Day 1: Orientation

And so it begins once again. This is my sixteenth year beginning school in Japan and many things never change. Compared to last year, the first for the new department, this year's orientation went incredibly well. It was micro-organized, as all things are in Japan, and, with that, came the inevitable expectations that some events would last a lot less time than they actually did (10 minutes for 300+ students to individually sign a pledge of loyalty to the school!), but otherwise a lot of effort, and a lot of learning from mistakes of last year, really paid off.

Students, almost all of them 18 years old and, compared to similar kids (here, definitely 'kids') in the West, extremely wet behind the ears. Naturally, as ever in Japan, the whole business of 'study' began with two hours of speeches and explanations, by the end of which, the 300 new entrants were getting pretty bored and restless – cue professors running around the room shouting, "Shut up! Shut up!" Our Dean only took about 18 minutes to deliver his 10 minute allotted speech so, as ever, this can also be considered a success. I was amused by the references to our PR of being a school with Global Values (which is true as far as it can be in somewhere as insular and parochial as Japan), our new school pledge (which is also fine on the whole, except that students were basically forced to sign it regardless of what they thought), and comments from our principal that students should develop the ability to think for themselves and speak for themselves – clearly the pressure to conform and be part of the group in our own department still outweighs the hopes of our principal. I doubt, however, that many people were really listening that closely or even considered this small ambiguity.

But that really is the point. We have a large number of 'English speakers' amongst our students, but the other day an very experienced English professor pointed out something to me that is very true indeed. He said:

Those who grew up overseas before they reached puberty really do have English, but those who've just studied it simply don't have the same spark of understanding or the freedom of thinking that you get from people outside Japan.

I'd never thought about it before, but this is inherently true. Many speak English, actually quite well, the ability to think "outside the box" (or, here, 'beyond the society') is something that comes from experiences other than those that can be learned in a grammar book. As a result, students are quiet, docile, pliable, and almost entirely unquestioning. And, as a consequence of that, teaching takes a very clear 'force feeding' method in many cases. I know for a fact that too many students accept exactly what the professor tells them. It's easy to make mistakes in your kanji (Chinese characters) on lecture slides simply because Japan has so many homonyms, and all too often, I've seen students loyally copying down my slides even when it says things like 小婢 (shohi meaning slave) rather than 消費 (shohi, meaning consumption).

But in the end, teaching is easy and fun. There's nothing as great, work wise, as being in front of a group of students and knowing that they're listening and learning. The great thing about this school is that students are sharp and keen – at least at first. Much of the teaching system quickly deadens that keen-ness. Over the next 2-3 months these same eager souls will have numerous occasions where they have to sit through completely boring, meaningless, but compulsory lectures and, the number one Japanese designed torture of the modern age, the dreaded symposium. The one thing they will learn from these events is that their elders (although not necessarily betters) certainly believe that youngsters should listen (if not actually benefit) from their experience. Too many love their own voices far too much.

My job is to counter balance this to some extent. It's pretty thankless, but at least here there are others who make the effort to provide some meaning to what students study and some interest and challenge in the way they study, but we're still in the minority. Because we're too few, only a handful of students will really get it, thinking for themselves and developing flashes of insight, while the others, inevitably, spend the next four years taking classes where the one key assessment factor is attendance. Bums on seats rules!