Thanks a lot for picking it up, would've been a shame if it suddenly stopped.
If you think Japanese kids study too much, that’s only because you haven’t seen how it works in China.
It has to do with soto-uchi ideology and stuff. basically in Japanese they always separate things into "Us" (the inside group) and "them" (the outside group). It's a bit hard to explain but its why for example you use more polite language about other people's families than you use about your own. The less honorifics you use and then finally using someone's first name alone is like a journey from outside to inside, finally acknowledging that they are no longer "them" and are now "us". It's a very significant step and western culture just doesn't have that kinda idea of interpersonal space anymore (we used to have it a bit but that's a whole nother convo)
R it's about pulling the person across interpersonal boundaries which are far more important in eastern cultures.
As a asian myself Ive scored decently before but I don't really celebrate my grades you do occasionally flaunt your grades but thats it. The only time you would celebrate your grades is during university acceptance or graduation. Also this is highly unrealistic cuz they will most likely get a short break after to relax and what are they even gonna study in this "session" they prolly don't even have the next term's syllabus yet.
Oh yeah - I understand the functionality and the "system" of it all - but like you said, I don't have the cultural framework to fully "get" it in the way that it would make sense for someone raised in that cultural and society.It has to do with soto-uchi ideology and stuff. basically in Japanese they always separate things into "Us" (the inside group) and "them" (the outside group). It's a bit hard to explain but its why for example you use more polite language about other people's families than you use about your own. The less honorifics you use and then finally using someone's first name alone is like a journey from outside to inside, finally acknowledging that they are no longer "them" and are now "us". It's a very significant step and western culture just doesn't have that kinda idea of interpersonal space anymore (we used to have it a bit but that's a whole nother convo)
So ya TL
Not to mention you have neoconfucianism which is where the whole "calling non blood-related people brother" and stuff comes from but that's too big a convo to stick in a comment
There's a thing called "burnout" and I know from experience that learning too much and excessively does make things worse and you are more likely to fail an exam. Also, looking at how they're mostly just learning specific things by heart and not really trying to understand the concepts behind what they learn is telling me they all don't know how you learn the best: By understanding the basics and the concepts. It takes longer, but once you get them, you don't need to learn a lot anymore, you can just derive the stuff.
Japan is quite special in this case, as first name is not something anyone can speak of... It's part of their politeness and it can be traced to hundred years back. It's quite an extensive topic and requires a more in-depth research. I suggest you ask AI for general info and then delve deeper from the sources quoted from the AI. Explaining it here would be too lengthy.
Oh yeah, no I understand how it works and the general levels of familiarity and when what gets used where and with whom.
Wait, did the guys at ROML actually say that?
But this is a problem with the educational system worldwide, not just in Japan. You could even argue that in Asia there's a certain exaggeration in the pressure society puts on children when it comes to studying. However, when it comes to education in general, all over the world, the system is basically a bunch of rote memorization, where kids end up forgetting everything once they graduate. This current education system definitely needs to change. But the real problem is how to make that happen.
Of course, but it seems to be especially bad in Southeast Asian countries. I might be biased, but that's the impression I get.
That's a me problem fr. No matter how much I tried I could never rote memorize and even if I did, I would still end up writing my way. Sucks when teachers grade on the exactness instead of trying to understand what I wrote.Of course, but it seems to be especially bad in Southeast Asian countries. I might be biased, but that's the impression I get.
Since I never was one who could learn like that, I just brute-forced my way through the materials to understand the concepts. As a reward, I had to learn a lot less than the others once I got it. You can imagine how often I had fights with teachers because they wanted to force me to do exercises I knew didn't help me at all and would just steal my time, just because I already understood how the stuff worked.
How to change that? No idea, maybe the mentality of people has to change in general, away from "education is a necessary evil to get a job" to "education gives us the possibility to understand ourselves and the world better", so back to the roots, basically.
