“Also, we’re not going to help you, fuck you and go back.”
???
> In a nutshell, Japan’s greatest handicap is its communications ability. “Once when I was involved in negotiating a merger involving an Indian IT company, I was told by many Indian technicians, ‘Sorry, but I don’t want to work in Japan,’
I’m just going to say, is it *really* a loss if you don’t accept students who:
>
engage in acts of antisemitism. In addition, those with links to the communist party of China have come under greater scrutiny.
?
Money is not the problem, but at the same time funding is cut for foreign PhD’s.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Some Japanese rich kids were studying in the US and this was just a ploy to transfer them to a top University back home to cushion their fall.
Come, come! But also leave!
I could have told them it would, considering a lot of programs want foreign students to pass some level of the JLPT before being accepted (and go through another entrance exam anyway) unless you get a waiver or go to one of the really welcoming international schools, but even then, they want some sort of competency/fluency for these students.
>”There are a number of factors for this,” writes Ohmae, “but the greatest barrier to matriculating at Japanese institutions is that they do not provide instruction in English, the global language. And acquiring the Japanese language is extremely difficult for foreigners.”
Odds are the speaker is just trying to get the idea out there simply, not trying to engage in nihonjinron, but I’m still going to push back against this. No, the Japanese language is *not* extremely difficult for foreigners. All languages are equally difficult for all people – at least at first go.
Japanese is very *different* from most of the world’s languages and Japanese society invests a huge amount of energy in pre-school/elementary school years training Japanese people to be good at it. But if you aren’t able to get in on the ground floor during the critical period, the Japanese education system tends to wash its hands of you. I have watched children of non-Japanese parents flourish here because they learned the language in school from an early age, and I’ve watched fully-Japanese children who missed out on early childhood Japanese education fumble and struggle and the system basically shrugs its shoulders at them like the child is the problem.
Japan desperately needs a Japanese as a Second Language program. Sure, almost every local city hall has an evening Japanese conversation class organized by bored housewives or retiree volunteers, but a rigorous, structured JSL course at every level of education needs to be in place and quite frankly I think it should be embarrassing that the country has gone so long without one. Yes, non-Japanese immigrants might make up a small portion of the population, but we have been here for a very long time and anyone with half a brain could see this was going to be a problem.
The sad thing is, this is a solvable problem. Schools are beginning to close because shrinking student numbers. There is a huge elderly population with not a lot to do. Between kokugo teachers at risk of losing their jobs and elderly people who want to connect with others to hold off senility, I reckon there are enough skilled people and volunteers out there who could do the job. And with the Japanese public’s anxieties about rising non-Japanese populations, a program that supports immigrants integrating into Japanese society is in the public’s best interest.
Unfortunately, with Sanseito’s populist nonsense polluting the public discourse, it’s entirely possible that funding long-term in programs that help immigrants fit in better to Japanese society will be portrayed as short-term gifts of government resources to foreigners over Japanese people.
A big reason China will probably also never suck in a lot of foreign students as well. Learning Chinese or japanese kanji is too hard just to get basic literacy. It’s far easier to become literate in English, and the bar for acceptable communication in English is so chill
One of the topics brought up is language, and while I know English is a hurdle for Japanese for multiple factors, Modern Japanese in conjunction with Japanese hierarchy and Japanese circumlocution was never meant to be used as a language of business.
Wanting to study in the USA but then ending up in Japan for education is a nasty change up. Like ordering the BMW but being forced to take a Nissan.
Is the stumbling block that Japan just elected kawaii trump’s party?
In all my years of living here since the mid 70s, I find many people here can’t put 2 + 2 together. Some examples that I have written down (one day I’ll write a book). Conversations are in Japanese.
1) Me: I broke my leg roller skating so had to go to hospital.
Friend: wait, you went to a beauty salon ??
2) Me: I’d like to buy some flowers (florist)
Florist: blinking because she thought I said “nose”
3) burger place with my son:
Staff: what drink would you like with your burger?
Son: I’d like cola
Staff: hot or cold
Son: what?
Me: he wants it cold (with a massive smile because I’m about to burst out laughing)
Staff: brings him a cafe latte
How is this not obvious from the start? Even highly intelligent students willing to learn the language are going to struggle starting off their education at University level Japanese.
Most foreign students in the US are chinese, indians and arabs. Historically i dont see chinese interested to study in Japan, indians are too competitive to waste time in Japan and arabs want the western world not an asian closed society
But also- how about a Japanese social studies class for foreigners? Give us a chance to learn how to assimilate smoothly into the Japanese culture so that anything we do isn’t necessarily rude or offensive. Lots of Japanese (without noticing) will intentionally judge foreigners in Japan differently because of the expectation of them not understanding how to live in Japan “properly”.
Whoever came up with this idea didn’t do their homework. It was doomed from the start. None of those kids were about to leave the US for Japan of all places.
16 comments
“Please come study in Japan!”
“Also, we’re not going to help you, fuck you and go back.”
???
> In a nutshell, Japan’s greatest handicap is its communications ability. “Once when I was involved in negotiating a merger involving an Indian IT company, I was told by many Indian technicians, ‘Sorry, but I don’t want to work in Japan,’
I’m just going to say, is it *really* a loss if you don’t accept students who:
>
engage in acts of antisemitism. In addition, those with links to the communist party of China have come under greater scrutiny.
?
Money is not the problem, but at the same time funding is cut for foreign PhD’s.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Some Japanese rich kids were studying in the US and this was just a ploy to transfer them to a top University back home to cushion their fall.
Come, come! But also leave!
I could have told them it would, considering a lot of programs want foreign students to pass some level of the JLPT before being accepted (and go through another entrance exam anyway) unless you get a waiver or go to one of the really welcoming international schools, but even then, they want some sort of competency/fluency for these students.
>”There are a number of factors for this,” writes Ohmae, “but the greatest barrier to matriculating at Japanese institutions is that they do not provide instruction in English, the global language. And acquiring the Japanese language is extremely difficult for foreigners.”
Odds are the speaker is just trying to get the idea out there simply, not trying to engage in nihonjinron, but I’m still going to push back against this. No, the Japanese language is *not* extremely difficult for foreigners. All languages are equally difficult for all people – at least at first go.
Japanese is very *different* from most of the world’s languages and Japanese society invests a huge amount of energy in pre-school/elementary school years training Japanese people to be good at it. But if you aren’t able to get in on the ground floor during the critical period, the Japanese education system tends to wash its hands of you. I have watched children of non-Japanese parents flourish here because they learned the language in school from an early age, and I’ve watched fully-Japanese children who missed out on early childhood Japanese education fumble and struggle and the system basically shrugs its shoulders at them like the child is the problem.
Japan desperately needs a Japanese as a Second Language program. Sure, almost every local city hall has an evening Japanese conversation class organized by bored housewives or retiree volunteers, but a rigorous, structured JSL course at every level of education needs to be in place and quite frankly I think it should be embarrassing that the country has gone so long without one. Yes, non-Japanese immigrants might make up a small portion of the population, but we have been here for a very long time and anyone with half a brain could see this was going to be a problem.
The sad thing is, this is a solvable problem. Schools are beginning to close because shrinking student numbers. There is a huge elderly population with not a lot to do. Between kokugo teachers at risk of losing their jobs and elderly people who want to connect with others to hold off senility, I reckon there are enough skilled people and volunteers out there who could do the job. And with the Japanese public’s anxieties about rising non-Japanese populations, a program that supports immigrants integrating into Japanese society is in the public’s best interest.
Unfortunately, with Sanseito’s populist nonsense polluting the public discourse, it’s entirely possible that funding long-term in programs that help immigrants fit in better to Japanese society will be portrayed as short-term gifts of government resources to foreigners over Japanese people.
A big reason China will probably also never suck in a lot of foreign students as well. Learning Chinese or japanese kanji is too hard just to get basic literacy. It’s far easier to become literate in English, and the bar for acceptable communication in English is so chill
One of the topics brought up is language, and while I know English is a hurdle for Japanese for multiple factors, Modern Japanese in conjunction with Japanese hierarchy and Japanese circumlocution was never meant to be used as a language of business.
Wanting to study in the USA but then ending up in Japan for education is a nasty change up. Like ordering the BMW but being forced to take a Nissan.
Is the stumbling block that Japan just elected kawaii trump’s party?
In all my years of living here since the mid 70s, I find many people here can’t put 2 + 2 together. Some examples that I have written down (one day I’ll write a book). Conversations are in Japanese.
1) Me: I broke my leg roller skating so had to go to hospital.
Friend: wait, you went to a beauty salon ??
2) Me: I’d like to buy some flowers (florist)
Florist: blinking because she thought I said “nose”
3) burger place with my son:
Staff: what drink would you like with your burger?
Son: I’d like cola
Staff: hot or cold
Son: what?
Me: he wants it cold (with a massive smile because I’m about to burst out laughing)
Staff: brings him a cafe latte
How is this not obvious from the start? Even highly intelligent students willing to learn the language are going to struggle starting off their education at University level Japanese.
Most foreign students in the US are chinese, indians and arabs. Historically i dont see chinese interested to study in Japan, indians are too competitive to waste time in Japan and arabs want the western world not an asian closed society
But also- how about a Japanese social studies class for foreigners? Give us a chance to learn how to assimilate smoothly into the Japanese culture so that anything we do isn’t necessarily rude or offensive. Lots of Japanese (without noticing) will intentionally judge foreigners in Japan differently because of the expectation of them not understanding how to live in Japan “properly”.
Whoever came up with this idea didn’t do their homework. It was doomed from the start. None of those kids were about to leave the US for Japan of all places.