Home > culture shock, Japan, Tokyo > The life of Japanese college students compared to that of American ones

The life of Japanese college students compared to that of American ones

Look at this video of A Vision of (American) Students Today:

______
And compare it to A Vision of Japanese University Students:

Advertisement
  1. Heather
    January 7, 2012 at 12:30 am | #1

    Hi, my name is Heather! Please email me when you can, I have a question about your blog!

  2. mangis
    January 7, 2012 at 9:19 pm | #3

    Hi! I wanted to thank you for posting our video on your blog. I think the students will be quite excited to see how bloggers have re-posted the video. I’ll have them check your page in the coming weeks!

    Thanks again,

    Marcus

    • January 7, 2012 at 9:32 pm | #4

      They are interesting videos and a good idea.

      I look forward to reading comments on my blog from your students.

  3. January 7, 2012 at 9:45 pm | #5

    Hmm, not as different as I thought they’d be (except the part about not borrowing money for college, that’s unimaginable and impossible for most in the US). But I think US vs Japanese high school videos would be very, very different.

    • January 7, 2012 at 9:56 pm | #6

      Just like every aspect of Japanese and American cultures and life…some things are the same anywhere in the world amongst members of the same generation.
      But other things are quite different.

  4. January 9, 2012 at 1:16 pm | #7

    Hey man. Yeah, apologies for just linking to you without leaving a comment or anything; I was a little pressed for time (as you can see by how short the post on my blog is) and couldn’t really think of anything meaningful to say other than I thought these were interesting.

    Good find with these videos.

    • January 9, 2012 at 1:26 pm | #8

      >apologies for just linking to you without leaving a comment

      No need to apologize! You don’t have to comment…I just hope you do.
      And I appreciate the link.

  5. January 10, 2012 at 2:21 pm | #9

    Interesting videos. The only thing I would add is they are pointing out a problem that we all know about. I think most of us understand that schools are failing all over the first world. The questions are why and how to fix it? I’d love to see these kids tackle those questions and give their ideas for solution.

    This may be relevant: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/10/14/rsa-animate-changing-education-paradigms/

    • January 10, 2012 at 11:07 pm | #10

      >they are pointing out a problem that we all know about….that schools are failing

      I didn’t get the impression that the students in these videos were trying to imply that the education system is a failure…but that they were simply showing how their generation see the world.

      But, either way, the video you linked to is interesting too.

      • Anonymous
        January 16, 2012 at 3:20 pm | #11

        Hi.

        The entire class that made the video in Japan is now here and we have read the comments on this blog. The class has agreed to answer any questions anyone might have about the video or join any discussion that may emerge..

      • courrier
        January 16, 2012 at 3:37 pm | #12

        >I didn’t get the impression that the students in these videos were trying to imply that the education system is a failure…

        Hi, I’m one of students on this video by Marcus. At first I really thank you for reposing this video and spreading our thought to the world. And let me reply to your above comment.

        In my opinion, our education system is kinda failure ed little out of date coz in the almost all of class we don’t have chance to say and hear what students feel like discussion ,you know. we are expected to be “obesity of information and wisdom”, and “to be happy with information which gonna never be used after graduation”
        This is unhealthy. we cant see what is really needed.

        we are PIGS OF INFORMATION.

      • January 16, 2012 at 7:28 pm | #13

        >we have read the comments on this blog.

        Thank you.

        >The class has agreed to answer any questions anyone might have about the video or join any discussion that may emerge.

        Great! I hope many people ask some questions!

      • January 16, 2012 at 7:37 pm | #14

        >In my opinion, our education system is kinda failure

        Do you think so? I think my children have learned much more from schools in Japan than I learned in the U.S. school system.

        >we are PIGS OF INFORMATION.

        I’ve never heard that expression before! ;)
        Do you mean that you feel you’re simply being “overfed” information? Or something like that?

        That’s the only practical way to teach a school full of students, I’d say.
        Certainly in your life you won’t use all of the information that you learn in school…but that’s not the only reason for studying it—you also learn “how to learn” and how to see things from others’ perspectives.

        Anyways…how would you improve Japan’s education system?

  6. En
    January 16, 2012 at 3:27 pm | #15

    Hi, I m one of the girls in the vision.Thanks to posting our video :)
    and is the video help to know something about Japan?

    • January 16, 2012 at 7:39 pm | #16

      >is the video help to know something about Japan?

      Yes, I didn’t know so many young people have “online friends”.

  7. January 18, 2012 at 9:55 pm | #17

    Interesting videos indeed. The big idea for youngsters around the world is somewhat the same. It’s not very much different here either. The things that differ are only culture, lifestyle, economy, etc.

    • January 19, 2012 at 12:15 am | #18

      Yeah, I guess kids basically have similar attitudes even when their cultures are very different.

  8. courrier
    January 19, 2012 at 11:48 pm | #19

    > we are PIGS OF INFORMATION.
    Yea, It’s means being overfed information. I know it’s a practical way to teach things but
    just giving is not enough. Coz when I look around my friends, though they know lots of things through class or TV, they don’t have their original idea nor they can’t use the information to say something new.

    > how would you improve Japan’s education system
    So, I should say that we have to have much more opportunity to explain what and how we think in school like discussion class. we have to wipe out the air like” I don’t wanna make mistakes” “what if i made mistakes…wht a shame !” ” if i was not like everyone else, i gonna be picked out …” etc…

    caused these rooted culture ,education and not being got used to speaking before lots of forks, our leaders are treated lightly at the international meeting and our voices are far from the world i think.

    • January 20, 2012 at 12:15 am | #20

      I think teaching to think creatively is easier to do in a small class “tutoring” type of situation. Probably not so easy in a large class with many students.

      But, if you want to, why don’t you express your opinion in your class? Or ask the teacher many questions? Maybe other students would follow your lead?

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 86 other followers