils) join together to practice their marching around the field. It's very intense!

The School works like this.

I rock up at 7.45/8am and the kids are already in full swing practicing baseball, tennis etc in the sports ground (god knows what time they and the teachers arrive!). At 8am they stop and get changed and the other pupils not in the sports clubs arrive between 8 and 8.20. As teachers we all stand outside the school welcoming the pupils in.

Dress: It seems like if your a teacher you need to wear a shirt and dress trousers OR look like a PE teacher! Even if your not one!!! - here all the staff except me, the head and depute dress in tracky bottoms/long shorts and t-shirts. Mental!

The boys wear cool checked grey trousers and white polo's - they all come in uniform and they all have acrylic engraved name badges in Kanji. They try to wear their trousers as low as possible and for some reason it's cool to have the button and fly open and the trousers only held up by the belt. If they look like this the teachers tell them to tuck it in and do up their trousers - if they don't they get grabbed and/or chased and the teachers physically tuck in their shirts while holding them by the arm - it's kinda playful but very hands on, once they've been tucked in the kids don't reverse it once out of sight. The weird thing is that Banba Sensei, a young attractive Japanese PE teacher in her early twenties has no problem shoving her hand down the back of 15 year old boys trousers to tuck them in and then grabbing their belt and hiking up their breichs! It seems their boundaries for physical contact are a lot less than ours - they boys are very hands on with each other most of the time. They all seem to have metrosexual long layered hairstyles with heaps of products in them and incredibly precise OR skinheads! See picture: imgres.jpg

The girls wear a polo shirt and a dress type thing - dunno what it's called but it looks like dungarees on top but instead of trousers on the bottom it's a skirt, under it they all wear their PE shorts. I found this out as they often grab their skirts and gather them up into their lap for some weird reason - maybe the heat...? They all have black hair - EVERYONE including all the teachers - I stand out like an elephant in the room. The girls either have a short style or pigtails, no-one is different!

So they have homeroom for the first 20 mins then, period's 1 to 6 which last 40 or 50 mins. The get 15 mins at lunch to eat their food in silence. In between each lesson they have 10 mins to chill in the corridors - this is when I'm encouraged to interact with them as they have no other free time in school. Just before hometime the whole school gets mops, cloths and brushes out and cleans the corridors. They have all their classes in the same room with different teachers and even get changed for PE and eat their lunch in that room. Sports are concentrated on a lot here and every school has a huge well equipped gym, pool, smaller gym for Judo and table tennis and a big dirt/dusty playing area which is divided up into areas for tennis, football, baseball etc.

The hometime's are staggered usually;
15.25 for 3rd year
15.30 for 2nd year
15.35 for 1st year

Most of the kids then go to their club activity EVERYDAY and practice for 2 to 4 hours before going home. Kids who do no sports (very few) just cruise home. Teachers often have school meetings after club activities which can start anytime between 6.30pm and 7.30pm!! Then if they've had a problem with a pupil they go to the pupils house and speak with the parents before going home! Each teacher is assigned an activity except the heads, so that means sports at 7am, period 2, period 4 then after school everyday!!

Schools here are more like community centers, it's true that the teachers bring up Japanese kids not the parents so much. And as such if the kids get out of line the teachers aren't afraid to give them a skelp round the head or drag them out of class by their arm, but also the kids seem very relaxed around the teachers, especially 1st years. They treat them like a father or mother figure.
For example one of my JTE's was standing infront of the class at the end of a lesson giving instructions. One very little boy (11) at the front who had been sleeping at his desk (oh yeah - that's OK here apparently!) was kinda leaning/lying on his desk and Tanada Sensei was like "get up" and the kid was like "ahh but I'm tired", Tanada Sensei said again "come on, get up!" so the kid got up and jabbed Tanada Sensei in the belly with his fingers a few times in a really playfull kind of way. The teacher just ignored it and carried on talking while being prodded. ha ha

Quite often I'll see the young male teachers playfully pushing the girls or barging them with their shoulder, and with the boys they are a little rougher but still playful and the boys are like that right back t them.

In each school their is a DISCIPLE teacher - ours is a guy called Uewada Sensei - he's a big Japanese guy tall and broad, he's the head PE teacher and if there is a problem the teachers can't deal with the kids are sent to him. He is a scary character when he flips, and he realy does flip. Kid waiting to see him are literally terrified! Here's some examples for you:

Picture this, practice for sports day, whole school out in the dusty sports area. All lined up in millitary fashion. Uewada Sensei is on a wee stage talking to the whole school. One kid must have done something so he gets shouted at, then shouted at louder then Uewada goes mental but I don't know why as the kid was doing nothing by then - it seems like he winds himself up. Once finished he walks about then as if he's still pissed he walks over to the kid in line and sticks his jaw out like a boxer, goes up to the kid and starts yelling at him and full on squaring up to him. He puts his forehead on the kids and walks/pushes the kid out whilst yelling at him. At this point 3 other male teachers rush over to drag Uewada Sensei off the kid incase he goes too far. I dunno if this is an act to intimidate the kids (good cop/bad cop) or if it's real but it seems crazy and out of control. After the kid just sat on a stack of tires with his head in his hands whilst his homeroom teacher crouched next to him speaking. Funny thing is Uewada Sensei is a really nice guy an not at all like that usually. I think it's an act and he was chosen to be disciplinarian due to his physical stature and gravelly voice.

Other stuff I've seen is him grabbing kids whilst marching and shaking them, (like and English nanny shaking a baby!) then trowing them back in line. Or walking up to a kid and shoulder barging them to the ground, when they get up he did it again and again, all whilst yelling in their face. However in the classroom the kids can sleep, have full on conversations in the middle of the teacher speaking etc without any sort of telling off.

Their is a strong military theme in schools which came about when Japan was modernised, the whole education system was taken over by the military so that's why they do a lot of sports still and love to march around. They also have a lot of ceremony with everything they do and the uniforms reflect the military past. That's why a lot of Japanese School girls still wear sailor uniforms to school and apparently they boys winter uniform is a thick vintage Russian Military style jacket. Pretty cool actually! :P

Anyway I'm bored of writing so your probably bored of reading but I hope that gives you a flavour of Japanese Schools and the differences with the west. I'm gonna try to upload a video of the boys practising their moves.



Bobb

Sunday 6 September 2009

Jen comes to stay

Jen came to stay this weekend - it was really nice to see her and reunite with someone who has known me for a while. Both our cameras were out of action so no pics apart from my iPhone ones.



Jap's Eye! Uh-oh! Read on.....

It's not really cold.... it's.....


A typical Japanese School lunch - It's called Bento


Ah they trusted me with the keys!!!!


Walking to School - notice the rolled up trousers, all the rage here


Saw these and thought of all you girls back home who might like them!


Last night consisted of two big JET nights out - a girls night and a guys night. The fellas went to a park in Sannomiya and drank beer, played football and frisbee etc etc. (Those of you who know me well will understand I have a penchant for alfresco drinking - parks and graveyards are all the rage in the land of Bobb!). Anyway, Bryan decided we would all play a game where you say three statements, 2 true and 1 lie; Most of the statements were either illegal or sexual.... or both. For instance I found out the Bryan jerked his dog off when he was 12!?!? - an asian American was telling a story about an STD clinic and where they stick the cotton bud and I shouted out in disbelief -

"Where did they put it?! In your JAPS EYE!!!!????"

Luckily it was very noisy and everyone was pretty tipsy to say the least so they didn't really notice but when I realised what I said I burst out laughing and so did Adam (a guy from the UK who studied in Glasgow). That continued for many minutes!! ha ha yikes!

Today has been a hungover day - I've discovered torrents and have downloaded the Cribs new album, DFA 1979, Muse, the entire back catalogue of QOTSA, Rage's first album that I seem to have lost. Osais, The raconteurs 2nd album, Eagles of Death Metal, Dark night of the Soul by Sparklehorse, Albert hammond Jr.s 2nd album and Nickle Eye's Album "The time of the Assassins" (That's Nikolai from The Strokes' solo project and it's really good - check it out). Just watching StarTrek now eating homemade Guacamole Mmmm.

In other news I had my first lesson at school; my self introduction - it went well. I had a slideshow with pictures of Scotland and Scottish things, pictures of me and of my friends and family so a lot of you guys are now famous in Maruyama Chugakko!!! Then I put up the same pictures on the board -laminated and magnetized and got the kid to come up and put the caption next to the correct picture, in return they get a sticker.

One girl who seemed to be a bit of a character handed me a note in class, when I opened it it said in perfect English and in nice handwriting; "Please say "Kapibaru" to Mr. Hirohata". I didn't of course but later that day showed Hirohata Sensei and asked him about it. He replied in a very matter-of-fact manner saying "Yes, it is a South American giant Rodent, it is her nickname for me" At which point I nearly burst out laughing because the image came into my head and he DOES look just like one! But I managed not too thank god!

Here's some recent pics for your perusal.

Bobb x